Guest Work • Apr 19, 2017 •
By Peter Ellerton, The University of Queensland Which is more important, a fact or an opinion on any given subject? It might be tempting to say the fact. But not so fast… Lately, we find ourselves lamenting the post-truth world, in which facts seem no more important than opinions, and sometimes less so. We also tend … Read More
Guest Work • Jun 27, 2016 •
By Dr Carolyn Mason, Lecturer, Philosophy, University of Canterbury A new study published in Science finds that the majority of research participants accept that it is morally right to program autonomous vehicles (AVs) to kill the occupant of the car to save ten pedestrians. As the authors Bonnefon, Shariff and Rahwan point out, this result agrees with utilitarianism, that … Read More
Eric Crampton • Jun 23, 2015 •
I'll be chairing a discussion with Peter Singer in Christchurch in September. If you're anywhere in the neighbourhood, by which I mean within a 3-hour flight, you should attend.I have never loved and hated and been changed by a book as much as Singer's Practical Ethics. I threw it across the room more often than any other. Actually, … Read More
Ken Perrott • Jun 11, 2015 •
Ken Perrott • May 19, 2015 •
This meme is for those commenters here who accuse me of having a closed mind. I am always happy to change my opinion or view of things – if there is evidence to suggest I should. And no, claims that … Continue reading → … Read More
Ken Perrott • Mar 31, 2015 •
My old man used to label us kids as “fair-weather sailors” when we bitched about working outside during bad weather. That phrase comes to my mind sometimes when I come across people who claim to be “sceptics ” (“Skeptics”) behaving very unsceptically when confronted with a claim outside their area of interest. For example, someone who … … Continue reading … Read More
Ken Perrott • Sep 22, 2014 •
I have seen so much of this lately: And this: And in so many cases when we challenge this cherry-picking and confirmation bias we get this: … Read More
Ken Perrott • Aug 31, 2014 •
I was sad to read that Victor Stenger died during the week at the age of 79. Victor was a prolific author, writing on science, religion and philosophy. He often dealt with difficult issues coming out of the religion-science debates and was always able to explain complex subjects very effectively for the layperson. In his … … Continue reading … Read More
Ken Perrott • Jun 25, 2014 •
We all suffer more or less from confirmation bias – it is just human. So it’s natural for people to be selective, and to indulge in some cherry-picking and biased interpretation, when quoting scientific literature to support an idea they promote. In the scientific community peer review and continual submission of ideas to scrutiny by colleagues helps keep … … Continue reading … Read More
Ken Perrott • Jun 19, 2014 •
Credit: xkcd. Apparently the above quote “You can safely ignore any sentence that includes the phrase’ according to quantum mechanics” is used by Robert P. Crease and Alfred Scharf in their upcoming book The Quantum Moment: How Planck, Bohr, Einstein, and Heisenberg Taught Us to Love Uncertainty. Good advice. Read More