The Tuesday Lunch Series welcomes Steve Vogel, professor of philosophy, presenting "On Not Being Sure."

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The Tuesday Lunch Series welcomes Steve Vogel, professor of philosophy, presenting “On Not Being Sure.”

Critical thinking can only be truly critical thinking if it is self- critical thinking, thinking that keeps in mind at every moment that it might not be correct. How is it possible to believe something strongly, and indeed to act on that belief, while recognizing that nonetheless one might be wrong to believe it? The twentieth-century philosopher Karl Popper developed an account of what it is to think critically about one’s own views according to which what was crucial wasn’t finding evidence to support them – that’s too easy, he argued, especially given the human tendency to “confirmation bias” – but rather being able to specify what evidence would lead one to give them up, and then investigate whether such evidence could be found. This idea of falsifiability has important and surprising implications, and I’ll try to describe some of them.


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