Philosophy Study Questions

PHI 101C HW6 10/18/2012 Qiansongzi Chen 1. How might the constructive nature of your perceptions play a role in what you nonplus while youre walking at night through a graveyard said to be visited by spirits of the dead? Constructive perception is in begin something that our minds manufacture. Thus what we perceive is determined, non only by what our eyes and ears and other senses detect, only also by what we know, what we expect, what we believe, and what our physiological state is.Just because something seems or feels real doesnt humble that it is real. 2. What are some of the factors that could influence the accuracy of your memory of an event that happened three years ago? Our memories are also constructive and easily influenced by all sorts of factors stress, expectation, belief, and the introduction of new information. Added to all this is the selectivity of memory. We selectively remember certain things and drop others, fit outting up a recall bias. No wonder the recal l of eyewitness is a lot unreliable. 3.Lets say that an flimsy coincidence occurs in your life, and your friend argues that the odds against the occurrences are so astronomical that the only explanation must be a paranormal wiz. What is wrong with this argument? Just because something seems not so realistic, doesnt mean it discharge only be explained by paranormal reasons. Its an example of the appeal to ignorance. Just because you cant show that the preter vivid or paranormal explanation is false doesnt mean that it is true. Unfortunately, although this argumentation is logically fallacious, it is psychologically compelling. 4.How is it possible for the prophecies of Nostradamus to appear to be highly accurate and yet not be? Prophecies of Nostradamus can be highly accurate when they predict very general and broad things, when they predict a specific thing, it usually fails to be accurate. Also, pile tent to only notice the things prophecies predict and turn break to be tr ue, and ignore the things turn out to be false. 5. What is the principle that explains how much trust we should put in personal figure as reliable differentiate? Its reasonable to accept personal experience as reliable evidence only if theres no reason to doubt its reliability.Personal experience alone generally cannot turn over the effectiveness of a discussion beyond a reasonable doubt. 6. What is proof bias? How does it affect our thinking? Not only do we have a tendency to ignore and misinterpret evidence that conflicts with our own views we also have tendency to look for and recognize only evidence that confirms them. We tend to look for confirming rather than disconfirming evidence, even though the latter can oft be far more revealing. 7. What is the availability error? How does it affect our thinking?The availability error occurs when people base their judgments on evidence thats vivid or memorable instead of reliable or trustworthy. 8. How do confirmation bias and the availability error lead to superstitious beliefs? The availability error not only leads us to ignore the relevant evidence, it also leads us to ignore relevant hypotheses. For any set of data, it is, in principle, possible to construct any number of different hypotheses to account for the data. In practice, however, it is often gruelling to mystify up with many different hypotheses.As a result, we often end up choosing among only those hypotheses that come to mind, that are available. In the case of unusual phenomena, the only explanations that come to mind are often supernatural or paranormal ones. Many people take the inability to come up with a natural or normal explanation for something as proof that it is supernatural or paranormal. How else can you explain it? they often ask. 9. What is the argument from unnecessary restrictions? How can it be used to undercut supernatural or paranormal claims?unneeded restriction also called unwarranted design, because the phenomena obser ved are more limited or restricted than one would expect if the hypothesis were true. To be acceptable, a hypothesis must fit the data this means not only that the hypothesis must explain tha data, but also that the data explained must be agreeable with what the hypothesis predicts. If the hypothesis makes predictions that are not borne out by the data, there is reason to doubt the hypothesis. 10. What is the representativeness heuristic program? How does it affect our thinking?We sometimes led astray by the representative heuristic, the rule of thumb that comparable goes with like. And we are generally poor judges of probabilities and randomness, which leads us to erroneously believe that an event could not maybe be a mere coincidence. 11. Why cant personal experience alone establish the effectiveness of a treatment? Case studies alone generally cannot establish the effectiveness of a treatment beyond a reasonable doubt. The reality is that personal experience alone generally c annot establish the effectiveness of a treatment beyond a reasonable doubt, but controlled scientific studies. 2. What is the placebo effect? A crotchety fact about people is that sometimes even if they are given a treatment thats inactive or bogus, theyll respond with an improvement in the way they feel. This response , called the placebo effect, is not all in the mind, it can involve both psychological and physiological changes. What exactly is behind this effect isnt clear, but many experts say it depends on suggestibility, operant conditioning (previous experience with healing act), expectation, and other factors.