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Winning Votes by Abusing Reason

Responsible Belief and Political Rhetoric

Winning Votes by Abusing Reason cover

Winning Votes by Abusing Reason

Responsible Belief and Political Rhetoric

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Description

Over the past few decades, psychologists have discovered that human reasoning is defective in surprising ways. We are beset by numerous biases and heuristics, which lead us to reason poorly about things that matter to us. And while there are illuminating evolutionary explanations for how these biases and heuristics may have benefited our species in its phylogeny, psychologists are unanimous that these cognitive dispositions largely corrupt rather than aid our belief-forming practices. In Winning Votes by Abusing Reason: Political Rhetoric and Responsible Belief, Jamie Watson argues that political rhetoric, rather than helping us overcome these defects, exacerbates them. And standard attempts to address this problem, such as deliberative democracy and paternalism, tend to either exclude citizens from important decisions or give them the illusion of reasoning well, perpetuating poor and irresponsible political beliefs. This book concludes that, rather than attempt more political solutions, the most promising approach to forming and preserving responsible political beliefs is to adopt individual principles of epistemic caution. The author brings together insights from political philosophy, social epistemology, behavioral psychology, and agnotology to suggest how we might protect our belief-forming behavior from the corrosive effects of political rhetoric. Recommended for scholars of philosophy, rhetoric, political science, and communications.

Table of Contents

Contents

Introduction

Part 1: Rhetorical Strategy and Responsible Belief

Chapter 1. Social Epistemology and Political Rhetoric

Chapter 2. Learning from Politicians

Part 2: The Problem of Political Rhetoric

Chapter 3. User Error: Common Fallacies in Political Rhetoric

Chapter 4. Hardware Glitches: Cognitive Biases and Heuristics in Politics

Chapter 5. System Failure: Social Biases

Chapter 6. Political and Moral Expertise

Part 3: Forming Responsible Political Beliefs

Chapter 7. Knowing and Voting: Democratic Solutions

Chapter 8. Nudges and Shoves: Paternalistic Solutions

Chapter 9. Epistemic Virtue and Individual Responsibility

Bibliography

About the Author

Product details

Published Dec 14 2016
Format Hardback
Edition 1st
Extent 272
ISBN 9781498516426
Imprint Lexington Books
Dimensions 237 x 159 mm
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Author

Jamie Carlin Watson

Jamie Carlin Watson is assistant professor of phil…

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