> The problems is that we have the cognitive equipment
> of hunter-gathering primates, useful for getting by on
> the African veldt of 1 million BC, in a complex modern
> society full of Hellfire missiles and hijackable
> airplanes. Consequently we tend not to be smart in the
> way we need to be. This, btw, =is why the Chomsky
> technique of overwhelming people with arguments and
> information does not work, but only irritates people.
> I have a hell of a time making myself remember this
> and act accordingly.
but doesn't 'cognitive equipment' evolve like everything else? to me it seems the capacity for logical resoning is tied into the same capacity for language. i think it's just a matter of being exposed to it early enough. like with isolated deaf people, their capacity for language becomes impaired if they aren't exposed to it at the right age. so i think it's just a teaching problem. it seems early on we are taught 2+2=4 but more like the Pavlovs dog technique or what my HS analysis teacher called 'memorizing monkeys'. up until high school i really sucked at math or anything abstract like that until i took Algebra II from mr. Reader. after that i was really really good at it and it seemed more like common sense. ofcourse alot of effort was required to unlearn things. I'm guessing mr Reader was like a major exception. my only guess is that chomskys 'technique' doesn't work (if it doesn't) because it requires considerable effort to unlearn certain things. effort that he didn't have to do because he went to a non competetive school at an early age......no 'memorizing monkey' things etc so i think this percieved lack of capacity for logic is a social construction etc.
~M.E.
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