Thinking From The Gut
Being the musing sort that I am I tend to think a lot. Sometimes I even think about thinking. Lately I've been musing about the difference between rational systems or logic and the more limbic mode of thought people often refer to as "thinking from the gut". People, especially here in the states, place a very high trust in their instincts. Americans a very good at responding to their emotions and very poor at using reason to make decisions. A good example is the abstinence only sex education policy promoted by our current, frontal lobe challenged, president and widely accepted by the public. The argument for "abstinence only" is based on an ethical belief about sex and an assumption that children will do as they are taught. Both of these are what's called an a priori argument and therefore logically flawed. A priori is a term used in philosophy and has a number of meanings but in this case I'm using it to refer to an argument or assumption that is not supported by evidence from the real world. "Abstinence only" relies on the assumption that sex is a behavior that exists within an ethical framework. For a behavior to be ethical(or unethical) it shouldn't occur outside of a system of ethics. Charity would be a good example of such a behavior. Animals* aren't normally charitable but most human cultures value charity as an ethical act and it always exists within an ethical framework. Sex on the other hand occurs all over the natural world in the total absence of any ethics. In humans, other than the prohibition against pedophilia(pre pubescent children), sexual morays have varied widely over time and culture and aren't ethically systematized. Therefore sex is technically not an ethical(or unethical) act. The second assumption of "abstinence only" is that teenagers can be taught not to have sex. There is no evidence from the real world that this is possible. While it is possible to modify some behaviors in animals and people, certain behaviors are wired so deeply into our brains that they're practically impossible to subvert. These are the basic drives such the need for food, shelter and of course the drive to reproduce. A human being may choose to starve himself but it's pretty hard to teach him that food is something he can do without and to ignore his hunger as his body slowly dies. One can deduce from this that some teenagers are going to have sex. In fact a recent survey showed about half of teenagers reported having had sex. The same numbers reported before "abstinence only". So in fact a lot of teenagers have sex. Some numbers have changed however. Now that kids don't have easy access birth control as they once did the rates of pregnancy and STD's have risen sharply among teens. So how do we end up with such foolish policies? Whenever policy is guided by faith or any other a priori assumptions about the world we will be doomed to bad governance. The founding fathers were very aware of this fact and designed our system to promote reason and reign in governance based on "passion". But the system only works when leaders are motivated and capable of exercising reason. Thomas Jefferson also knew that education was critical. But his notion of education was very different from the schools we now have. He included philosophy, especially epistemology, ethics, and logic, as a cornerstone to any good education. He was right. It's time we started teaching children how to think for a change instead of teaching them what to think.
* Of course higher primates and dolphins seem to display charitable behavior but one can also argue that they posses a primitive ethical culture similar to human beings.
