Hugo Mercier

About

Hugo Mercier is a postdoc in the Philosophy, Politics and Economics program at the University of Pennsylvania. Most of his work has focused on the function and workings of reasoning. According to the argumentative theory of reasoning, the function of reasoning is argumentative: to find and evaluate arguments so as to convince others and only be convinced when it is appropriate. Accordingly, reasoning works well as an argumentative device, but quite poorly otherwise. You can learn more about his work here: hugomercier

Recent Posts

How Gullible Are North Koreans?

North Koreans believe that they live in one of the most advanced nations when they are stuck in one of the worst places on the planet. They accept the propaganda fed by a regime that is starving many of them to death. Surely, they must be among the most gullible people on the planet?

How Gullible Are We?

We often think of other people as being gullible. But is this really true? Can people really be that gullible? From an evolutionary point of view, gullibility is a major handicap. Instead, people should be vigilant, carefully screening communicated information. In a series of posts, I will try to show that people are more often too vigilant rather than not enough.

Reasoning Is More Intuitive than We Think

There is a widespread view that reasoning is the polar opposite of intuitions: slow vs. fast, effortful vs. effortless, conscious vs. unconscious. On closer inspection, these oppositions do not stand: reasoning is mostly another intuition.

Why So Smart? Why So Dumb?

We can agree that reasoning is responsible, at least in part, for some of the greatest achievements of humankind. Yet we should also agree that people can reason their way to asinine beliefs and disastrous decisions. How can we explain these widely inconsistent outcomes?