Feynman’s first principle is: “you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.” Thankfully, there’s some philosophy that can help us do precisely that. This week, I show how the human brain is primed to fool itself, how some interesting guys from ancient Greece combated that tendency, and why it matters.
(FYI: the bust used for Pyrrho is actually a bust of Carneades, another academic skeptic from around the same time. Thankfully every bust of a bearded bald guy looks pretty much the same.)
A study demonstrating confirmation bias and its effects in many different contexts: http://psy2.ucsd.edu/~mckenzie/nickersonConfirmationBias.pdf
Feynman gives a fantastic summary of skepticism and empiricism: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1RqTP5Unr4
Sextus Empiricus’s “Outlines of Pyrrhonism,” our main source for Pyrrho’s philosophy: http://www.sciacchitano.it/pensatori%20epistemici/scettici/outlines%20of%20pyrronism.pdf
Snopes is a fantastic resource for fact-checking before you post. They refute a viral “news” article like the “fish mutating in California” one here: http://www.snopes.com/politics/satire/hornets.asp