Saturday, March 31, 2018

Skepticism...........................


Skepticism gets a bum rap because it tends to be associated with negative character traits.  Someone who disagrees could be considered "disagreeable."   Someone who dissents may be creating "dissension."  Maybe part of it is that "skeptical" sounds like "cynical."  Yet true skepticism is consistent with good manners, civil discourse, and friendly communications.
     Skepticism is about approaching the world by asking why things might not be true rather than why they are true.  It's a recognition that, while there is an objective truth, everything we believe about the world is not true.  Thinking in bets embodies skepticism by encouraging us to examine what we do and don't know and what our level of confidence is in our beliefs and predictions.  This moves us closer to what is objectively true.

-Annie Duke,  Thinking In Bets:  Making Smarter Decisions When You Don't Have All the Facts

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