mwr’s Reviews > Thinking, Fast and Slow > Status Update

Another depressing flaw with democracy: people are loss averse and hold narrow scopes. Because of this they are susceptible to the sunk loss fallacy (they throw good money after bad). Individuals can overcome this, but as a group that will be the preference. Once you put the first stake in the ground, if you want to keep getting paid, let the project grow and threaten to go public if your plug gets pulled.

An idea for a book: Social Psychology for Philosophers. You could teach prospect theory (risk aversion, endowment effect) through a discussion of Rousseau's yammering about how much harder it is to give up luxury once attained. Of course this would lead philosophers to say "look, we invented it centuries ago" because they're a defensive lot, but they could learn, none the less.

Well, the book seems to inadvertently make the case for a forced choice between metaphysical nihilism and mysticism. This leaves room open for a morality grounded in something else (e.g. Habermas' supposition that it's grounded in the biological constraints of our species) , of course. In other words, I read it in a way that confirms my own sensibilities, which corroborates its argument.

*many of*