J. Haidt

I heard Jonathan Haidt on Start the Week and liked what he had to say.

Here’s a review of his most recent book, which I gather is based on a story in the Atlantic.

Here are the three points:

The Untruth of Fragility: What doesn’t kill you makes you weaker.

The Untruth of Emotional Reasoning: Always trust your feelings.

The Untruth of Us vs. Them: Life is a battle between good people and evil people.

I tend to feel the first two while teaching university. The second is something I’ve spent my entire high-school teaching career railing against; kids and peers are undoubtedly sick of me saying “emotions aren’t evidence” alongside of “what’s your evidence for that claim.”

Drawing history

Wish I’d had this a few weeks ago when this conversation began:

“we study history so we don’t make the same mistakes.”

I counter with the “not the same man, not the same river” Heraclitus quote.

They respond with this quote, ” Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Today’s NYT had this bit of awesomeness. May use it for the next bit of the historian’s toolkit; may use it for next year.