"Is there one insight from the cognitive sciences that really stands out for you?
I guess there are three. The first is that most of our thinking is below the level of awareness and that these processes are very different from the linear and logical processes of consciousness.
I guess there are three. The first is that most of our thinking is below the level of awareness and that these processes are very different from the linear and logical processes of consciousness.
The second is that we are not primarily rational creatures. Emotion is the foundation of reason and you have to pay close attention to instant emotional responses: that is what tells us what we value.
And the third is that we are not really self-contained individual creatures. Instead, we are deeply linked and respond very quickly to others in ways that we don't even think about.
Do you think these insights will be applied to policy questions any time soon?
In the policy and business worlds, if you talk about emotion in relationships, they look at you like you are Oprah. They still think of these things as peripheral and squishy. We have a very big cultural bias to overcome.
Are there any big questions that remain to be solved?There are a million. The problem of consciousness is a big one. Another is the word "emotion". It's misleading. We assign it to love, but love is not really an emotion because it involves a lot of different kinds of states from ecstasy to agony. I think the field of cognitive sciences is going to shake up a lot of categories like this."In the policy and business worlds, if you talk about emotion in relationships, they look at you like you are Oprah. They still think of these things as peripheral and squishy. We have a very big cultural bias to overcome.
-Rest of David Brooks Interview Here
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