Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Why It's Ok Not to Think for Yourself

Why It's Ok Not to Think for Yourself

Matheson, Jonathan

Paperback

Series: Why It's Ok

Philosophy

ISBN10: 1032438258
ISBN13: 9781032438252
Publisher: Routledge
Published: Sep 29 2023
Pages: 244
Weight: 0.55
Height: 0.53 Width: 5.06 Depth: 7.81
Language: English

We tend to applaud those who think for themselves: the ever-curious student, for example, or the grownup who does their own research. Even as we're applauding, however, we ourselves often don't think for ourselves. This book argues that's completely OK.

In fact, it's often best just to take other folks' word for it, allowing them to do the hard work of gathering and evaluating the relevant evidence. In making this argument, philosopher Jonathan Matheson shows how 'expert testimony' and 'the wisdom of crowds' are tested and provides convincing ideas that make it rational to believe something simply because other people believe it. Matheson then takes on philosophy's best arguments against his thesis, including the idea that non-self-thinkers are free-riding on the work of others, Socrates' claim that 'the unexamined life isn't worth living, ' and that outsourcing your intellectual labor makes you vulnerable to errors and manipulation. Matheson shows how these claims and others ultimately fail -- and that when it comes to thinking, we often need not be sheepish about being sheep.

1 different editions

Also available

Also from

Matheson, Jonathan

View All

Also in

Philosophy

View All