psychology_alt Critical Thinking
Analytical and logical reasoning
format_quote Quotes
"In the economic sphere, an act, a habit, an institution, a law produces not only one effect, but a series of effects. Of these effects, the first alone is immediate; it appears simultaneously with its cause; it is seen. The other effects unfold only subsequently; they are not seen. Between a bad and a good economist, this is the whole difference: one confines himself to the visible effect; the other takes into account both the effect that can be seen and those effects that must be foreseen."
menu_book That Which Is Seen, and That Which Is Not Seen
View Full QuoteView Full Quote"The world doesn't just contain optimists and pessimists, and wise and unwise technology users. It contains enemies of civilization as well. And knowledge is impartial. It can be used for good or evil. But the enemies of civilization all necessarily have one thing in common. They are wrong. And so they fear error correction and truth. And that's why they resist changes in their ideas, which makes them less creative and slower to innovate. So our defense against the existential danger from malevolent uses of technology, the only defense, is speed. The good guys must use their only advantage to stay ahead."
"Optimism is, in the first instance, a way of explaining failure, not prophesying success. It says that there is no fundamental barrier, no law of nature or supernatural decree, preventing progress."
menu_book The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World
View Full QuoteView Full Quote"The nature of a civilization is what aggregates around a religion. Our civilization is incapable of building a temple or a tomb. It will be forced to find its fundamental value, or it will decompose. And the great phenomenon of our era is the violence of the Islamic thrust."
View Full Quote"If you don't believe it or don't get it, I don't have the time to try to convince you, sorry."
"We must plan for freedom, and not only for security, if for no other reason than that only freedom can make security secure."
menu_book The Open Society and Its Enemies
View Full QuoteView Full Quote"Islam is contrary to the scientific spirit, hostile to progress; it has made the countries it conquered a field closed to the rational cultivation of the mind."
"Great nations are never impoverished by private, though they sometimes are by public prodigality and misconduct."
menu_book An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
View Full Quote"The pattern is: (1) The anointed assert that there is some grave danger or crisis. (2) The anointed propose some course of action to deal with it. (3) Evidence that the proposed course of action has made things worse is either ignored or explained away. (4) The anointed proceed as if the policy were working, blaming any remaining problems on the inadequacy of commitment to the policy."
menu_book The Vision of the Anointed
View Full Quote"The vision of the anointed is not simply a vision of the world and its functioning in descriptive terms, but is also a vision of themselves and of their place in the world. Self-congratulation is part of that vision, as is a disdain for the benighted masses who do not share it."
menu_book The Vision of the Anointed
View Full QuoteView Full Quote"There are no solutions. There are only trade-offs. And you try to get the best trade-off you can get. That's all you can hope for."
View Full Quote"I studied the Koran a great deal, mainly because of our position vis-à-vis the Muslim population of Algeria and throughout the Near East. I came away from that study with the conviction that by and large, there have been few religions in the world as deadly to men as that of Mohammed."
auto_stories Books
A Conflict of Visions
Sowell's landmark 1987 work arguing that the deepest divide in political and social thought is not between left and right, but between two fundamen...
Read MoreThe Myth of the Framework: In Defence of Science and Rationality
Collection of essays defending scientific rationality and critical discussion against relativism and the idea that meaningful communication is impo...
Read MoreThe Vision of the Anointed
The 1995 sequel to *A Conflict of Visions*, focusing specifically on the unconstrained vision as held by a self-appointed intellectual elite — 'the...
Read Moreperson Authors
psychology Concepts
Ad Hominem Fallacy
A logical fallacy in which an argument is rejected or dismissed not by addressing its substance, but by attacking the character, motives, or person...
Learn MoreThe Broken Window Fallacy
A logical error in economic reasoning first described by Frédéric Bastiat in his 1850 essay Learn More
The Cantillon Effect
The Cantillon Effect is an economic concept explaining how newly created money does not affect everyone equally. When new money enters the economy,...
Learn MoreHanlon's Razor
An adage or rule of thumb that states: 'Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.' This principle encourages the a...
Learn MoreMünchhausen Trilemma
A fundamental problem in epistemology demonstrating that any attempt to justify a claim of knowledge inevitably leads to one of three unsatisfactor...
Learn MoreStrawman Fallacy
A logical fallacy in which someone misrepresents or distorts another person's argument, making it easier to attack. Instead of addressing the actua...
Learn More