Today I finished Thinking, Fast and Slow.
An impressive book.
I still have a problem with the title.
But I now understand more precisely what Kahneman wishes the book to do.
He hopes that it will further discredit standard economic theories depictions of individuals as fully conscious, rational, logically consistant beings. Individuals are always biased, always use heuristics, and need to be guided in order to make proper decision.
Kahneman's analysis of biases and heuristics is ultimately to be used as a way of creating social and economic policies that will encourage people to make the right kinds of choices.
He unleashes all of this in the conclusion.
I am embarrassed to admit that I failed to read between the lines.
At the end of the book it is so obvious that this is how his work should be approached.
But I was foolishly looking for it as a guide to the education of my own judgement.
Even though I knew that Kahneman does not have much hope for the elimination of biases and heuristics.
Finally, a bit of clarity on what Kahneman really wants his work to be used for.
Major reflection on this book is now possible. I will spend some time with it in the coming weeks and months.
But now I intend to finish reading Niall Ferguson's Civilization: The West and The Rest.
How exciting to be reading two giants of contemporary thinking.
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