June

Question 1

Daniel Willingham

Understanding is…

Answer 1

Understanding is memory in disguise

Question 2

Voltaire

Judge a man by

Answer 2

Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers

Question 3

Understanding is memory in disguise

Answer 3

Daniel Willingham

Question 4

Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers

Answer 4

Voltaire

Question 5

City of Omelas in literature

Answer 5

In The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoevsky had summed up a moral dilemma of this kind in a simple question. Ivan Karamazov asks his brother Alyosha to imagine that he has the power to create a world in which people will enjoy perfect peace and happiness for the rest of history. But to achieve this, he says, you must torture to death one small creature now – say, that baby there.

Question 6

The Genet Principle

Answer 6

The underdog is always right
Adopted by Sartre in The Communists and Peace. Criterion of truth is what is believed to be true by the most disadvantaged

Question 7

The underdog is always right

Answer 7

The Genet Principle

Sartre The Communists and Peace

Question 8

Baby morality experiment

Answer 8

Paul Bloom
In one experiment, three-month-old babies were shown a blue square “helping” a red circle up a hill and a yellow triangle pushing the circle down. The babies reliably chose the blue square when given a choice (colors and shapes were varied to be sure that those features were not driving the preferences).

In other experiments, babies could tell the difference between puppets who helped or hindered actions attempted by other puppets. Babies preferred the good guys, and they disliked the jerks.

Question 9

Evolved function of awe

Answer 9

Jonathan Haidt
Shared emotional response to events such as earthquakes and thunderstorms quiets individual self interest and heightens group bonding by making us feel part of a larger whole.

Question 10

The social suite (Nicholas Christakis)

Answer 10

At the core of all societies, I will show, is the social suite: (1) The capacity to have and recognize individual identity (2) Love for partners and offspring (3) Friendship (4) Social networks (5) Cooperation (6) Preference for one’s own group (that is, “in-group bias”) (7) Mild hierarchy (that is, relative egalitarianism) (8) Social learning and teaching

Question 11

Epistemic rationality

Answer 11

Systematically improving the accuracy of your beliefs

Question 12

Systematically improving the accuracy of your beliefs

Answer 12

Epistemic rationality

Question 13

Instrumental rationality

Answer 13

Systematically achieving your values

Question 14

Systematically achieving your values

Answer 14

Instrumental rationality

Question 15

Planning fallacy

Answer 15

We are bad at estimating the time and cost needed for our projects because we know them in too much detail. Average or usual time taken is a much better guide.
Inside perspective Vs outside perspective

Question 16

Illusion of transparency

Answer 16

We always know what we mean by our words, and so we expect others to know it too.

Question 17

We always know what we mean by our words, and so we expect others to know it too.

Answer 17

Illusion of transparency

Question 18

Underestimated inferential distances

Answer 18

We assume people have the same universal background knowledge as us. This was true in hunter gatherer societies. Not anymore. When giving an explanation we must track back through each inferential step until we reach truly common knowledge.

Question 19

Hindsight bias

Answer 19

Hindsight bias: Subjects who know the actual answer to a question assign much higher probabilities they “would have” guessed for that answer, compared to subjects who must guess without knowing the answer.

Question 20

Subjects who know the actual answer to a question assign much higher probabilities they “would have” guessed for that answer, compared to subjects who must guess without knowing the answer.

Answer 20

Hindsight bias

Question 21

Peter Wason

Answer 21

2 4 6 task confirmation bias (positive bias)

Question 22

2 4 6 task

Answer 22

Peter Wason

Question 23

Reactance

Answer 23

Motivational state that follows a loss of social power

Explains why we don’t like being told what to do and why we like to do the opposite.

Explains why we enjoy forbidden fruits.

Question 24

Motivational state that follows a loss of social power

Answer 24

Reactance