Philosopher's Zone Common sense vs reason: when philosophy gets weird
May 7, 2026
Cliff Sosis, philosopher and editor of Too Weird to Believe, Too Plausible to Deny, explores when reason upends everyday intuition. He discusses why intuitions and biases help but mislead, Hume’s problem of induction, skepticism about the external world, moral luck and responsibility, and rethinking punishment if blame collapses.
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Why Intuition And Reason Serve Different Roles
- Intuitions are efficient snap judgments while reason is slow and effortful.
- Cliff Sosis explains intuition saves energy in everyday choices (e.g., walking down a dark alley) whereas reason solves complex problems like urban crime.
Defer To Experts For Specialized Knowledge
- Defer to experts for factual matters rather than celebrating independent thought.
- Sosis advises relying on specialists (doctors to cardiologists) because expertise often yields better results than untrained independent reasoning.
Hume Shows Induction Lacks a Noncircular Justification
- David Hume shows induction rests on assuming the future resembles the past, which cannot be non-circularly justified.
- Sosis stresses we infer laws from limited samples (boiling water, particles) and Hume exposes circularity when justifying induction by past success.
