Evaluating Claims

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Evaluating Claims
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Scientific Reasoning

• What are the tools of scientific reasoning?
• FiLCHeRs six tools for distinguishing science
  from pseudoscience

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1 - Falsifiability

• It must be possible to conceive of evidence that
  would prove the claim false
• Which of the 7 Guidelines for Critical Thinking
  does 1 sound like?

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• Examples of falsifiability
• Online Learning Module
• http//www.psych.ualberta.ca/ITL/ct/
• More links - http//web.bsu.edu/dlb/t/science/sciq
  uest/sciquest.htm

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2 - Logic

• Any argument offered as evidence in support of
  any claim must be sound.
• Which of the 7 Guidelines for Critical Thinking
  does 2 sound like?
• Example - Turkish admiral Piri Re'is map of the
  world

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3 - Comprehensiveness

• The evidence offered in support of any claim must
  be exhaustive -- that is all of the available
  evidence must be considered.
• Which of the 7 Guidelines for Critical Thinking
  does 3 sound like?
• Example Psychics and their predictions

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4 - Honesty

• The evidence offered in support of any claim must
  be evaluated without self-deception.
• Which of the 7 Guidelines for Critical Thinking
  does 4 sound like?

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• Example of Honesty (no self-deception)

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5 - Replicability

• It is necessary for the evidence to be repeated
  in subsequent experiments or trials.
• Which of the 7 Guidelines for Critical Thinking
  does 5 sound like?
• Example - ESP

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6 - Sufficiency

• The evidence offered in support of any claim must
  be adequate to establish the truth of that claim
• Which of the 7 Guidelines for Critical Thinking
  does 6 sound like?
• Example If you were abducted by a UFO, how
  would you prove it?

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Summary of FiLCHeRs

• The first three rules of FiLCHeRS
• -- falsifiability, logic, and
  comprehensiveness -- are all logically
  necessary rules of evidential reasoning.
• The last three rules of FiLCHeRS
  -- honesty, replicability, and
  sufficiency -- are all pragmatically
  necessary rules of evidential reasoning.

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Professional Skeptics

• James Randi
• Video of James Randi in Australia testing water
  diviners and dowsers
• http//video.google.com/videoplay?docid7461912885
  649996034
• - How does James Randi exemplify the
  7 Guidelines for Critical
  Thinking?
• - How does water divining exemplify the
  10 Characteristics of
  Pseudoscience
• - How does James Randis test of water divining
  exemplify 6 Tools of Scientific Reasoning?