 Can I make 40 here? So one of the most common Logical errors that I see Made in everyday life is the essentialist Fallacy and that's the fallacy that is the essence of someone or something that Is is what's that issue? so the problem with the essentialist fallacy is he knows context and environment and structure and What are the other? other factors that may cause a certain outcome, so Let's say that you and I have an appointment to meet for coffee at 5 p.m. And I don't show up and I don't text you and I don't call you, right? So the essentialist fallacy is that 40 is just unreliable now I tend to be 99% reliable so what may have happened is that I got into a car accident or Or It was a very serious situation where I was called away. I lost my phone like all sorts of surrounding Environmental effects may have caused me not to show up. So I was just reading Donald Kagan's book on the history of the Peloponnesian Wars and Sparta was a military Authoritarian state and it defeated the more democratic Athenian Empire and the Peloponnesian Wars and so Problems with the way that Athens managed the war Because Athens lost would then widely ascribe to problems inherent in democracy And it wasn't necessarily problems that were inherent in democracy that cost Athens the war or accounted for its bad decisions Democracy the structure of its government was only one factor in how it conducted itself So mistakes that Athens made didn't necessarily say anything about the essential nature of democracy It was the structure of the war the context of the people in charge because every system has to have people Operating it and people are inherently fallible So the loss of democratic Athens to authoritarian Sparta doesn't necessarily say anything about the inherent nature of Democracy so if a Jew lets you down or a Muslim lets you down or a black man lets you down or a Mexican lets you down or Japanese man lets you down or a Chinese man lets you down That doesn't necessarily say anything about the essential nature of black people Jews Muslims the Japanese the Chinese so we tend to be very quick to ascribe essences and We tend to not think nearly as much about structures and environment and Other factors that may cause outcomes that we don't like so you can say Donald Trump is a You could say that Donald Trump is a loser because he lost the 2020 presidential election But Trump would have won if you hadn't had the extraordinary COVID pandemic or if he just handled it halfway decently So it's not necessarily an inherent essential characteristic of Donald Trump that he's a loser But in the context of the pandemic and him not handling it very well then he lost the 2020 election. So Many people said that Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo was just in essence a loser because he only won two playoff games in his more than 10 year career and He had some pretty talented teams particularly the $2007 Cowboys and they got knocked out in the divisional round by the eventual Super Bowl champion New York Giants now. It's not Essentially the character Tony Romo necessarily that he was a loser He just went two and four in playoff games and there are other factors. So Tony Romo's play was not the primary factor that led the Cowboys to lose four playoff games while he was in charge so in Sports in particular people are very quick to go. Oh, this person's a loser. This person's a winner Like Michael Jordan won every finals series Which he participated Tom Brady what he's he's won Seven out of ten Super Bowl's he's participated in so it's not that there's no Essence to a person or to an institution But the essential fallacy is to always attribute outcomes to the essence sometimes the essence is The factor in an outcome that usually the environment the structure there will be other courses that are other causes that are more important than the essence and For most people there is no essential Luke. There's no essential Kevin there's no essential Brondle fly who Luke is who Kevin is who Brondle fly is Depends on context like I'm different with each person that I have a relationship with different situations different structures Different social settings bring out different sides of me. So I don't think we really have a true self It's just that our different selves are revealed in different contexts The essentialist fallacy watch out for it