"That's not an argument; that is the automatic gainsaying of my position" - MP
"No it isn't," - JC
"Reasoning was not designed to pursue the truth. Reasoning was designed by evolution to help us win arguments." - Hugo Mercier
In "Why Do Humans Reason: Arguments for Argumentative Theory" the authors present an emerging theory which supports the proposition that our capacity for reason emerges from our need to win arguments. Cognitive Bias and Motivated Reasoning defy methods of rational choice or rational actor paradigms - we are the argumentative monkey.
My conclusion - my argument here - surrounds the efficacy of operant conditioning and not cognition as the most common paths to provisional conclusions that we consider worth acting upon or avoiding. I am more likely to reject the behavior of argumentation and yield to the other man's argument to save time and effort. Bad ideas that I am ordered to carry out will emerge as well-conditioned behavior either for or against the desired solution. I may agree to satisfy the customer then avoid doing the things that might serve the customer but force me into behavior I am not prepared to demonstrate.
[see Chris Moody at Mother Jones on motivated reasoning]
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