11/2/11

Sometimes, because there are so many uncertainties in our world, we have to reply on

Judgement

than proof.

Good judgement relies on a balance of open-mindness and skepticism.

When relying on judgement, you might find yourself tipping one way or the other, too gullible or too guarded. To determine whether knowledge is reasonable is through evidence and coherence.

Martin Luther King; Mugshot

..for a belief to be reasonable, you need to support it with evidence. Just because you can't show evidence that something isn't true, doesn't mean it is true. Argument ad ignoration is when you believe something is true because it hasn't been proven wrong.

In TOK, it's really important to look for the positives and negatives of evidence.

It's common for people to only look for the evidence that supports their beliefs instead of the negatives and positives. This is known as confirmation bias.


Another way of determining whether knowledge is reasonable is through coherence. This means, do the beliefs fit in with todays understandings of things? Instead of believing in something straight away that is less likely to be true [aliens], make sure there is a good amount of evidence supporting it.


Beliefs matter so much because they affect how we think and how we behave. French philosopher Frances Volatire said,

"People who believe absurdities will commit atrocities"

Egyptian Revolution 2011

This quote is too true, think of the issues currently going on and issues of the past, revolving around extremists. I was watching the world news the other night, and the rivalries in Egypt came on screen. The recent resign of the Prime Minister has countries surrounding and including Egypt, that extremists will emerge during the weak transition from one leader [Ahmed Nazif] to another [military]. Diplomats worldwide 
recognised that during the transition of power, religion extremists might take advantage of the weak control. This is similar to the Iranian Revolution in 1979. The Shah was in exile of his own country and during the two weeks of no power in control, Ayatollah Khomeini, a religious leader took over. This just shows how true Voltaire's quote is, that your beliefs influence your actions.

Iranian Revolution 1979