Last update 3/21/26. Subject to change as the class progresses.

Session 1: Quadralemma / Categorizing One’s Quality of Thinking

• Aristotle's Intellectual Virtues: A Baseline for “What is Intelligence?”

• Cipolla's Laws of Stupidity: A taxonomy of harmful behavior

Session 2: Laziness / Errors We Make As Individuals

• Kahneman's Cognitive Biases: Thinking fast & slow

• Munger's Psychology of Misjudgment: Mental models and decision errors

Session 3: Group Think / Errors We Make When Interacting

• Janis's Groupthink: Spontaneous collective irrationality

• Bonhoeffer's Theory of Stupidity: The anti-intellectual effects of power

Session 4: Us vs. Them / Errors When Considering the Stupidity of Ohers

• Haidt's Moral Foundations: Emotions drive post-hoc rationalization

Session 5: Stupidity Can Set You Free

• Frankfurt's On Bullshit: Indifference to truth

• Trivers' Self-Deception: Evolutionary basis of pretending it’s not so

Session 6: Choosing Leaders / Errors While Awarding Esteem

• QAnon & Dunning-Kruger: Dangerous Overconfidence Among the Masses

Session 7: What if Stupidity is Baked Into the System?

• Spengler’s Impact of Civilizational Decline: Senescent cultures override individual agency

Session 8: What Does the Future Look Like?