Friday, April 18, 2025

Logic

For logic to become perfect, we assume that logic and rationality would arrive at a conclusion that would be beneficial to the real world. Using pure logic to deal with situations without presence of empathy or emotions can lead to factually correct but realistically damaging decisions. 


We live in a world of unknown. Too many variables important to consider when making decisions, and sometimes it's even hard to see what variables to look for until it blows up on our face. Henry Brighton, a cognitive science and artificial intelligence professor at Tilburg University adds that, 'in a real-world setting, most truly important decisions rely at least in part on subjective preferences. Perfect logic exists, but this is only useful if the results would be beneficial.' We only use logic to justify the decision, and largely rely on unquestioned instincts to make choices. As even the most accurate, factually perfect logic can't deal with the social aspect of humans, in that social implications greatly impact a resolution. “Even if a decision seems to bring a benefit, if it is ill-judged by others, then there’s a cost,”.


Instinct, emotions are for the most part what humans use when making decisions. "Facts on their own don’t tell you anything,” (says Mercier) “It’s only paired with preferences, desires, with whatever gives you pleasure or pain, that can guide your behavior. Even if you knew the facts perfectly, that still doesn’t tell you anything about what you should do.”




Ref.

Goldhill, O. (2022, July 20). Humans are born irrational, and that has made us better decision-makers. Quartz. https://qz.com/922924/humans-werent-designed-to-be-rational-and-we-are-better-thinkers-for-it

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