On Thu, 18 Sep 2003, andie nachgeborenen wrote:
>
> We are obviously not wired for logic. (I speak as a
> former teacher of the subject, as well as a current
> often futile supplicant on its merits to the courts.)
> I wonder what the evolutionary advantage is in
> thinking like that? Or do we survive despite thinking
> in this half-assed way? jks
I'm often skeptical of the evolutionary psychology model, but I have to admit it actually makes sense in this case. Schemas or semantic networks allow us to organize our knowledge so that we can effectively retrieve it in the future. Remembering the geographical features associated with the location of food or water does not require rigorous logic; most of the time, crude associations (forest = deer, river = fish) are good enough. In fact, I don't really see any tangible advantage of rigorous logical reasoning over this "half-assed thinking" in (say) a hunting and gathering society 40,000 years ago.
Miles