SSH 105 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Confirmation Bias

• School: Ryerson University
• Department: Social Sciences and Humanities
• Course: SSH 105
• Professor: Thomas Hart

Document Summary

If we care whether our beliefs are true or reliable, then we should care about the reasons. When two claims conflict, they simply cannot both be true. Justified claims that we would regard as common sense or common knowledge. The more background info the claim conflicts with, the more reason we have to doubt it. But, it is always possible that a conflicting claim is true and some of our background info is unfounded. I(cid:374) fa(cid:272)t, it ofte(cid:374) is(cid:374)(cid:859)t (cid:272)o(cid:373)(cid:373)o(cid:374) at all! We should proportion our belief to the evidence. Our degree of belief should vary according to the evidence. The more evidence a claim has in it favour, the stronger our belief in it should be. It(cid:859)s not reasonable to believe a claim when there is no good reason for doing so. Learn to suspend judgement until you have sufficient evidence one way or the other.