Why Should We Choose Our Language Carefully?
Language is a tool for imparting ideas and desires to one another. A living language like English has so many twists and turns in with many words not only being polysemous but also being used in a metaphorically descriptive way rather than relating to any normative use. If you were to tell me the traffic was crazy today, I wouldn’t think for a moment you had been giving it a psychological evaluation. Even if you told me your child was......
In Response to Daniel Goldman on Belief
Introduction Recently I encountered Daniel Goldman a couple of times on Twitter. The first time was during a discussion about the use of the words atheism, theism, agnosticism, etc. The conversation was pleasant enough, especially when we consider how many of those kinds of discussions go! The second encounter was a discussion about belief, and how it is defined. Daniel disputed the definition of belief that I presented, and a discussion about said topic ensued. There was a lot of......
To Be or Not To Be (Rational)!? – SciPhi
The Rationality Thesis We take a look at the rationality thesis and delve into the rationality debate asking; are humans rational creatures that make performance errors or irrational creatures that sometimes demonstrate rationality? Dave talks about slides in this stream which you can find here: To Be or Not Be Rational – The Video This Podcast was from our Live Video Stream. If you prefer to watch than listen, check out the below: 00:00 – Intro 06:05 – Start of......
Are You Sure About That? – SciPhi
Testified! Today we will be looking at testimony, and whether or not it is worth anything. Are our memories to be trusted, or do they contain lots of false information? Can people create fake memories just by using words? How good are people at remembering other’s faces? We will also be coving off a pet peeve of Bearded Heretic, and that is people getting the Null Hypothesis Wrong Short Version of Tonight’s Topics: False memory Leading questions Facial......
Is Mental Illness Real? – SciPhi
Is Mental Illness Real? We are joined by Bearded Heretic to discuss mental illness. Our conversation will include, but is not limited to: What is mental illness? The medical model of mental health Neurosis vs. Psychosis Everyday behaviour and mental illness Other models of mental illness Is Mental Illnes Real? – The Video This SciPhi podcast was originally a live Youtube Stream. If you prefer to watch rather than listen, you can find it here:...
Psychology of Rejection – SciPhi: 028
The Psychology of Rejection Humans are a tribal species. It’s in our DNA. We worked together in groups to survive as part of our evolution. We have been guilty of ‘with us or against us’ attitudes for a long time. but how does this affect our beliefs? The outline for tonight’s show can be found in this article: Tribalism and the Psychology of Rejection. This article will be read, but there is also an article I did a few years......
Tribalism and the Psychology of Rejection.
I’ve spoken about our tribal nature before, often about specific groups like antivaxxers, flat earthers, fundamentalists, fanboys etc but I have also turned that inwards to take a look at atheists and what the ‘new atheist’ movement has become. Let’s first briefly go over the basics so we are sure we are on the same page, and then move forward. Our Tribal Nature Humans are a tribal species. It’s in our DNA. We worked together in groups to survive as......
I Don’t Believe – Conflated and Misunderstood Terms – Volume 5
When people say “I don’t believe” it is unclear what they are saying. When many folks say this, they are discussing a psychological state rather than disbelief in a normative logical sense. But what does that mean? Logic and Belief Propositions By belief proposition, I am essentially saying believing a proposition to be true, or an attitude towards a particular proposition. A belief is something you accept to be true. In logic you essentially have: P1 – a proposition you......
Free Will: A Compatibilist’s View
Introduction Free will, do we have it? If we were to ask this question to average believer in God, chances are we would come away with a unanimous, or near unanimous, yes. However, amongst others the answers are more divided. There are those that declare that we do not make our own conscious choices, that free will is an illusion, and other similar answers. There is also the idea of ‘compatibilism’, which argues that we exist in a state of......
