100% tevredenheidsgarantie Direct beschikbaar na je betaling Lees online óf als PDF Geen vaste maandelijkse kosten
logo-home
Eerder door jou gezocht
Eerder door jou gezocht
logo
Summary Philosophy of Science (Part II of the course) €7,49
In winkelwagen
Snel navigeren naar
Voorbeeld
  2.  
  3. Tilburg University (UVT)
  4.  
  5. Philosophy of Science (425034B6)

Samenvatting

Summary Philosophy of Science (Part II of the course)
 0 keer verkocht

Detailed notes for the second part of the course Philosophy of Science. It contains the most important information from the last 6 lectures of the course. Given these notes and the notes from the first part, which are uploaded in a separate document, I got a 10 on the final exam.

Voorbeeld 4 van de 33  pagina's

Document informatie

  • 23 februari 2024
  • 33
  • 2023/2024
  • Samenvatting

Onderwerpen

Geschreven voor

Alle documenten voor dit vak (7)

Verkoper

avatar-seller
anniedeshkova

Ontvangen beoordelingen

Voorbeeld van de inhoud

LECTURE 1
Predictably irrational
1. What is critical thinking?
 critical thinking is:
1) rational – assessing the reliability of our beliefs by reflecting on how these
beliefs were formed
- not intuitive
- not emotionally tainted
- it is logical
2) autonomous – not relying on tradition or authority
 goal of critical thinking: come to reliable beliefs and distinguish reliable from
unreliable beliefs
- this has to be learned (does not come spontaneously)
* learn how our minds work and what leads to irrational thinking
- no one is immune to irrationality
ex. author Conan Doyle – argued for the existed of a “spirited reality” (only
accessible to children, who have not lost their innocence) because young girls
were pretending to be playing with fairies and he believed their story
- spontaneous/ intuitive thinking leads to uncritical thinking and irrational
beliefs
 critical thinking is not:
1) negative thinking – does not try to undermine any belief/ claim
2) skeptical thinking – does not assume that we cannot know anything and
therefore suspend the belief in any claim
3) intelligent thinking – intelligent people can come up with irrational
misguided beliefs
4) well-informed thinking – being well-informed is a necessary condition for
critical thinking, but it is not sufficient
1.1 usefulness of critical thinking
 we take decisions based on information daily -> we have never been so
dependent on information as we are in this day and age
 there is no shortage of misinformation, either
 nonsense breeds more nonsense -> due to a coherent worldview
- our beliefs link up with one another
ex. belief in the predictive value of horoscopes could lead to belief in the
existence of mediums/ energy healing
1.2 why nonsense is hard to detect

, if we look at irrational beliefs of another culture/ from another historical era, we
might find it baffling how those people hold such strange beliefs
- it becomes more difficult to detect irrational beliefs in one’s own cultural
context/ day and time (the beliefs are a part of a coherent worldview)
* beliefs only seem irrational/ strange from the outside
ex. belief in the existence of witches (Mary Tuft was believed to have given
birth to rabbits and not human children)
ex. alchemy – recipes to make gold
ex. recipes to make living organisms (scorpions could be made if crushed basil
leaves between stones were left in the sun)
 our intuition and commonsense do not guard us against illusions: they are often
the source of reasoning errors -> reasoning errors
 three rules of thumb to think critically:
1. demand external (not psychological) support for beliefs
- extraordinary beliefs require extraordinarily compelling evidence
- a claim that simply sounds plausible is not justified/ reliable
- external support = facts
- it is for when beliefs confront other beliefs for which there is support
ex. cryptozoology – a belief in a singular weird kind of creature – goes against
scientific beliefs for which there is a lot of support
2. Occam’s razor: the most economical/ parsimonious explanation is the most
likely explanation
ex. crop circles explanations
- at first it was thought that aliens were responsible (conspiracy theory) -> it
requires multiple other questions to be answered (i.e. how did the aliens manage
to do that without being observed?/ why do they only leave these circles and do
not try to communicate otherwise?), and therefore the overall explanation loses
its credibility
- better explanations: the circles are made by Americans who like to spread
hoax
3. we should be aware of a number of cognitive pitfalls/ illusions
- they are systematic – everyone sees the lower bar as longer
permanent – even if you know that the lines are equal, one always
appears longer (knowledge does not change the visual
impression)
universal – all humans are susceptible to the illusions
ex. Muller-Lyer perceptual illusion

,2. Riddles to portray cognitive illusions
2.1 two can never be greater than one




correct answer: 1
most people would answer 2 due to the description
 logically, two can never > one -> having a combination of two characteristics is
less probable
2.2 base-rate fallacy



correct answer: B
 there are many more salesmen in the world than librarians -> it is more
probable for someone to be a salesman despite the description
 base-rate – prior probability in the population




the actual probability is 2%
- base-rate = 1/10 000
- false positive = 50 times larger than true positive
most people would say around 99%
2.3 statistical thinking

, correct answer: 23 people
most people would think 365 divided by 2
2.4 exponential thinking




correct answer: 42 folds
most people would say millions
 our brains are not equipped to think about exponential growth – only about
linear growth
- we underestimate how fast exponents grow
2.5 availability bias




correct answer 1: dislodged plane parts
- 30x > sharks
- sharks are more often portrayed in media
correct answer 2: third letter R
correct answer 3: 10%
 availability bias – we misestimate the likelihood of something happening
because it is very easy for us to recall/ imagine some events
 availability bias at work -> playing the lottery
- real chance of winning: 1 in 7-8 million
- obtaining a random security number and asking strangers if that is their
number: the chance of this happening is much greater than winning the lottery
2.6 anchoring




 study with psychology students using that riddle:

Dit zijn jouw voordelen als je samenvattingen koopt bij Stuvia:

Bewezen kwaliteit door reviews

Bewezen kwaliteit door reviews

Studenten hebben al meer dan 850.000 samenvattingen beoordeeld. Zo weet jij zeker dat je de beste keuze maakt!

In een paar klikken geregeld

In een paar klikken geregeld

Geen gedoe — betaal gewoon eenmalig met iDeal, creditcard of je Stuvia-tegoed en je bent klaar. Geen abonnement nodig.

Direct to-the-point

Direct to-the-point

Studenten maken samenvattingen voor studenten. Dat betekent: actuele inhoud waar jij écht wat aan hebt. Geen overbodige details!

Veelgestelde vragen

Wat krijg ik als ik dit document koop?

Je krijgt een PDF, die direct beschikbaar is na je aankoop. Het gekochte document is altijd, overal en oneindig toegankelijk via je profiel.

Tevredenheidsgarantie: hoe werkt dat?

Onze tevredenheidsgarantie zorgt ervoor dat je altijd een studiedocument vindt dat goed bij je past. Je vult een formulier in en onze klantenservice regelt de rest.

Van wie koop ik deze samenvatting?

Stuvia is een marktplaats, je koop dit document dus niet van ons, maar van verkoper anniedeshkova. Stuvia faciliteert de betaling aan de verkoper.

Zit ik meteen vast aan een abonnement?

Nee, je koopt alleen deze samenvatting voor €7,49. Je zit daarna nergens aan vast.

Is Stuvia te vertrouwen?

4,6 sterren op Google & Trustpilot (+1000 reviews)

Afgelopen 30 dagen zijn er 68175 samenvattingen verkocht

Opgericht in 2010, al 15 jaar dé plek om samenvattingen te kopen

Begin nu gratis
€7,49
  • (0)
In winkelwagen
Toegevoegd