Robinson's Podcast
Robinson's Podcast
Robinson Erhardt
107 - Kevin Dorst: Bayesian Reasoning, Irrationality, and Political Polarization
1 hour 45 minutes Posted Jun 27, 2023 at 3:00 pm.
In This Episode…
Introduction
Rationality and Philosophy
Bayesian Reasoning
The Hindsight Bias
What is Bias?
The Gambler’s Fallacy
Sunk-Cost Reasoning
Political Polarization
Talking Through Disagreement
0:00
1:45:58
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Show notes
Kevin Dorst is a professor in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at MIT. He works at the intersection between philosophy and social science, focusing on rationality. In this episode Kevin and Robinson discuss just this: They begin with classical theories of rationality and where they fall short before discussing instances where the empirical literature shows that humans do not reason rationally at all, touching on the gambler’s fallacy, sunk-cost reasoning, and the hindsight bias. They then move on to discuss the phenomenon of political polarization, which draws both on our capacity for rationality and irrationality. Make sure to check out Kevin’s Substack, Stranger Apologies.
Stranger Apologies: https://kevindorst.substack.com
Kevin’s Website: https://www.kevindorst.com
Kevin’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevin_dorst
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Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.