Kingston Philosophy Café

Cognitive biases: like our universal susceptibility to the placebo effect in medicine, we are all very susceptible to numerous biases in how we form beliefs, no matter how rational we think we are. They are very difficult to get rid of, and manifest themselves in even the most determined efforts to be objective, e.g., in scientific research. The way our brains function cognitively is not consonant with the structure of physical reality, and, to some extent, with social reality either.  Kieran will examine some of these biases, and discuss the problems they give rise to in science and other fields of enquiry, and how they can be controlled.