Task 1 Flashcards
What is the definition of Conspiracy ?
- a conspiracy is a secret plot or agreement between two or more parties for an illegal or dishonest purpose
What is a contention ?
- somebody claims to be true
- but there is no reason
What is a reason/premise ?
- Evidence for a contention
What is a conclusion ?
- A contention supported by a reason
What is a single argument ?
- is a contention which is justified using a single premise or opposed by a single objection
What is a composite argument ?
- using more than one objection or premise to support the contention
What is a convergent argument ?
- Two premises supporting a conclusion separately and independently from one another
- part of a composite argument
What is a chain of reasoning ?
- Different lvl of premises building up on each other towards the contention
- part of o a composite argument
What is meant by a Co premises ?
- Syllogisms/dependent data
- 2 Premises have to go together otherwise they would not make any sense
What is meant by the golden rule ?
- Each single argument really consists of two or more co premises
What is meant by the rabbit rule ?
- Each significant term that is part of the conclusion should also be part of one of the premises.
What is meant by the holding hands rule
- ensures that a co-premise has a connection with another co-premise.
- having identical terms between co premises which are not given in the conclusion
What are the motives to believe in conspiracy theories ?
- Hard to falsify
- epistemic
- Existential
- Social reasons
What are some characteristics of people which use conspiracy theories ?
- Low education
- Lower levels of analytic thinking
- Likely to turn to a conspiracy when anxious
- Believing in paranormal and supernatural phenomena
- Feelings of uncertainty, powerlessness
- narcissism, Machiavellianism
- Extreme political ideology
- Minorities
What are the causes of conspiracy theories ?
- Evolutionary by-product hypothesis
- State of affairs (disaster, war)
- Development of technologies (wiretapping)
- Adaptive-conspiracism hypothesis
- Error-management theory
What does epistemic mean ?
Desire for understanding
What does Existential mean ?
Desire for control over own life
What is meant by the by-product hyothesis ?
- it had no purpose it is just a by product effect of evolution
What is meant by the Adaptive-conspiracism hypothesis / Error-management theory ?
- It had a purpose
- By product tehory: It is better to have have a typ 1 error then a typ2 !!
What are some charcteritics of critical societys ?
- No absolute respect for established views
2. No fear of challenges to an existing theory
What are some charcteritics of non critical societys ?
- A protective attitude with respect to the current category system. Everything that is not in line with it is taboo
- positive attitude regrading the past
How do u become a society with critical tradition ?
- The availability of a simple writing system and sufficient people who are able to read and write
- Culturally heterogeneous communities
- Trade-travel-exploration complex (Horton)
What is the definition of the Ramsey theory ?
- Given enough elements in a set or structure, some particular interesting pattern among them is guaranteed to emerge ! (mathematical principle) One example would be: star sign
What is meant by an objection ?
- evidence against a contention
