"Chartism: ...Policymakers fall somewhere on the spectrum of pro-chart and anti-chart. Pro-chartists think that data can explain the world, and the more we have the better. But anti-chartists think that relentless data accumulation is misguided because it offers false certainty and misses the big picture interpretation. As the saying goes: "More fiction is written in … Continue reading Chartism & Skepticism
Tag: epistemology
The Illusion of Certainty
"Scientists sometimes resist new ideas and hang on to old ones longer than they should, but the real problem is the failure of the public to understand that the possibility of correction or disproof is a strength and not a weakness......Most people are not comfortable with the notion that knowledge can be authoritative, can call … Continue reading The Illusion of Certainty
One Question, Forty Answers
People want to believe in something, even if it is false. No one knows enough to be completely right (or wrong) about anything. But, how do we judge? If we think of truth as a continuum, where answers are more right and less right, or more wrong or less wrong, compared to other answers. Then, … Continue reading One Question, Forty Answers
Introduction to Immanuel Kant
"The basic value in Kant’s ethics is that of human dignity – the rational nature in persons as end in itself. A person is a being for whose sake we should act, and that has an unconditional claim on us. This is the source of what Kant calls a categorical imperative: a ground for action … Continue reading Introduction to Immanuel Kant
Echo Chamber Test
"[D]oes a community’s belief system actively undermine the trustworthiness of any outsiders who don’t subscribe to its central dogmas? Then it’s probably an echo chamber... ...An echo chamber doesn’t destroy their members’ interest in the truth; it merely manipulates whom they trust and changes whom they accept as trustworthy sources and institutions. And, in many … Continue reading Echo Chamber Test
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