Howard Margolis (1998) Logic, Intuition, and Einstein. Psycoloquy: 9(57) Social Bias (4)

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PSYCOLOQUY (ISSN 1055-0143) is sponsored by the American Psychological Association (APA).

Psycoloquy 9(57): Logic, Intuition, and Einstein

LOGIC, INTUITION, AND EINSTEIN
Commentary on Rickert on Krueger on Social-Bias

Howard Margolis
Harris School
University of Chicago
Chicago IL 60637
http://www.harrisschool.uchicago.edu/Tycho.html

hmarg@uchicago.edu

Abstract

Rickert (1998) argues that concerns about rationality are misplaced, since creativity is not reducible to rationality. His Einstein example, however, suggests how limited that claim is.

Keywords

Bayes' rule, bias, hypothesis testing, individual differences probability, rationality, significance testing, social cognition, statistical inference

1. On Rickert's (1998; commentary on Krueger 1998) account, if Einstein had been guided by logic (formal rationality), he would not have devised the theory of relativity. He would simply have deduced that light was not electro-magnetic radiation. But aside from other difficulties, how would that help resolve the gross anomaly provided by the Michaelson-Morley experiment, which was a matter of continuing intense concern by Poincare, Lorenz, Fitzgerald, etc? Not at all.

2. Plainly, creativity requires intuition. Formal rationality alone does not get very far at all. Nevertheless, to adapt a famous remark of Einstein's: though logic alone is barren, intuition alone is only handwaving.

3. May I draw attention to a parallel discussion now ongoing in Psycoloquy (see Margolis 1998; esp. para 3)?

REFERENCES

Krueger, J. (1998). The bet on bias: A forgone conclusion? Psycoloquy 9(46) http://www.cogsci.soton.ac.uk/cgi/psyc/newpsy?9.46 ftp://ftp.princeton.edu/pub/harnad/Psycoloquy/1998.volume.9/psyc.98.9.46.social-bias.1.krueger

Margolis, H. (1998) Tycho's Illusion: How It Lasted 400 Years, and What That Implies About Human Cognition. PSYCOLOQUY 9 (32) ftp://ftp.princeton.edu/pub/harnad/Psycoloquy/1998.volume.9/psyc.98.9.32.cognitive-illusion.1.margolis

Rickert, N. (1998). Intelligence is not rational. PSYCOLOQUY 9(51) ftp://ftp.princeton.edu/pub/harnad/Psycoloquy/1998.volume.9/psyc.98.9.51.social-bias.3.rickert