A few minutes of key ideas!
The research & wisdom reminders.
These are the six key ideas that guided the high-level topics of this week’s column.
This week:
Personal Belief.
Personal belief is layered with public truth, tribe, and worldview.
1.
Pragmatism
3 Types: Empirical, Rational, & Irrational
New Look
Avoid irrational pragmatists; they dismiss good evidence when it gets in the way.
2.
“Our statements about the external world face the tribunal of sense experience not individually, but only as a corporate body.”
- W. V. O. Quine
Never defend a belief blindly; examine the larger web around it and decide what fits your authentic self.
3.
Why do scientific models work if they aren’t literally true?
Scientific models are powerful because they organize important patterns, relationships, and variables in the world. They help us predict, explain, and navigate reality, even when they simplify it. Think well by using models with confidence, but also with humility. They are maps that improve over time, not final pictures of the territory.
4.
Is agnosticism a ludicrous position to occupy?
Agnosticism is not confusion. It is a way of managing belief under uncertainty. No one believes everything and an agnostic view is the best place to evaluate it. So don't hurry to take a position on anything.
5.
Do my people and culture help or harm my critical thinking?
Your people and culture give you a big leg up, a great starting place, but it is not a final place to stand still.
6.
Did Berger and Luckmann really say reality is just made up?
You inherit your culture, understand it, but you are not bound to it. You get to choose to live within it, or choose beyond it.
That’s it. The end.