Are we naturally critical or naturally gullible? Do we try to understand and evaluate the strange occurrences we encountered rationally?Do we believe what the TV, the newspapers, blogs even, tell us at first blush or are we naturally critical? Can we ignore the claims of adverts, do we lap up what politicians tell us, do we believe our lover’s promises?It’s not just that some people do and some people don’t; in fact all our minds are built with the same first instinct, the same first reaction to new information. But what is it: do we believe first or do we first understand, so that belief (or disbelief) comes later?
This argument about whether belief is automatic when we are first exposed to an idea or whether belief is a separate process that follows understanding has been going on for at least 400 years. The French philosopher, mathematician and physicist René Descartes ( right ) argued that understanding and believing are two separate processes. First people take in some information by paying attention to it, then they decide what to do with that information, which includes believing or disbelieving it.Descartes’ view is intuitively attractive and seems to accord with the way our minds work, or at least the way we would like our minds to work. Read the rest of this entry »
