Justification: evidence

Justification: evidence

1. = consists of observable objects or observational statements + justify knowledge and support arguments

   • Distorting evidence
     • Learn to recognise common mistakes + to think more clearly for yourself
       • Motivated reasoning
         • Video
           • “Trying to get an accurate picture of reality, even when that’s unpleasant or inconvenient.”
           • ‘soldier mindset’ = adrenaline elevated+ actions are stemming from reflexes to protect yourself + defeat the enemy. ‘scout mindset’ = his job is to understand + wants to know what is really there.
             • metaphor of how we process information & ideas
           • Being curious/ open/ grounded
         • thinking + arguing --> find justifications for the conclusions you desire most + with emotional resistance to anything that would prove you wrong.
       • Appeals to emotion
         • encourage conclusions--> based on evidence = logical fallacy
           • oversimplification or black and white thinking
       • Cherry picking evidence
         • Picking cherries = selecting the ones you want out of all that you could possibly take
           • is a tactic of ignoring whatever counters your own interpretation + choosing only what supports it.
       • Mistaking correlation for cause
         • Our brains recognise patterns --> quickly + intuitively
           • ‘data mining’ = confirming evidence
             • Even if you do establish a statistical relationship between variables --> not mean that one of them caused the other.
       • Lies and deliberate deception
         • digital fakery = so convincing --> threatens to erode trust in genuine evidence
           • ex: ‘deepfake’ videos
           • = seeing is no longer believing
           • methods of detecting them compete in a perpetual arms race
             • tools you need --> awareness and critical skills
       • Anecdotal evidence
         • not reliable
         • tendency to trust individual experiences

2. through reasoning + interpretations + arguments + explanations