"Like all best friends, our shared language tends to be debate: we spar over movies, politics, even which back road will save two minutes in traffic. (He's usually right, which is particularly annoying.) After Williams, Jeff went on to Oxford, Cambridge, and then earned his PhD in philosophy at Berkeley, so it's no surprise he now makes his living persuading people with reasoning."
"He told the story of Qantas Flight 32, when an Airbus A380 nearly fell out of the sky after a massive engine failure. The pilot, Richard De Crespigny, saved 440 passengers not only with technical skill, but with reasoning and communication - giving people reasons to believe they were safe rather than empty reassurances. Jeff's point was that this ability to reason clearly and change minds is one of the most powerful skills you can learn in college."
Dr. Jeff Kaplan, a longtime friend, connects decades of personal debate and elite philosophical education to the power of clear reasoning. Anear-miss on Qantas Flight 32 demonstrates how pilot Richard De Crespigny combined technical skill with reasoning and communication to save 440 passengers by offering reasons rather than empty reassurances. The concept of "the artful giving of reasons" elevates reasoning as an underrated intellectual capacity. Reasons satisfy like a meal, whereas vague reassurances leave people unpersuaded, prompting a question about why so much public discourse favors empty blather over substantive explanation.
Read at Big Think
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