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  3. (46) For centuries thinkers have assumed that the uniquely human capacity for reasoning has existed to let people reach beyond m

(46) For centuries thinkers have assumed that the uniquely human capacity for reasoning has existed to let people reach beyond m

admin2012-07-06  48
问题     (46) For centuries thinkers have assumed that the uniquely human capacity for reasoning has existed to let people reach beyond mere perception and reflex in the search for truth. Rationality allowed a solitary thinker to blaze a path to philosophical, moral and scientific enlightenment.
    Now some researchers are suggesting that reason evolved for a completely different purpose: to win arguments. Rationality, by this yardstick (and irrationality too) is nothing more or less than a servant of the hard-wired compulsion to triumph in the debating arena. (47) According to this view, bias, lack of logic and other supposed flaws that pollute the stream of reason are instead social adaptations that enable one group to persuade (and defeat) another. Certitude works, however sharply it may depart from the truth.
    What is revolutionary about argumentative theory is that it presumes that since reason has a different purpose — to win over an opposing group — flawed reasoning is an adaptation in itself, useful for bolstering debating skills. Mr. Mercier, a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, contends that attempts to rid people of biases have failed because reasoning does exactly what it is supposed to do: help win an argument. "People have been trying to reform something that works perfectly well," he said, "as if they had decided that hands were made for walking and that everybody should be taught that. "
    Mr. Mercier has skeptics as well as fans. (48)Darcia Narvaez, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Notre Dame, said this theory "fits into evolutionary psychology mainstream thinking at the moment, that everything we do is motivated by selfishness and manipulating others, which is, in my view, crazy. "
    (49)On the other side of the divide, Jonathan Haidt, a psychology professor at the University of Virginia, said of Mr. Mercier and his coworker, "Their work is important and points to some ways that the limits of reason can be overcome by putting people together in the right way, in particular to challenge people’s confirmation biases. " This "powerful idea," he added, could have important real-world implications. As some journal contributors noted, the theory would seem to predict constant deadlock. But Mr. Mercier contends that as people became better at producing and picking apart arguments, their assessment skills evolved as well.
    Mr. Mercier is enthusiastic about the theory’s potential applications. (50)He suggests,for example, that children may have an easier time learning abstract topics in mathematics or physics if they are put into a group and allowed to reason through a problem together. He has also recently been at work applying the theory to politics. He suggests that reasoned discussion works best in smaller, cooperative environments. [455 words]
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答案比如，他认为，如果将儿童分成小组并允许其就一个问题进行集体思考，他们可能会在学习数学或物理抽象课题中更得心应手。
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