Our World Through Reason, Skepticism, And Critical Thinking.
The quote from Popeye is, “That’s all I can stands, cuz I can’t stands n’more!”
I open with this as it best expresses my general frustration. I keep waiting for voices of reason to emerge large in the public sphere and quiet the absurd rhetoric that has become the mainstay of national discourse. Whether it is politics, environment, economics, diet and health, or any number of other areas of public thought and action; the preeminence of poorly reasoned, emotion driven information is poisoning the minds of the citizenry and driving us toward a frightful future. I find it necessary to weigh into the fray and add my voice in hopes of turning the tide. I can’t stands it n’more!
I was born at an early age, and knew very little of the world at my beginning. It might be said that I made few decisions for myself for quite some time after I was born. Thus, I had to rely on the direction I got from my parents and older siblings to make my way in the world. Notwithstanding my slight jest, this mirrors everyone else in their early years. We all were incapable of self-sufficiency at any level as infants. We could only cry to indicate a need, and even that left our caretakers guessing as to what that need was.
As we grew we began to discover the world with our own senses, and use our innate reasoning skills to figure things out, all the while we were fed a steady diet of “how to” from those above us. So much of what we learned was from outside instruction that we accepted much of it uncritically. It is no wonder that we passed through our childhood and adolescence and into adulthood trusting the information that some sources gave us. We always did have reason, and we often used it. But just as when we were young, we often relied on our trusted sources without examination. How often did we question direction as children only to hear some version of “because I said so.” Our critical skills and natural skepticism were squelched early by well meaning people who were focused on the outcome at the moment. We came to accept some things as true for no reason besides someone telling us so. I cannot recall how often I heard during my years in the navy some young sailor begin a declaration, “My daddy said,” as if it went without question that his father was the absolute authority on whatever subject was at hand. We have our heads full of knowledge that we believe to be true even though it has never been validated. We can all bring forth untold numbers of things we believe we know, but many of those things, maybe even most, we can’t say how we know or where we learned them. Sometimes daddy was mistaken. And more importantly, he didn’t know how he got there. More than likely it was from a previous claim by someone he trusted.
So how do we know if those things are true? The short answer is that we don’t, at least not without investigation. And while many don’t affect our lives in a tangible way, many do. Many of these kernels of knowledge we possess have guided our lives and still lead us in our choices. Because some, or much, of the knowledge is faulty we make choices that are detrimental to our future, both individually and collectively. We must know that the steps we take are based on sound reasoning. The more we reason our way through life, the more likely we are to make good choices. The reverse is likewise true. Further, the less reasoning we do, the less able we are to discern truth. This leads us to stop figuring things out, and to look for sources we trust. Those sources are almost always found in confirmation bias. The people and places we trust are the ones who say what we already think is true. Unchecked by skepticism and reason, these lead us to seeking the source rather than the information. It stops mattering what they say, and only matters who is saying it. In viewing this from the outside it doesn’t take much to see that this can lead to manipulation of those who flock to sources they are familiar with without critically examining what they say.
Let me state this frankly: If you haven’t examined critically some belief you have, you should not count on it being true.
There are three categories of knowledge in this sense: what we know which is likely to be true, what we know which is likely to be false, and what we don’t know.
Of those three, a wise person puts most everything into the third category and there it stays until it has been critically examined. Once it is moved to one of the other two categories it is left with a tiny flag that says: re-examine upon receipt of new information.
It is a folly of youth to feel certain in one’s knowledge. As if to not know marks stupidity and immaturity. In reality it is the admission of ignorance that allows us to learn. And leaving open the door to being wrong allows us to adapt and re-examine new information.
The intelligent person knows to ask questions; but the wise person knows to question answers.
We rarely can put our finger on when or where it was that we learned much of what fills our head as decided knowledge. Perhaps it was at school. Maybe we read it in the paper or saw it on the television. Often it was told us from a trusted source such as family or friend. Much of what we have learned came in the form of ancillary information. We picked it up while learning about something else. Perhaps we learned what a paddock is when we read some children’s book about horses. That book might be accurate about horses, but if we learned about the jungles of Africa from reading Tarzan books we should avoid intelligent conversations on the subject. The wealth of information we hold that came from such obscure and unidentifiable sources is staggering.
And while skeptically questioning each new thing that comes to our view is impractical, it is imperative that we do so with information that will guide our choices and inform our decisions. Every time you see, read, or hear something you must understand that the source has a point of view. The better we are at recognizing this the better we are at discerning when that source strays from provable fact into assertion and opinion.
The following writings will approach information from that perspective.