Book Information For Exam One

Double-blind:

neither the subjects nor the scientist know who's getting which treatment.

Division:

occurs when one assumes that what is true of a whole is also true of its parts.

Rational Thinking:

searching for cause and effect, what events caused an event.

(Insufficient Premises) False Cause:

the fallacy of false cause consists of supposing that two events are causally connected when they are not.

Adequacy

these criteria are used in any inference to the best explanation to determine how well a hypothesis accomplishes the goal of increasing our understanding.

Genetic Fallacy:

to argue that a claim is true or false on the basis of its origin is to commit the genetic fallacy.

Appeal to fear:

to use the threat of harm to advance one's position is to commit the fallacy of the appeal to fear.

Argument:

when claims (reasons) provide support for another claim, reasons supporting a claim.

Straw man

you indulge in the straw man fallacy when you misrepresent someone claim to make it easier to dismiss or reject.

Informal Fallacies

A fallacious argument is a bogus one, for it fails to do what it purports to do, namely provide a good reason for accepting a claim.

Appeals to the Masses

A remarkably common but fallacious form of reasoning is, "It must be true (or good) because everybody believes it (or does it).

The Scientific Hypothesis

A scientific hypothesis is an educated guess that tentatively answers a question or solves a problem in regard to the physical world.

The Blondlot Case

A. Announced a discovery of X rays and other forms of radiation. B. Called it N rays and said they increase the brightness of spark C. Robert W. Wood paid a visit in the laboratory of Blown Lot's but they were victims of perceptual construction.

The Availability of Error

A. Confirmation bias can be exacerbated by the availability error. The availability error occurs when people base their judgement on evidence that vivid or memorable instead of a reliable or trustworthy. B. When evaluating a claim, look at all the relevant evidence, not just the psychologically available evidence. C. Examples: superstitious pigeons. D. Superstition: is a belief that an action or situation can have an effect on something even though there is no logical relation between the two. E. In the case of unusual phenomena, the only explanation that come to mind are often supernatural or paranormal ones. This short of reasoning is fallacious an example of the appeal to ignorance. F. Infamous Uri Geller, claims to have psychokinetic ability: the ability to directly manipulate objects with his mind. Not only the hypothesis must explain the data, but also the data explained must be consistent with the hypothesis predicts.

Looking for Truth in Personal Experience

A. Evard Feilding an ameteur magician and researcher of psychic phenomena investigated Eusapia Palladino, the world famous medium but soon changed his views after an encounter. B. If the supernatural or paranormal didn't exist, weird things would still happen to us. C."Just because something seems (feels, appears) real doesn't mean that it is". D.Much greater risk for being dead wrong with 1.Our experience is uncorroborated (no one else has shared our experience 2.Our conclusion are at odds with all known previous experience 3.Any of the peculiarities of our minds could be at work

Anecdotal Evidence: Why testimonials can't be trusted

A. Its reasonable to accept personal experience as reliable evidence only if there's no reason to doubt its reliability. B. When there's reason to think that any of these limitations or condition may be present our personal experiences can prove that something is true. C. When were in situation where our subjective limitation could be operating, the experiences that are affected by those limitation not only can't even provide us proof that something is real or true, they can't even provide us with a low grade evidence. D. Anecdotal evidence based on personal testimony carries little weight in scientific investigations. When we can't establish beyond a reasonable doubt that a person was not influenced by these limitation, we aren't justified in believing that what they report is real.

Constructing UFO'S

A. Many intelligent people from different states saw lights appear. March 3, 1968 but in reality it was only the breakup of a rocket launched by the Soviet Zond. B. Autokinetic effect: this effect refers to how, for most people, a small stationary light in the dark will be perceived as moving. C. What seems real may not be real. D. Bigfoot: not enough evidence to prove that he is real but small percentage of scientist believe in his existence.

Anthropomorphic Bias

A. Not only do we have a tendency to assume that like causes like we have a tendency to assume that these things are like us- even not human things. B. Scottish philosopher David Hume recognized long ago described that we project human physical features onto non-human objects, but also the phenomena of anthropomorphism attributing human thoughts feelings and desires to non-human objects. C. Experiment conducted by psychologist Fritz Heider and Simmel in 1944 showed that subjects a film of geometric shapes- circles, squares and triangles moving around on a screen. D. Justin Barrett asserts " part of the reason people believe in God, ghost, and goblin also comes from the way in which our minds, particularly our agency detection device (ADD) functions. Our ADD suffers from some hyperactivity, making it prone to find agents around us, including supernatural ones, given fairly modest evidence of their presence. E. Is God just a face in the clouds?

Confirming Bias

A. Not only do we have a tendency to ignore and misinterpret evidence that conflicts with our own views, we also have a tendency to look for and recognize only evidence that confirms them. A number of psychological studies have established this confirmation bias. B. When evaluating a claim, look for disconfirming as well as confirming evidence. Our tendency to confirm rather than disconfirm our beliefs is reflected in many areas of our lives.

The Representativeness Heuristic

A. Our attempt to comprehend the world is guided by certain rules of thumb known as heuristics. These speed up the decision making process and allow us to deal with a massive amount of information in a short amount of time. We also gain in speed we sometimes lose in accuracy. B. Conjunction fallacy: is the probability of two events occurring together can never be greater than the probability of one of them occurring alone. C. Examples: Indians would increase flock by placing wax or clay model of the animal they wanted in caves on the side of mountains. Putting small dolls under the pillow in the hope of becoming pregnant. They will also do certain things to make sure bad behaviors did not occur to them.

Conceiving: Why you sometimes see what you believe

A. Our success as a species is due in large part to our ability to organize things into categories and to recognize patterns. B. Denying the evidence 1.Our reluctant to give up seemingly was well confirmed hypothesis was dramatically demonstrated by psychologist John C. Wright 2.Came up with a game with arranging numbers in a circle but there was no right solution. 3.The refusal to accept contrary evidence is found not only among scientist, however. Religious groups predicted the end of the world also have a remarkable ability to ignore disconfirming evidence. 4.Reluctant to change one's views in the face of contrary evidence can be found in all walks of life, from doctors who refuse to change their diagnoses to saints who refuse to give up their theories.

Looking for Clarity in Vagueness

A. Pareidolia: we simply see a vague stimulus as something it's not. 1.Grilled cheese sandwich Mary and Jesus in a tortilla, face on the moon B. Backward Masking: the belief that certain messages are placed on a recording backwards to mask their true meaning. The brain will unconsciously decipher the message and be affected by it.

Remembering: Why you can't always trust what you recall

A. Reconstruct: a memory based on this fragment, this reconstructive process is inherently inexact. B. A white man with a razor but they said that the black man had it. Memory reconstruction was tampered with expectancy or belief. C. Past life remembered or cryptomnesia?: is a professional problem for artist; it also plays an important role in past-life regression. D. Selective memory is also work in many cases of seemingly prophetic dreams. E. Research Also shows that our memory of an event can be drastically changed if we later encounter new information about the event even if the information is brief, subtle and dead wrong.

Perceiving: why you can't always believe what you see

A. Research now suggest that perception is constructive, that it's in part something that our minds manufacture B. Perceptual Constancies 1. Perceptual constancies: our tendency to have certain perceptual experiences regardless of the relevant input from outside. 2. Psychologist Terence Hines believes that they're some of the best illustration of our constructive perception at work, and he cites 3 examples: a. 1. Color constancy, we can sometimes be wrong when remembering colors. b. 2. Size consistency, your brain gives you perception of size constancy, despite shrine retinal images. c. 3. Expectation, we sometimes perceive exactly what we expect to perceive, regardless of what's real.

Against All Odds?

A. The idea that previous events can affect the probabilities in a current random event is called gambler's fallacy. And most people act as though this idea were valid. B. One problem is that most of us do not realize is that because of ordinary statistical laws, incredible coincidences are common and must occur.

Subjective Validation

A. The phenomenon of believing that a general personality description is unique to oneself, which as been though confirmed by research is known as "Forer effect" B. Astrology, biorhythms, graphology (determining personality characteristics from handwriting), fortune-telling, palmistry (palm reading) tarot card reading, psychic readings all these activities generally involve Forer effect. C. Michel de Nostradame credited to predicting both World Wars, the atomic bomb, the rise and fall of Hitler, 9/11 and more. D. Andrew Neher asks that people compare their own interpretation of the verses with those of Henry Roberts one of several authors of book on Nostradamus prophecies. E. Text topics, The world will end 2012, Crop Circles, Psychic Detectives and how they are used for cases,

False Dilemma:

An argument proposes a false dilemma when it presumes that only two alternatives exist when in actuality there are more than two.

Statistical Fallacies

Are misleading statements or arguments expressed with numbers.

Deductive

Arguments are intended to provide probable support for their conclusion. Providing conclusive support that it is valid.

Dispositional:

Because to be in them is to have a tendency to feel or do certain things under certain condition. Ex- Snakes

The Appeal to Mystical Experience

Beyond the mundane means we use to acquire knowledge lies a more direct path to the truth: mystical experience. Many people dismiss mystical experience as nothing more than delusion or hallucination. Consequently they claim, mystical experience must be considered a privileged source of knowledge.

Premises:

Claims or reasons intended to support another claim

Irrelevant Premises

Equivocation occurs when a word is sued in two different sense in an argument. Ex- There is public interest in UFO therefor newspapers should write them. Public is interested and public is interested.

Coherence and Justification

If a proposition fails to cohere with the rest of our beliefs we are not justified in believing it. Coherence alone is not enough for justification because a coherent set of proposition may not be grounded in reality.

Science and Dogma

Least one proposition that must be accepted before any scientific investigation can take place that the world is publicly understandable. The world has a determinate structure We can know that structure This knowledge is available to everyone

Misleading Averages:

Mean: average Median: middle value in a sequence of numbers Mode: most frequently repeated number. Trouble comes when people don't specify which kind of average they are using or they employ the kind that will make their weak case look strong.

Missing Values:

Much mischief can occur when people fail to distinguish between relative and absolute statistical values.

Fruitfulness

One thing that makes some hypotheses attractive even in the face of adverse is that they successfully predict new phenomena and thus open up new lines of research.

Einstein's Theory

Other things being equal, the best hypothesis is the one that has the greatest scope, that is, that explains and predicts the most diverse phenomena.

Babylonian Knowledge-Acquisition Techniques

Our first knowledge was elaborated by the Babylonians, the inventors of astrology, but that was not the preferred method of prophecy. Hepatoscopy: divination through inspection of the liver, having realize that blood is essential to life. They believed that the organ richest in blood the liver. By sacrificing the liver they would receive something about the future. In Mesopotamia, hepatoscopy was considered to be such an effective only with kings and nobles were allowed to use it. There are more than 10,000 professional astrologers in the United States. Unlike hepatoscopy and astrology focuses on the stars and planets. According to the Babylonians, each of the seven planets that influence our lives are the seat of a different God.

Hazy Comparisons

People use statistics legitimately to make comparison, but they also use them deceptively or recklessly.

Sources of Knowledge

Perception has traditionally been considered our most reliable guide to the truth. Perception is considered a source of knowledge about the external world, introspection is considered a source of knowledge about the internal world, about our mental states.

The Scientific Method

Scientist use the scientific method to acquire knowledge about the nature of reality.

(Insufficient Premises) Slippery Slope:

Sometimes people argue that performing a specific action will inexorably lead to an additional bad action (or actions) so you should not perform the first action.

Scope

The amount of diverse phenomena explained and predicted by it- it also an important measure of its adequacy: the more a hypothesis explains and predicts, the more it unifies and systematizes our knowledge and the less likely it is to be false.

Reasons and Evidence

The better the reasons, the more likely it is that the proposition they support is true. But having reasons that make a proposition only somewhat more likely than its denial is not enough to justify our claim to know it.

Appeals to Authority:

Try to support out views by citing experts, provided by an person who is an expert in the field in question.

Integrated Science

Understanding the physical world- to appreciate it more deeply or to have the power to alter it requires concepts from different branches of science. Because science helps us learn the rules of nature, it also helps us appreciate nature.

Commonsense skepticism:

Unlike philosophical skepticism, common sense skepticism does not consider everything that lacks adequate evidence suspect,

Appeal to Tradition:

We appeal to tradition when we argue that something must be true (or good) because is part of an established tradition.

(Insufficient Premises) Hasty Generalization:

When you draw a general conclusion about all things of a certain type on the basis of evidence concerning only a few things of that type.

Blinding

a practice used to ensure that subjects (and if possible, researchers) don't know which subjects are getting the experimental treatment or the placebo.

(Insufficient Premises) Faulty Analogy:

an argument from analogy a claim that things that resemble one another in certain respects resemble one another in future their respects.

Inductive:

arguments intended to provide probable support for their conclusions.

Ad boc:

"for this case only", that is can't be verified independently of the phenomenon it's supposed to explain.

Propositional Knowledge:

-A fact in the sense we are using it here is a true proposition. -Plato working on the knowledge is that while having the right opinions (true beliefs) may be a necessary condition for knowledge it is not sufficient- there must something more to having knowledge than just having true beliefs. -True belief is necessary for knowledge because we can't know something that's false, and if we know something, we can't know something that's false. -Having knowledge then would seem to require having good reasons for what you believe. -For Plato then knowledge is a true belief that is grounded in reality.

Science:

-An organized body of knowledge about nature. -Product of observations, common sense, rational thinking and sometimes brilliant. -A method, a way of exploring nature and discovering the order within it.

Premises:

-Are unacceptable if they are at least dubious as the claim they are supposed to support. -Premises are irrelevant if they have no bearing on the truth of the conclusion. -Premises are insufficient if they do not establish the conclusion beyond a reasonable cause.

Unacceptable Premises

-Arguments that begs the question or argues in a circle- when its conclusion is sued as one of its premises. -For example: Susan can reads minds!, "how do you know" "she read mine"

Expert Opinion

-Bertrand Russell was acutely aware of the difficulty many of us have in getting our beliefs to correspond to the evidence. -He proposed -That when the experts are agreed, the opposite opinion cannot be held to be certain -That when they are not agreed, no opinion can be regarded as certain by a non-expert -That when they all hold that no sufficient grounds for a positive opinion exist, the ordinary man would do well to suspend his judgements.

The Appeal to Faith

-Faith: belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence" -To believe something in faith is to believe it in spite of, or even because of the fact that we have insufficient evidence for it. -Problem: with the appeal to the faith is that it is unenlightenment it may tell us something about the person making the appeal, but it tells us nothing about the proposition in question.

The Scientific Method- A Classic Tool

-Observe: Closely observe the physical world around you. -Question: Recognize a question or a problem. -Hypothesize: Make an educated guess- a hypothesis- to answer the question. -Predict: Predict consequences that can be observed if the hypothesis is correct. The consequences should be absent if the hypothesis is not correct. -Test Predictions: Do experiments to see if the consequences you predicted are present. -Draw a Conclusion: Formulate the simplest general rule that organizes the hypothesis, predicted effects, and experimental findings.

Technology- The Practical Use of Science

-Science is concerned with gathering knowledge and organizing it. -Technology lets human use that knowledge for practical purposes, and it provides the instruments scientific need to conduct their investigations. -Technology can be helpful and harmful.

The Appeal to Intuition

-Sometimes claimed to be a source of knowledge. It needs to be constructed as a claim to possess ESP. It can instead be constructed as claim to possess what might be called HSP- hypersensory perception. -A photo diagram was used to rate if a group of individuals were gonna be successful.

Appeal to Ignorance:

-This comes in two varieties -Using an opponent's inability to disprove a conclusion as proof of the conclusion's correctness, and using an opponent's inability to prove a conclusion as proof of its incorrectness.

Facts, Theories, and Laws

-When a scientific hypothesis has been tested over and over again and has not been contradicted, it may become known as a law or principle. -Fact: generally something that competent observers can observe and agree to be true. -Theory: is a synthesis of facts and well tested hypotheses. Theories grow stronger and more precise as they evolve to include new information.

Appeal to the person:

-When someone tries to rebut an argument by criticizing or denigrating its presenter than by dealing with the argument itself, that person is guilty of the fallacy of appeal to the person. -This fallacy is referred as "ad hominem" or the man.

Composition:

-an argument may claim that what is true of the parts is also true of the whole, this is fallacy of composition. -Supernatural makes Joe happy therefor it's gonna make the nation happy.

Cogent argument:

is a good argument, which provides good reasons for accepting the conclusion.

Fallacious appeal:

it does not provide the type of evidence it purports to. Instead it attempts to deceive us about the quality of the evidence presented