How to Think: A Survival Guide for a World at Odds

by Alan Jacobs

points we can see what’s so naïve about Neil deGrasse Tyson’s imagined Evidentiary Republic of Rationalia: it’s perfectly fine to say that “all policy shall be based on the weight of evidence,” but sometimes the evidence is insufficient or contradictory, especially when we’re trying to predict the future consequences of today’s actions, and yet policy must be made all the same.

You can know whether your social environment is healthy for thinking by its attitude toward ideas from the outgroup.

we can expect to cultivate a more general disposition of skepticism about our own motives and generosity toward the motives of others. And—if the point isn’t already clear—this disposition is the royal road that carries us to the shining portal called Learning to Think.

working toward the truth is one of life’s great adventures.

What is needed for the life of thinking is hope: hope of knowing more, understanding more, being more than we currently are.