Christopher Hitchens

Thinking for Yourself as the Most Radical Act

Independence is trainable. Begin by actively seeking the strongest opposing case—Daniel Dennett’s rendering of Rapoport’s rules in Intuition Pumps (2013) is a practical guide to steelmanning. Pair this with source-tracing, numeracy about uncertainty, and the willingness to revise beliefs in public. As Richard Feynman cautioned in “Cargo Cult Science” (1974), the first principle is not to fool yourself—and you are the easiest person to fool. The radical act, then, is a routine: slow down, verify, compare, and only then conclude. Courage follows practice. [...]