Stop Being Reasonable: Six Stories Of How We Change Our Minds

★★★★★

Philosopher Eleanor Gordon-Smith offers six stories that test the popular notion that rational debate is the best way to change people’s minds.

Through her examples she challenges our traditional account of how rationality works. We learn that emotions don’t have to be the opposites of reason, and an attitude of doubt and scepticism isn’t always healthy. The book is slickly written, and interestingly relies for its substance on contemporary epistemology and ethics.