The Problem: Seeing Confirmed Instances Everywhere - Deepstash
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The Problem: Seeing Confirmed Instances Everywhere

This last sentence should ring some alarm bells for many readers — it’s a very simple description of confirmation bias. Basically, when we gain a perspective or theory, we tend to interpret everything as confirming that idea. Whatever seems to contradict it is tossed aside or somehow contorted to fit our beliefs.

Popper saw this problem inherent in many theories — both in the physical and social sciences, and in other realms as well. After all, if we find evidence that seems to contradict our beliefs, we should be stopping to see if perhaps we need to abandon or modify our belief.

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KARL POPPER

Whenever a theory appears to you as the only possible one, take this as a sign that you have neither understood the theory nor the problem which it was intended to solve.

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The more we learn about the world, and the deeper our learning, the more conscious, specific, and articulate will be our knowledge of what we do not know; our knowledge of our ignorance. For this indeed, is the main source of our ignorance - the fact that our k...

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KARL POPPER

”Once your eyes were thus opened you saw confirmed instances everywhere: the world was full of verifications of the theory. Whatever happened always confirmed it.”

KARL POPPER

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Do Right By The Right Side

That left side could be anything. It could be something personal and low-stakes, like “I should buy the new iPhone model” or something more substantial, like “global warming is the result of human industrial waste interacting with the atmosphere”.

The right side i...

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How You Can Adopt A Falsification Mindset

Adopting the falsification mindset is simple. Like any exercise in thinking, it helps if you write it out, but that’s not totally necessary.

  • For any belief you have, ask what it would take for you to change your mind
  • Be specific about what evidence woul...

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Why Doesn’t Falsification Come Naturally To Us?

Our minds tend to run headlong toward safety and comfort. This is true with regards to physical safety and comfort —but it’s also true of intellectual safety and certainty. If we feel like we know something for sure — like we have a firm grasp of it — we want to hold on to that f...

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The Cure: Falsificationism

As a way to cure this ill of self-confirming theories and belief systems, Popper came up with what is now called falsificationism: the idea that a theory or belief system can only be scientific if it clearly lays out what specific evidence would prove it wrong. ...

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KARL POPPER

The aim of argument, or of discussion, should nor be victory, but progress.

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KARL POPPER

A rationalist is simply someone for whom it is more important to learn than to be proved right; someone who is willing to learn from others - not by simply taking over another’s opinions, but by gladly allowing others to criticize his ideas and by gladly c...

KARL POPPER

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KARL POPPER

The discovery of instances which confirm a theory means very little if we have not tried, and failed, to discover refutations. For if we are uncritical we shall always find what we want: we shall look for, and find, confirmation, and we shall look away fro...

KARL POPPER

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Be Your Own Challenger

Adopting the falsification mindset can be a game changer for an important life decision. But it also works for smaller beliefs and judgments.

Just ask yourself how you could be proven wrong — about any old belief you have. Are you researching a big purchase? If so, what dis...

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KARL POPPER

“A theory that explains everything, explains nothing.”

KARL POPPER

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Why Is Falsification Important?

Adopting an attitude of falsifiability does a few key things:

  • it helps us to avoid many cognitive biases that can hinder intellectual growth and good decision making
  • it makes us clearer thinkers by forcing us to be specific about what we think ...

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A Simple First Step To Making Ourselves Falsifiable

The falsifiability mindset is all about thinking through the implications of beliefs, judgments, and decisions. It’s about curbing our craving for certainty. Adopting this mindset is as easy as picking up a simple practice.

For the decision that you’re making, take ...

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“Theories Of Everything”, Valid For Forever

In the middle of the 20th century, philosopher and professor Karl Popper found himself mystified by the beliefs and methods of the otherwise intelligent and rational people around him.

“I found that those of my friends who were admirers of Marx, Freud, and Adler were impres...

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CURATED FROM

CURATED BY

xarikleia

“An idea is something that won’t work unless you do.” - Thomas A. Edison

“In so far as a (scientific) statement speaks about reality, it must be falsifiable; and in so far as it is not falsifiable, it does not speak about reality.”

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Our limiting beliefs sit in our subconscious mind and thus stunt us from seeing—or believing in—possibility. And because of our mind’s confirmation bias (the tendency to interpret new evidence as confirmation of one's existing beliefs or theories), we are prone to believe what we...

How Confirmation Bias Influences Our Communication

  • When we confront new information, we interpret it to support our existing beliefs. Any thought or discussion that confirms our prejudice and thought patterns seems appealing to us and is known as confirmation bias.
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The Four Villains of Decision Making

  • Narrow framing: The tendency to define our choices in binary terms. We ask, "should I, or shouldn't I?" instead of “What are the ways I could...?”
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