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Showing posts with the label rational thought

David Hume’s Construction of Senses, Thoughts and Science

David Hume was a Scottish Philosopher (1711-176) who gained fame and wealth as an essayist and historian. He spent a considerable amount of time discussing the non-intellectual aspects of human experience and the factors that create knowledge. His arguments were more in line with naturalist, pragmatists, and positivists. He believed that the relations of ideas and matters of fact are the greatest place to start a concept.  In his work, Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding the section Origin of Ideas is of significant interest. He believed that the senses are only representations of actual objects within the environment. There is a fundamental difference between experiencing and the reflection of experience. The experience and then the reflection lead to the formation of thoughts.  Impressions come from the senses. The senses of taste, sight, smell, hearing, and touch draw information from the environment in different ways. This information is used to make conclusions f

Book Review: Thinking Fast and Slow by Dr. Daniel Khaneman-Priming, Intuition, and Rational Thought

Thinking, Fast and Slow by Dr. Daniel Kahneman discussed the overall processes of fast-paced intuition and a slower process of rational control. The book helps to highlight two concepts called the experiencing self and the remembering self. The experiencing of self is the intuitive experiences that come from our senses while the remembering self is the reflective thoughts that help us gauge history. Each system contributes to the decisions we make and why we make them.  In system 1 (intuition) people make quick judgments to threats or changes in our environment that allow them to react quickly. The stimulus forces them to quickly scan for possible reactions and associations that benefit their survival. Once they have reacted they can use system 2 (calculation and reflection) to review the possible choices and deliberatively make better choices.  Both systems can have bias. System 1 can improperly perceive information and make incorrect assumptions from the information. Th