Lecture 1 - Ways of Knowing

1) Intuition

a hunch or a gut feeling

Confirmation bias

focus on evidence that is consistent with our point of view

Present bias

fail to consider what we cannot see or what is not immediately present

Availability heuristic

influenced by what comes to mind more easily

2) Authority

unquestioning belief or trust in someone who is considered an expert in an area

• parents, the media, doctors, religious authorities, the government, and professors

• Learn to evaluate the following:

  • credentials of authority figures

  • methods they used to arrive at conclusions

  • whether they have reasons to mislead us

3) Rationalism

rules of logic/reasoning to arrive at a conclusion

• information accepted as true based on rules of logic

Deductive Reasoning

logical validity is necessary but not sufficient for truth.

Ex: Premise 1: All humans are immortal.

Premise 2: Socrates is a human.

Conclusion: Therefore, Socrates is immortal.

**argument can be valid (following logic) but not sound (based on true premises)

Inductive Reasoning

drawing general conclusions from specific observations

Ex: Observation 1: Swan 1 is white

2: Swan 2 is white.

3: Swan 3 is white.

…

Conclusion: All swans are white.

**we cannot just make this conclusion because there may be other colored swans in different areas

4) Empiricism

information accepted as true because it is based on direct observations of events or experiences using sense or instruments that assist the senses

• Personal experiences are limited due to the following:

  • Subjective and susceptible to biases

  • Not free from confounds

    • there is a lot going on that is not controlled or accounted for, resulting in potentially multiple explanations for an outcome

  • Not representative of general human experiences

  • Not enough (small sample size)

5) The Scientific Method

a process of systematically collecting and evaluating evidence to test ideas and answer questions

• Empirical observations under various controlled conditions

• Rationalism is used to draw valid conclusions