Intelligence Is Killed by Pathogenic Ideas

“The West’s commitment to freedom, reason, and true liberalism has never been more seriously threatened than it is today by the stifling forces of political correctness.” Gad Saad, The Parasitic Mind: How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense

The main thesis of this book is that our world is dominated by pathogenic ideas (bad ideas, they generate “ill” thinking) which are killing common sense as the ability to reason. If you have read my previous article Is Common Sense Defeating Your Thinking Power? you know how the Socratic method works, at least in its essential structure. The Socratic method for thinking helps against pathogenic ideas and saves us from parasitic ideas. I suppose we agree on the fact that a functioning mind needs truth and produces true statements. Nevertheless, the search for truth is threatened by a mind that feeds on parasitic ideas The ability to think and focus is threatened by the abandonment of the truth.

As human we are endowed with reason and emotions; we should not use emotion when reason is needed and vice-versa. The Socratic method is a powerful tool to contrast the “stifling force of political correctness”. The Socratic reason differs from the Husserlian definition of reason and is more related to Rawl’s practical use of it.