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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epicure who wrote (51153)	8/14/1999 1:23:00 PM
From: Father Terrence	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

It wasn't an argument, it was a joke. You are too damn serious, X. Lighten up on your radioactive emissions...

To: epicure who wrote (51153)	8/14/1999 1:42:00 PM
From: Father Terrence	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

Instead of nitpicking, why not comment on this? Here's how your federal government works for you: If the value of the American dollar is set at $1.00 in buying power at 1900, that same $1.00 bill today has 2 1/2¢ of the original buying power. What a great job the federalists have done...

To: epicure who wrote (51153)	8/14/1999 1:59:00 PM
From: E	Respond to of 108807

<<<there could be an evolutionary advantage to circular reasoning >>> I'd say that any 'reasoning' that allows the thinker to maintain a position s/he feels is in some way advantageous to maintain could have evolutionary advantages. And, any 'reasoning' that allows the 'thinker' to feel that s/he is speaking the truth in circumstances in which his or her position is being challenged could have evolutionary advantages. To convince others that one's self-interested argument is correct, one must present it credibly, obviously. And what better way to be able to appear credible than to have the ability to convince oneself one is telling the truth? Human beings 'reason' in many illogical ways, circular and other, that allow them to cling to positions in which they have a (felt) stake. (The effect of motivation on perception, I've called that phenomenon here.) The good ancestral liars survived better than the poor ones. The best liars were able to lie with conviction, however ill-gotten from the standpoint of logic.