Ted Hennicke on "The Meaning and Causes of Irrationality”
The next Tuesday Dialogue is delayed till November 18 - firstly for the Race that Stops the Nation (our room unavailable) and secondly by our own Big Dialogue.
But it will be worth the wait. Our own Ted Hennicke, PhD student, profound thinker and renaissance man, is presenting some of his work on the Meaning and Causes of Irrationality and the real world importance of this.
Ted will explain how we know that most people are wishful thinkers, and evaluate theories that have been put forth to explain why, such as cognitive dissonance, motivated reasoning, adaptive self-deception and the psychological immune system. Ted will then present his own synthesis on the matter.
Ted will end with a discussion of the real-world implications of his conclusions, especially as they pertains to our understanding of the meaning of “rationality”, and additionally, to the future of liberalism.
Ted is well known to us as an important contributor to Tuesday Dialogues and a sometime chair of the meeting.
He is a truly interdisciplinary thinker who holds a major in geography, a minor in physics, and an honours in environmental science from ANU. He is near to finishing his PhD in philosophy at UQ under the triple supervision of Dr. Peter Ellerton, Prof. Deb Brown and Prof. Jason Lodge
Ted’s main intellectual interest is the psychology of conflict resolution, which involves close collaboration with both educational and social psychology. How we form our beliefs (and to what degree we’re willing to change them) is a topic that sits at the core of constructive conflict processes. Ted likes to approach psychological topics with philosophical methods, such as argument analysis, argument mapping and severe testing. He also uses qualitative methods (especially case studies) and has a deep interest in the methods of engineering, especially software engineering.
Please join us for an intriguing evening at our November Dialogue on the 18th 5:30pm for 6 at the usual venue.
Tuesday Dialogues General
Arrive from 5.30pm to meet and catch up with TBD people (active volunteers and supporters, partners, sponsors and previous speakers). Guests are free to leave from 7pm but the discussion always continues. Location to be detailed on confirmation emails.Tuesday Dialogues provide a safe space for free speech from differing perspectives and of course The Brisbane Rule applies. The Principle of Charity is another good one to bear in mind. In some cases, the Chatham House Rule may be invoked. Discussions are not recorded, though notes may be taken and meeting notes might be published, anonymised if appropriate.
Pay forward or what you can afford to keep TD self-sustaining and contributing a little to The Brisbane Dialogues, with student and young grad volunteers and interns (and former speakers and valued sponsors) very welcome to enjoy a freebie.
Note that TD is a private series for active volunteers, interns, supporters and partners of The Brisbane Dialogues. Email us if you would like to be actively involved, or would like to bring a guest who is interested. To save embarrassment and respect the volunteers who make a significant effort to manage attendance numbers and these events in general, please don't try to turn up without reserving a place.
If you book a place but cannot make it, please email us so we can re-offer your place, as there is often a waiting list. Conversely, it is a good idea to your name on the waiting list in the Humanitix system if the event is showing "sold out"