I’m currently reading Belief: What It Means to Believe and Why Our Convictions Are So Compelling by James E. Alcock and I noted with interest that some key chapters address knowledge practices and/or issues and factors relevant to them: Chapter 2 notes the ways cognitive ‘schemas’ often automatically fill in the gaps when responding to … [Read more…]
Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me) – subtitled Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts – is a social psychology book centred on self-justification and cognitive dissonance. The book also implicitly emphasises a particular philosophy of science which is linked to human psychology – it’s this aspect which got my attention. … [Read more…]
This post began as a research “memo” (written to myself as an entry in a reflective PhD journal) entitled “on psychological plausibility”. I was prompted to write it by a couple of pieces written by David Roberts on current debates about 100% renewable electricity and the feasibility of such goals (see link, link) and other … [Read more…]