RESOURCES 2019-05-20T16:24:58+00:00

War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.

George Orwell

2019-04-18T18:07:22+00:00

George Orwell

War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction… true and false no longer exist.

Hannah Arendt

2019-04-18T17:43:29+00:00

Hannah Arendt

The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction… true and false no longer exist.
As reasoning is not the source, whence either disputant derives his tenets; it is in vain to expect, that any logic, which speaks not to the affections, will ever engage him to embrace sounder principle.

David Hume

2019-04-18T17:48:04+00:00

David Hume

As reasoning is not the source, whence either disputant derives his tenets; it is in vain to expect, that any logic, which speaks not to the affections, will ever engage him to embrace sounder principle.
The best lack all conviction, while the worst, Are full of passionate intensity.

Yeats

2019-04-18T18:02:34+00:00

Yeats

The best lack all conviction, while the worst, Are full of passionate intensity.
I hope that we have not labored in vain, and that our experiment will still prove that men can be governed by reason.

Thomas Jefferson

2019-04-18T17:53:03+00:00

Thomas Jefferson

I hope that we have not labored in vain, and that our experiment will still prove that men can be governed by reason.
Our comforting conviction that the world makes sense rests on a secure foundation: our almost unlimited ability to ignore our ignorance.

Daniel Kahneman

2019-04-18T17:50:09+00:00

Daniel Kahneman

Our comforting conviction that the world makes sense rests on a secure foundation: our almost unlimited ability to ignore our ignorance.
Since we are all naturally prone to hypocrisy, any empty semblance of righteousness is quite enough to satisfy us instead of righteousness itself.

John Calvin

2019-04-18T17:49:19+00:00

John Calvin

Since we are all naturally prone to hypocrisy, any empty semblance of righteousness is quite enough to satisfy us instead of righteousness itself.
Through error you come to the truth! I am a man because I err! You never reach any truth without making fourteen mistakes and very likely a hundred and fourteen.

Fyodor Dostoevsky

2019-04-18T18:08:25+00:00

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Through error you come to the truth! I am a man because I err! You never reach any truth without making fourteen mistakes and very likely a hundred and fourteen.
Anyone who doesn't take truth seriously in small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either.

Albert Einstein

2019-04-18T17:56:28+00:00

Albert Einstein

Anyone who doesn't take truth seriously in small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either.
Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.

Voltaire

2019-05-14T19:19:16+00:00

Voltaire

Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.
If only we can give them faith that mountains can be moved, they will accept the illusion that mountains are moveable, and thus an illusion may become reality.

Benito Mussolini

2019-04-18T17:57:34+00:00

Benito Mussolini

If only we can give them faith that mountains can be moved, they will accept the illusion that mountains are moveable, and thus an illusion may become reality.
The moment a person forms a theory, his imagination sees in every object only the traits which favor that theory.

Thomas Jefferson

2019-04-18T18:04:52+00:00

Thomas Jefferson

The moment a person forms a theory, his imagination sees in every object only the traits which favor that theory.
The science of politics, however, like most other sciences, has received great improvement. The efficacy of various principles is now well understood, which were either not known at all, or imperfectly known to the ancients.

Alexander Hamilton

2019-04-18T17:54:23+00:00

Alexander Hamilton

The science of politics, however, like most other sciences, has received great improvement. The efficacy of various principles is now well understood, which were either not known at all, or imperfectly known to the ancients.
Government is not reason, it is not eloquence—it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master; never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.

George Washington

2019-04-18T18:16:28+00:00

George Washington

Government is not reason, it is not eloquence—it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master; never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.
If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts.

Francis Bacon

2019-04-18T18:17:42+00:00

Francis Bacon

If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts.
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars: But in ourselves.

Shakespeare

2019-04-18T17:51:35+00:00

Shakespeare

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars: But in ourselves.
When a man finds a conclusion agreeable, he accepts it without argument, but when he finds it disagreeable, he will bring against it all the forces of logic and reason.

Thucydides

2019-04-18T18:11:30+00:00

Thucydides

When a man finds a conclusion agreeable, he accepts it without argument, but when he finds it disagreeable, he will bring against it all the forces of logic and reason.
Science is a way of trying not to fool yourself. The principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.

Richard Feynman

2019-04-18T18:12:42+00:00

Richard Feynman

Science is a way of trying not to fool yourself. The principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.
The illusion which exalts us is dearer to us than ten thousand truths.

Aleksandr Pushkin

2019-04-18T17:55:15+00:00

Aleksandr Pushkin

The illusion which exalts us is dearer to us than ten thousand truths.
The greatest invention of the 19th century was the invention of the method of invention.

Alfred North Whitehead

2019-05-22T00:27:23+00:00

Alfred North Whitehead

The greatest invention of the 19th century was the invention of the method of invention.
The human understanding when it has once adopted an opinion... draws all things else to support and agree with it.

Francis Bacon

2019-04-18T18:03:37+00:00

Francis Bacon

The human understanding when it has once adopted an opinion... draws all things else to support and agree with it.
We all want progress, but if you're on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road.

C. S. Lewis

2019-04-18T18:05:44+00:00

C. S. Lewis

We all want progress, but if you're on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road.
Man prefers to believe what he prefers to be true.

Francis Bacon

2019-04-18T18:06:28+00:00

Francis Bacon

Man prefers to believe what he prefers to be true.

— RESOURCES & SUPPORTING RESEARCH* —

The Hidden Tribes of America

USA Facts

Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

Jaime E. Settle, Christopher T. Dawes, Nicholas A. Christakis, and James H. Fowler, “Friendships Moderate an Association between a Dopamine Gene Variant and Political Ideology,” The Journal of Politics 72, no. 4 (October 2010): 1189-1198.

StriveTogether

The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves by Matt Ridley

Cognitive sophistication does not attenuate the bias blind spot by Department of Graduate Psychology, James Madison University

Why Smart People Are Stupid by Jonah Lehrer

“Political Polarization in the American Public” Pew Research Center, Washington, D.C. (June 12, 2014)

Unstable Majorities: Polarization, Party Sorting, and Political Stalemate by Morris P. Fiorina

Common Ground?: Readings and Reflections on Public Space (The Metropolis and Modern Life) by Anthony Orum and Zachary Neal

The Contribution of High-Skilled Immigrants to Innovation in the United States by Shai Bernstein, Rebecca Diamond, Timothy McQuade and Beatriz Pousada (.pdf download)

Oren Cass, The Once and Future Worker: A Vision for the Renewal of Work in America

More in Common

SAPIENS digital magazine

The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt

Collective Impact by John Kania & Mark Kramer

Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek

The Power of Social Innovation: How Civic Entrepreneurs Ignite Community Networks for Good by Stephen Goldsmith

Economics and Knowledge by Friedrich A. Hayek

Political Animals: How Our Stone-Age Brain Gets in the Way of Smart Politics by Rick Shenkman

The Foundation for Critical Thinking

ProCon.Org: PROS & CONS OF CURRENT ISSUES. RELIABLE. NONPARTISAN. EMPOWERING.

Bold: How to Go Big, Create Wealth and Impact the World by Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler

Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics by Richard H. Thaler

Brain Pickings – The Baloney Detection Kit: Carl Sagan’s Rules for Bullshit-Busting and Critical Thinking by Maria Popova

Brain Pickings – In Search of a Better World: Karl Popper on Truth vs. Certainty and the Dangers of Relativism by Maria Popova

Friedrich August von Hayek – Prize Lecture: The Pretence of Knowledge

Really, Would You Let Your Daughter Marry a Democrat? by David A. Graham

What Is Narrative Bias? The illusion of causality by Shahram Heshmat Ph.D

How Affective Intelligence Theory Can Help Us Understand Politics by George E. Marcus, Department of Political Science, Williams College

The Argumentative Theory A Conversation with Hugo Mercier [4.27.11] Introduction by: John Brockman

How Technology Hijacks People’s Minds — from a Magician and Google’s Design Ethicist by Tristan Harris

The Science of Liberty: Democracy, Reason, and the Laws of Nature by Timothy Ferris

AllSides.com

Copycats and Contrarians: Why We Follow Others… and When We Don’t by Michelle Baddeley

The science of why eyewitness testimony is often wrong by John Timmer

The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds by Michael Lewis

Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst by Robert M. Sapolsky

House Divided How We Became Bitter Political Enemies by Emily Badger and Niraj Chokshi

Lifetime Incomes in the United States over Six Decades by Fatih Guvenen, Greg Kaplan, Jae Song, Justin Weidner

These Are the Economies With the Most (and Least) Efficient Health Care by Lee J Miller and Wei Lu

Our Feuding Founding Fathers by Alan Taylor

An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

The Constitution of Liberty: The Definitive Edition (The Collected Works of F. A. Hayek)

Two Treatises of Government by John Locke, Edited by Lee Ward

Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson

The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century (The Princeton Economic History of the Western World) by Walter Scheidel

The Theory of Moral Sentiments by Adam Smith

Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey into the Heart of America by James and Deborah Fallows

Crowds and Power by Elias Canetti

Tailspin: The People and Forces Behind America’s Fifty-Year Fall–and Those Fighting to Reverse It by Steven Brill

Churchill and Orwell: The Fight for Freedom by Thomas E. Ricks

American Dialogue: The Founders and Us by Joseph J. Ellis

The Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis

Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World by Michael Lewis

Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World by Anand Giridharadas

Think Like a Freak: The Authors of Freakonomics Offer to Retrain Your Brain by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

Freakonomics®

Expert Political Judgment: How Good Is It? How Can We Know? by Philip E. Tetlock

The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies—How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths by Michael Shermer

Thank You for Being Late: An Optimist’s Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations by Thomas L. Friedman

Mass Flourishing: How Grassroots Innovation Created Jobs, Challenge, and Change by Edmund Phelps

Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow

On Grand Strategy by John Lewis Gaddis

Grand Pursuit: The Story of Economic Genius by Sylvia Nasar

Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis

The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The Value of Everything: Making and Taking in the Global Economy by Mariana Mazzucato

The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels by Jon Meacham

Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress by Steven Pinker

The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan

Makers and Takers: The Rise of Finance and the Fall of American Business by Rana Foroohar

The Moral Arc: How Science Makes Us Better People by Michael Shermer

The Cave and the Light: Plato Versus Aristotle, and the Struggle for the Soul of Western Civilization by Arthur Herman

The Great Deformation: The Corruption of Capitalism in America by David Stockman

Bailout: An Inside Account of How Washington Abandoned Main Street While Rescuing Wall Street by Neil Barofsky

Becoming China’s Bitch: And Nine More Catastrophes We Must Avoid Right Now by Peter D. Kiernan

This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly by Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff

Why the West Rules–for Now: The Patterns of History, and What They Reveal About the Future by Ian Morris

Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson

That Used to Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back by Thomas L. Friedman

Sex, Murder, and the Meaning of Life by Douglas Kenrick

A Conflict Of Visions by Thomas Sowell

The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement by David Brooks

The Great Courses

How Ideas Spread by Professor Jonah Berger

The Modern Political Tradition: Hobbes to Habermas by Professor Lawrence Cahoone

Redefining Reality: The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science by Professor Steven Gimbel

The Creative Thinker’s Toolkit by Professor Gerard Puccio

Special Collection – 36 Big Ideas by Multiple Professors

12 Essential Scientific Concepts by Professor Indre Viskontas

Behavioral Economics: When Psychology and Economics Collide by Professor Scott Huettel

Strategic Thinking Skills by Professor Stanley K. Ridgley

Skepticism 101: How to Think like a Scientist by Professor Michael Shermer

The Philosopher’s Toolkit: How to Be the Most Rational Person in Any Room by Professor Patrick Grim

Turning Points in Modern History by Professor Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius

Foundations of Economic Prosperity by Professor Daniel W. Drezner

Origins and Ideologies of the American Revolution by Professor Peter C. Mancall

Natural Law and Human Nature by Father Joseph Koterski

Your Deceptive Mind: A Scientific Guide to Critical Thinking Skills by Professor Steven Novella

Understanding the Science for Tomorrow: Myth and Reality by Professor Jeffrey C. Grossman

Unexpected Economics by Professor Timothy Taylor

Thinking like an Economist: A Guide to Rational Decision Making by Professor Randall Bartlett

Great Ideas of Psychology by Professor Daniel N. Robinson

Art of Critical Decision Making by Professor Michael A. Roberto

Meaning of Life: Perspectives from the World’s Great Intellectual Traditions by Professor Jay L. Garfield

Great Minds of the Eastern Intellectual Tradition by Professor Grant Hardy

Skeptics and Believers: Religious Debate in the Western Intellectual Tradition by Professor Tyler Roberts

Europe and Western Civilization in the Modern Age by Professor Thomas Childers

Doctors: The History of Scientific Medicine Revealed Through Biography by Professor Sherwin B. Nuland

Peoples and Cultures of the World by Professor Edward Fischer

Making History: How Great Historians Interpret the Past by Professor Allen C. Guelzo

Myth in Human History by Professor Grant L. Voth

Fall and Rise of China by Professor Richard Baum

Modern Intellectual Tradition: From Descartes to Derrida by Professor Lawrence Cahoone

Great Authors of the Western Literary Tradition, 2nd Edition by Multiple Professors

Civil Liberties and the Bill of Rights by Professor John E. Finn

Italian Renaissance by Professor Kenneth R. Bartlett

Great Scientific Ideas That Changed the World by Professor Steven L. Goldman

Science Wars: What Scientists Know and How They Know It by Professor Steven L. Goldman

Why Economies Rise or Fall by Professor Peter Rodriguez

Economics, 3rd Edition by Professor Timothy Taylor

Ethics of Aristotle by Father Joseph Koterski

Medieval World by Professor Dorsey Armstrong

Voltaire and the Triumph of the Enlightenment by Professor Alan Charles Kors

Questions of Value by Professor Patrick Grim

Enlightenment Invention of the Modern Self by Professor Leo Damrosch

Tocqueville and the American Experiment by Professor William R. Cook

American Ideals: Founding a “Republic of Virtue” by Professor Daniel N. Robinson

Philosophy of Science by Professor Jeffrey L. Kasser

Great Debate: Advocates and Opponents of the American Constitution by Professor Thomas L. Pangle

The Conservative Tradition by Professor Patrick N. Allitt

Tools of Thinking: Understanding the World Through Experience and Reason by Professor James Hall

Birth of the Modern Mind: The Intellectual History of the 17th and 18th Centuries by Professor Alan Charles Kors

Foundations of Western Civilization II: A History of the Modern Western World by Professor Robert Bucholz

Foundations of Western Civilization by Professor Thomas F. X. Noble

Legacies of Great Economists by Professor Timothy Taylor

Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Rise of Nations by Professor Andrew C. Fix

History of the United States, 2nd Edition by Multiple Professors

Thinking about Capitalism by Professor Jerry Z. Muller

American Identity by Professor Patrick N. Allitt

America and the New Global Economy by Professor Timothy Taylor

Cycles of American Political Thought by Professor Joseph F. Kobylka

Great Minds of the Western Intellectual Tradition, 3rd Edition by Multiple Professors

American Mind by Professor Allen C. Guelzo

Power over People: Classical and Modern Political Theory by Professor Dennis Dalton

Great Ideas of Philosophy, 2nd Edition by Professor Daniel N. Robinson

Utopia and Terror in the 20th Century by Professor Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius

Big History: The Big Bang, Life on Earth, and the Rise of Humanity by Professor David Christian

Books That Have Made History: Books That Can Change Your Life by Professor J. Rufus Fears

History of Freedom by Professor J. Rufus Fears

A Brief History of the World by Professor Peter N. Stearns

Argumentation: The Study of Effective Reasoning, 2nd Edition by Professor David Zarefsky

War, Peace, and Power: Diplomatic History of Europe, 1500-2000 by Professor Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius

Wisdom of History by Professor J. Rufus Fears

Modern Economic Issues by Professor Robert Whaples

Interpreting the 20th Century: The Struggle Over Democracy by Professor Pamela Radcliff

American Civil War by Professor Gary W. Gallagher

 

* Knowledge is power, which is why the American Innovation Party is a member of the Amazon Associates Program.  If we want to go beyond the tired, old, failed ideas of the past and the dogma and ideology of the status quo, we need to understand how we got here and how we have overcome these problems in the past. We became an Amazon Associate to provide an easy way for those that are interested in digging into the many, many books and lectures that helped shape this movement to find these items for their own educational purposes. This will also help the AIP transform our political process, because when you click through the links above and buy products from Amazon, a small percentage of the price of each purchase will go to the AIP.  This helps support the American Innovation Party, and is very much appreciated.