BothAndBlog Forum

Cognitive bias: tool for critical thinking or ego trap?


How can we ever be sure that the decision we’re making isn’t biased? Biases are unconscious… — Skalidris

Cognitive bias is a philosophical theory to explain why supposedly rational people make errors in judgment. But, in practice, those with different opinions can accuse the other of bias, and without divine objectivity, no one can prove who's right and who's wrong. I suppose the frustration of a no-win "Mexican Standoff" of opposing opinions is what prompts some people to claim divine revelation, to break the logjam.

Yet, some people are more biased to accept the word of God, than others. In that case, only pseudo-objective "critical thinking", which examines your own motivations & tendencies, can occasionally discover a tipping-point of truth in a difficult dilemma. Unfortunately, if only one party in an ego contest is willing to back down, the win-lose result may not mean that Truth prevails.

Yet, some people are more biased to accept the word of God, than others. — Gnomon
I didn't get that... — Skalidris

You must not live in the Bible Belt. The particular prejudice I referred to is not innate, but cultural --- specifically religious indoctrination.

PS___I just read a tribute to soicio-biologist E. O. Wilson. In his 2016 book, Half Earth, he said : "What is man? Storyteller, mythmaker, and destroyer of the living world. Thinking with a gabble of reason, emotion, and religion . . ."

Cognitive bias is a term from psychology, not philosophy, for a group of demonstrated systematic errors. See What Is Cognitive Bias? (↪Gnomon
) — Banno

I know. But the basic idea of Cognitive Bias goes back to Socrates & Plato. It seems to be the fundamental problem in Philosophy : the root of erroneous reasoning.

A case from Plato's Meno offers an intriguing example that cuts across some of the modern categories of cognitive biases.
https://aeon.co/essays/what-plato-knew- ... mics-a-lot