The opinions that are held with passion are always those for which no good ground exists; indeed the passion is the measure of the holders lack of rational conviction. Opinions in politics and religion are almost always held passionately.
Bertrand RussellTags: passion opinions skeptic opinion skepticism extremism rationalism superficiality critical-thinking skeptical
Science is what we have learned about how to keep from fooling ourselves.
Richard P. FeynmanTags: science knowledge foolishness self-delusion rationalism
I've often wondered what people mean when they talk about an experience. I'm a technologist and accustomed to seeing things as they are. I see everything they are talking about very clearly; after all, I'm not blind. I see the moon over the Tamaulipas desert--it is more distinct than at other times, perhaps, but still a calculable mass circling around our planet, an example of gravitation, interesting, but in what way an experience? I see the jagged rocks, standing out black against the moonlight; perhaps they do look like the jagged backs of prehistoric monsters, but I know they are rocks, stone, probably volcanic, one should have to examine them to be sure of this. Why should I feel afraid? There aren't any prehistoric monsters any more. Why should I imagine them? I'm sorry, but I don't see any stone angels either; nor demons; I see what I see--the usual shapes due to erosion and also my long shadow on the sand, but no ghosts. Why get womanish? I don't see any Flood either, but sand lit up by the moon and made undulating, like water, by the wind, which doesn't surprise me; I don't find it fantastic, but perfectly explicable. I don't know what the souls of the damned look like; perhaps like black agaves in the desert at night. What I see are agaves, a plant that blossoms once only and dies. Furthermore, I know (however I may look at the moment) that I am not the last or the first man on earth; and I can't be moved by the mere idea that I am the last man, because it isn't true. Why get hysterical? Mountains are mountains, even if in a certain light they may look like something else, but it is the Sierra Madre Oriental, and we are not standing in a kingdom of the dead, but in the Tamaulipas desert, Mexico, about sixty miles from the nearest road, which is unpleasant, but in what way an experience? Nor can I bring myself to hear something resembling eternity; I don't hear anything, apart from the trickle of sand at every step. Why should I experience what isn't there?
Max FrischTags: rationalism
I would simply ask why so many critics, so many writers, so many philosophers take such satisfaction in professing that the experience of a work of art is ineffable, that it escapes by definition all rational understanding; why are they so eager to concede without a struggle the defeat of knowledge; and where does their irrepressible need to belittle rational understanding come from, this rage to affirm the irreducibility of the work of art, or, to use a more suitable word, its transcendence.
Pierre BourdieuTags: art reductionism transcendence rationalism
The secret of contentment is never to allow yourself to want anything which reason tells you you haven't a chance of getting.
P.D. JamesTags: happiness contentment rationalism
Often the mass emotions are those which seem the noblest, best and most beautiful. And yet, inside a year, five years, a decade, five decades, people will be asking, "How could you have believed that?" because events will have taken place that will have banished the said mass emotions to the dustbin of history.
Doris LessingTags: science time rationalism
The rationalist imagines an imbecile-free society; the empiricist and imbecile-proof one, or even better, a rationalist-proof one.
Nassim Nicholas TalebTags: wisdom atheism nerd nerds rationalism empiricism nerdiness wisdom-vs-nerds reddit 4chan pitfalls-of-bad-thinking rationalists white-male-privilege white-privilege
To confess your fallibility and then do nothing about it is not humble; it is boasting of your modesty.
Eliezer YudkowskyTags: humility rationality modesty rationalism
A true rationalist ought to be effective in the real world.
Eliezer YudkowskyTags: cynicism rationality rationalism
Doing worse with more knowledge means you are doing something very wrong.
Eliezer YudkowskyTags: knowledge rationality rationalism
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