PHIL 2003 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Cognitive Dissonance, Milgram Experiment, Wishful Thinking
11 Sep 2016
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Document Summary
Anything that has a tendency to interfere with or undermine the process of evaluating our beliefs objectively. People are sometimes completely unaware that they lack information (we don"t know what we don"t know) Reliable belief formation sometimes needs us to let go of our old beliefs once new evidence is given. Cognitive dissonance: refers to the discomfort people experience when uncertainty is introduced into their belief system and therefore don"t know what to believe. Willingness to change beliefs still have to be balanced, you don"t want to believe any new thing that you hear (belief formation becomes chaotic) Is a cognitive defect or weakness: allowing your own interests or situation to interfere with reliable belief formation based on objective evidence (everyone su ers from this limitation to some extent) Wishful thinking: believing that something is true because you want it to be. Saving face: believing or disbelieving something just to protect yourself from criticism.
