Observations on the world and its inhabitants
Some will be going ‘That has to be the stupidest question yet on your blog!‘ – as if I would give a flying flamingo. The question came up in passing, on a forum somewhere when someone referred to water being wet as a way to say ‘naturally so and so is the case’ on some ...
In September 1990, Marilyn vos Savant, known for her “Ask Marilyn” column in Parade magazine and her record-high IQ, received an intriguing question from reader Craig F. Whitaker about the now-famous Monty Hall problem. The problem The question was something like: Suppose you’re on a game show, and you’re given the choice of three doors: ...
The fallacy of misplaced concreteness, also known as reification, is a logical fallacy where an abstract concept is treated as if it were a concrete, tangible object. This error involves attributing a physical reality or concrete qualities to something that is abstract. Alfred North Whitehead introduced the term to critique the way certain abstract scientific ...
The question “If a tree fell in a forest but no one saw or heard it fall, did it fall?” is a philosophical thought experiment that explores the nature of reality and our perception of it. I approach this problem from the angle of logic and reasoning: Based on these logical arguments, some would argue ...
This bias is quite common. Have you ever been in a conversation where you make a thoughtful point, only to have the other person latch onto a single word or phrase and totally miss your intended meaning? This common phenomenon is known as focalism bias, and it can lead to frustrating misunderstandings and derailed discussions. ...
Thought disorder is not a diagnosis nor do I allude to a mental condition in Bloggs below. In psychiatry when thought disorder is observed, it may point to any of a dozen underlying mental disorders. But note carefully that the environment of observation would be clinical and not extend into the wider world. However, many ...
In the following weeks I’ll be doing an exploration of several logical fallacies and errors of thinking. I’m returning to this area because it is a difficult one to recall a taxonomy of categorised fallacies and errors. There are some 300-plus logical fallacies on record. Most people cannot name one. What’s the importance of this? ...
I’ve touched on ‘justification‘ in several posts over the years. A recent event last week, made me think even more about it. As always I try to define or refine what I mean by words like justify or justification. Google addicts may now pause to check what the words mean. What is the concept? To ...
The pandemic period has assaulted me with stupidity – left, right, centre, top and down. It has been a very painful period. Some will say, “Well, you didn’t have to take in all that stupidity. You could have just looked elsewhere.” Before I get into that get into the interview with Piers Corbyn’s below. If ...
This is scene killer for Star Trek Enterprise Season 2, Episode 14. You have been warned. Summary There are two main themes running through the film. First theme T’pol – the Vulcan science officer on Enterprise is discovered to be suffering from a slow-burn dementia that eventually turns to madness, as the result of a ...
Captain Walker
