Why We Believe Obvious
Untruths, by Philip Fernbach and Steven Sloman, was a very interesting read
about society’s tendency to consider itself knowledgeable. They state that
people claim that they know all about a subject (“earth
revolves around the sun”) despite not knowing the true complexities behind
it (“the astronomical observations and calculations that led to that conclusion”).
I agree with their argument (well, at least to the best of my knowledge I
agree).
The message of Why We Believe Obvious Untruths goes along with one of Socrates’ main beliefs. As we read in Plato’s “Apology,” Socrates did not consider himself a knower of all things. In fact, he did not consider himself a knower of anything, except for the fact that he did not know many things. However, he was unhappy with society believing that it knew things about the unknown – like death, for example – and flaunting this “knowledge.” The authors of this piece would agree, to some extent. They claim that people base their “knowledge” off of the idea of the things which other people discovered. There is an invisible transmitter of information that encourages people to believe they are intelligent. However, in reality, we don’t know much about anything until we fully immerse ourselves in it.
The piece also goes along with This is Water in that David Foster Wallace asks people to take a step back and gain more perspective. The authors of Why We Believe Obvious Untruths feel that collaboration – that is, listening to other points of view and combining knowledge and opinions – is a much quicker route to success than individual pursuit.
In the end, Philip Fernbach and Steven Sloman present quite an interesting read and a neat argument. It’s something that I think everybody should consider. We go about our daily lives simply accepting the idea that we know so much, but really, we don’t know the specific details about what we’re learning, or why we’re learning. We don’t know why we find the derivative or calculate REDOX reactions. We should all be a bit more considerate.
The message of Why We Believe Obvious Untruths goes along with one of Socrates’ main beliefs. As we read in Plato’s “Apology,” Socrates did not consider himself a knower of all things. In fact, he did not consider himself a knower of anything, except for the fact that he did not know many things. However, he was unhappy with society believing that it knew things about the unknown – like death, for example – and flaunting this “knowledge.” The authors of this piece would agree, to some extent. They claim that people base their “knowledge” off of the idea of the things which other people discovered. There is an invisible transmitter of information that encourages people to believe they are intelligent. However, in reality, we don’t know much about anything until we fully immerse ourselves in it.
The piece also goes along with This is Water in that David Foster Wallace asks people to take a step back and gain more perspective. The authors of Why We Believe Obvious Untruths feel that collaboration – that is, listening to other points of view and combining knowledge and opinions – is a much quicker route to success than individual pursuit.
In the end, Philip Fernbach and Steven Sloman present quite an interesting read and a neat argument. It’s something that I think everybody should consider. We go about our daily lives simply accepting the idea that we know so much, but really, we don’t know the specific details about what we’re learning, or why we’re learning. We don’t know why we find the derivative or calculate REDOX reactions. We should all be a bit more considerate.
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