Let's read: Spinoza's Ethics, You Can't Not Believe Everything You Read, and why Elephants don't play chess

Descartes and Spinoza are two 17th century philosophers. Descartes's philosophy is the one that's shaped how people think the world works, but are they true? Today we read two papers that suggest otherwise.

You Can't Not Believe Everything You Read (1993), Daniel T. Gilbert, Romin W. Tafarodi, Patrick S. Malone. It's a paper written by psychologists, but touches on a lot of philosophy and neurosciences in it.

Let's start by the abstract:

Can people comprehend assertions without believing them? Descartes suggested that people can and should, whereas Spinoza suggested that people should but cannot.