What’s Between Us and Reality

We often talk as though we are in direct contact with reality - as though our eyes show us the world, and our minds read off the facts. But between whatever reality fundamentally is and the experience you're having right now, there are a surprising number of layers. At each layer, two types of error happen: information gets left out, and bias creeps in. By the time experience reaches you, there's the potential for a great deal of both to have accumulated.  Put another way, rather than p...
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When Fallacies Aren’t Fallacies

Something rarely discussed that's important to recognize about "logical fallacies": in real-world situations, most of them are only SOMETIMES fallacies. Here are a bunch of examples: (1) Appeal to authority: some authorities ARE reliable. For example, ask a physicist about a well-established idea in physics, and you'll likely get the right answer. (2) Bandwagon effect: lots of people believing something often is evidence for it being true. For example, lots of people saying they heard ...
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