Wanting Conclusions

The rage for wanting to conclude is one of the most deadly and most fruitless manias to befall humanity. Each religion and each philosophy has pretended to have God to itself, to measure the infinite, and to know the recipe for happiness. What arrogance and what nonsense! I see, to the contrary, that the greatest geniuses and the greatest works have never concluded.

Gustave Flaubert, Correspondence (Paris, 1929), vol V, 111.


Drawing conclusions is hard-wired into our brains. Yet, we know now that our ability to draw reliable conclusions based on evidence is seriously flawed (psychologists.) By knowing these thinking flaws we can choose to manipulate people or we can choose to present the truth, without bias. Sometimes the best we can do is guess, but let's be clear that it is a guess.