CARTAGENA THINKS: JAVIER LÓPEZ ALÓS 'WHY WE THINK WHAT WE THINK. HOW HUMANS REASON, WHY WE MAKE SO MANY MISTAKES AND WHAT WE CAN DO ABOUT IT'

CARTAGENA THINKS: JAVIER LÓPEZ ALÓS 'WHY WE THINK WHAT WE THINK. HOW HUMANS REASON, WHY WE MAKE SO MANY MISTAKES AND WHAT WE CAN DO ABOUT IT'

To what extent are our ideas truly our own? Why do we believe what we believe and make the decisions we make?
This book is a fascinating exploration of the biological, psychological, and cultural factors that shape our thinking without our conscious awareness. 
Through everyday examples and scientific and philosophical references, the authors show how our minds resort to shortcuts and simplifications to cope with the complexity of the world, generating systematic errors, biases, and vulnerabilities that can be exploited through manipulation and disinformation. Understanding these mechanisms helps us comprehend our limitations and provides us with tools for more critical and independent thinking.
Javier López Alós holds a PhD in Philosophy (University of Murcia) and is a writer. In 2025, he co-authored *Why We Think What We Think: How Humans Reason, Why We Make So Many Mistakes, and What We Can Do About It* (Arpa) with Vicent Botella. *The Plebeian Intellectual: Vocation and Resistance of Joyful Thinking* was published in 2021. With *Critique of Precarious Reason: Intellectual Life Facing the Obligation of the Extraordinary* (2019, French edition in 2023), he won the Catarata Essay Prize. He is also the author of numerous academic works on the history of ideas, such as his book *Between the Throne and the Parliament: Spanish Reactionary Thought Facing the Liberal Revolution (1808-1823)*. For years he has combined writing with teaching and critical outreach. 

Presented by: Salvador Cayuela Sánchez. PhD in Philosophy from the University of Murcia and PhD in Social Anthropology from the Rovira i Virgili University of Tarragona

*Image of Sandra Pinedo

DATE: May 28, 2026

TIME: 8:00 PM

LOCATION: Josefina Soria Library, El Luzzy