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BQ1 and its KEY THINKERS: What is knowledge and why does it require…
BQ1 and its KEY THINKERS: What is knowledge and why does it require scrutiny?
Senses
David Eagleman
Our brains are not directly connected to the outside world. Instead, they interpret electrochemical signals from our senses, identifying patterns to form a subjective narrative. What we perceive is only an internal model of events rather than an objective reality.
René Descartes
Senses do not always tell the truth, so we must not trust them entirely when making decisions. This deceptive nature means that we cannot take in knowledge provided by our senses without some level of skepticism. Descartes highlights the importance of doubt and careful evaluation.
Beau Lotto
Information comes from patterns of the past, so it is pointless without context. What we sense is only based off what we sensed in the past. Proven by optical illusions, the patterns of the past do not always match the present. Thus, our senses are not always reliable.
Brain vs Heart
Antonio Damasio
Emotions are chemical responses. Feelings are how we interpret them. Emotions are an automated, non-conscious response to conscious rational thought, using what is beneficial to us. However, what is beneficial to us evolutionary is not always what benefits us the most in the modern day, leading to a need to not always act on your feelings.
They both discuss the science involved, in how our brains and emotions change perception
Johnny Thompson
Your emotions are not solely a video of what happened in the past; they also contain the emotions that you had at the time. This is important in highlighting that knowledge is not just what you know, but also what you feel.
Relation to information and the past
Memory
Barbara Kingsolver
They both state that memory is an altered version of truth, but it is still relied on to develop an understanding of the world. Like our senses, these altered versions of reality may deceive us; therefore, we must review and analyze what we think we remember and develop an understanding of our objective world through our subjective fragments of remembrance.
Aspects of human perception being untruthful
Paul Aster
Elizabeth Loftus
We are constantly reconstructing our narratives and views of the world; our memory can never be permanent. This shows how objective events can be turned into subjective interpretations through our memory and how it distorts our recollection. We must not overly depend on our memory for remembering anything and focus on analyzing it to try to maintain this objective view of the world.
Julia SHAW
Charan Ranganath
Due to the way our brains absorb knowledge, our version of events will not be an exact replica of what really happened. Our inferences, assumptions, and imagination distort our memories. Only a small portion of our experiences will actually be recollected. Knowing this, it is important to be wary of our interpretation of events and be open to understanding knowledge from the recollections of others.
Healthy Skepticism
George Gordon Byron
Reasoning is an essential part of acquiring knowledge because with it, we are one step closer to exiting our echo chambers.
Warren Burger
Asking unprovable questions under the premise of “Just Asking Questions” hinders us from actually learning about a certain knowledge claim. This form of toxic denialism not only discourages scrutiny, but limits our viewpoints whilst trying to learn.
A Reluctance to Change
Hannah Critchlow
It is easier to confirm our own beliefs than deny them as it is more cognitively costly to analyze different perspectives. This high cognitive demand might discourage someone from being open-minded and hearing multiple perspectives; rather convince them to adhere to solely one. We must think critically through analyzation about beliefs instead of directly denying them.
Talks on changing minds; Burger on the difficulty, Critchlow on the questioning
Exiting our Echo Chambers
Andrew Keen
Keen argues about how limited and filtered our access to digital spaces is for gaining knowledge. Despite the internet being used as a method of uniting people around the world, it can also separate us. The algorithms of the online world only allow us to interact with others we agree with and those in our communities, unable to consider the knowledge claims of others. Thus, we are restricted within our own personal bubble.