#paradox

The inconsistencies that haunt our relationships with animals also result from the quirks of human cognition. We like to think of ourselves as the rational species. But research in cognitive psychology and behavioral economics shows that our thinking and behavior are often completely illogical. In one study, for example, groups of people were independently asked how much they would give to prevent waterfowl from being killed in polluted oil ponds. On average, the subjects said they would pay $80 to save 2,000 birds, $78 to save 20,000 birds, and $88 to save 200,000 birds. Sometimes animals act more logically than people do; a recent study found that when picking a new home, the decisions of ant colonies were more rational than those of human house-hunters. What is it about human psychology that makes it so difficult for us to think consistently about animals? The paradoxes that plague our interactions with other species are due to the fact that much of our thinking is a mire of instinct, learning, language, culture, intuition, and our reliance on mental shortcuts. ↗

— Hal Herzog

#behavior #charity #cognition #decision-making #ethics

If the Universe came to an end every time there was some uncertainty about what had happened in it, it would never have got beyond the first picosecond. And many of course don't. It's like a human body, you see. A few cuts and bruises here and there don't hurt it. Not even major surgery if it's done properly. Paradoxes are just the scar tissue. Time and space heal themselves up around them and people simply remember a version of events which makes as much sense as they require it to make. ↗

— Douglas Adams

#time-travel #uncertainty

...they say if you don't vote, you get the government you deserve, and if you do, you never get the results you expected. ↗

— E.A. Bucchianeri

#democracy-voting #election #elections #false-promises #government

To be complex does not mean to be fragmented. This is the paradox and the genius of our Canadian civilization. ↗

— Adrienne Clarkson

#civilization #complex #does #fragmented #genius

Surely the job of fiction is to actually tell the truth. It's a paradox that's at the heart of any kind of storytelling. ↗

— Jeremy Northam

#any #fiction #heart #job #kind

All people are paradoxical. No one is easily reducible, so I like characters who have contradictory impulses or shades of ambiguity. It's fun, and it's fun because it's hard. ↗

— Edward Norton

#because #characters #contradictory #easily #fun

Paradoxically, the people and state of Japan living on such moral props were not innocent but had been stained by their own past history of invading other Asian countries. ↗

— Kenzaburo Oe

#asian countries #been #countries #had #history

There are many of these apparent philosophical paradoxes or contradictions which don't concern me anymore. ↗

— Evan Parker

#apparent #concern #contradictions #many #me

The mind begins to boggle at unnatural substances as things paradoxical and incomprehensible. ↗

— Robert South

#incomprehensible #mind #paradoxical #substances #things

In love the paradox occurs that two beings become one and yet remain two. ↗

— Erich Fromm

#become #beings #occurs #paradox #remain