Good Episode at Rationally Speaking on Reason

[marplots]

Excellent podcast challenging the standard notion (and one I think many skeptics have adopted) that reason functions as a pathway to truth. I think it explains many of the conversations on the forum, with reason used as a tool to bolster preexisting prejudices or emotionally-arrived-at positions.

http://rationallyspeakingpodcast.or...er-on-the-argumentative-theory-of-reason.html

 

[Dinwar]

I've always said logic is GIGO--garbage in, garbage out. If you start with a flawed premise, or flawed data, or a flawed assumption, the best logic in the world will result in a wrong conclusion. A great way to illustrate it is the old math joke:

Teacher: If you have three apples and Jon gives you two, how many do you have?
Student: Three.
Teacher: No, you'll have five--three plus two is five.
Student: But I'll have eaten two by that time, so I'll have three.

This is why I've always argued that skepticism, if it means anything, means analysis of the process, NOT the results. Too often we look at the results and say "You beleive in Bigfoot? Obviously woo and irrational." The thing is, they believe in bigfoot for a reason--and skepticism is supposed to be about finding that reason, be it a flaw in their logic, a flaw in their data, or whatever.