Comment by JesperRavn

I think the author makes some good points, but I think the term "learned helplessness" together with the arguments made, imply that if reasoned arguments can't be trusted then nothing can. But I think that a better characterization is that people use other ways of thinking, such as intuition, emotion, etc. in addition to reason.

Any expert in a field other than pure math, will tell you that in order to evaluate an argument or evidence, you need experience and intuition, not just argumentation. Arguments are not a formal process that can definitively arrive at conclusions. The same applies to mathematical models. Economists often complain in private about the need to dress up their ideas as mathematical models, even when the model adds nothing to the discussion. This is especially annoying in empirical work, when no one is actually interested in the model, just the empirical results.