icarus_drowning

15 jaar geledendiscuss

Many people don't have first principles to begin thinking from. While you're certainly right that the quality of one's first principles is at issue in judging their conclusion, the mere fact that so many people don't even bother to try to think presuppositionally seems to be more of the point of the video, IIRC.

icarus_drowning

15 jaar geledendiscuss

I think Musk is right to point out that many people don't reason from first principles-- basically, that they consciously decide not to think about something, but to allow other's thinking to guide their thoughts. ("It has always been done this way")

I recently began teaching in a school where students are required to write extensively in every class, including "extras" like PE, Music, or Art. I've found that, generally, students who have been subjected to that system for a number of years are far better at reasoning (and expressing that reasoning, naturally) than those who are new to the school. (It is astonishing how quickly new students, who inevitably struggle with complex reasoning at the beginning of the school year have made leaps and bounds in this area, and are far more skilled at verbal reasoning by the end of the school year).

All of which is to say: I think that this style of thinking is greatly buttressed by enhanced linguistic ability, as language is critical to higher-level thinking.

Very interesting video, and the interactive transcript was extremely cool.

comments