The Chinese philosopher Xun Zi said that human nature is not particularly good, but he went on to argue that doesn't mean that we shouldn't try to make it better. Too many people resign themselves to say "that's just the way things are" because that's easier than challenging their own beliefs.

Before we can be an agent for change, our ideas must be relentlessly refined in the furnace of critical introspection.

Follow the link to read all these cognitive hazards, and see where you find them in your life!

Ah, the dreaded illusion of control from which I suffer greatly.

The thing is, that I'm the kind of guy who takes infinite regresses a lot more seriously than I should. (The Lake House made my head hurt for like a month.) So these things actually make me feel better.

If I had confidence that anything was infallible, the contradictions that would inevitably embody would drive me crazy. Once you get used to it, it's very relaxing to say, oh, dang, I was wrong.

This is essentially my highly informal argument against solipsism.

The bane of our times!

This is the blindness most on the Left and the Right suffer from.

We are in an age where some seek to find what they need and want to find, in order to think what they want to think, to do what they want and get what they want. The truth suffers to the dominance of propaganda and gray-area.

To most people ideology, sources, and opinions are dependent on one another. Objectivity, which is impossible in the true sense of the word, is abandoned outright. In it's place is the ruling subjective without check or balance.

Agenda drives reality, not truth.

Methinks I should post a copy of this near my computer.

Excellent clip!!! More clippers (people) should use this more often... And Willie, *bravo*

An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself.
Albert Camus

I change my opinion when I learn something new. An opinion can end with the statement, "as far as I know.", or it would be a verifyable fact. Many opinions are intuitive guesses which are clung to for the sake of pride despite being contradicted by subsequent evidence. The price of freedom is continual self analysis, and reform. we can't present our consciences with unresolved paradoxes, where our conduct is involved. Basically we need to be honest with ourselves, and that's only for a start. We won't ever be perfect bit we will always have the potential to improve.