How to Tell the Truth--Part 1 of "X"

With the continuing cry of "fake news" from all political sides, people are really struggling these days to know what is true and what is not. This is especially true for those accustomed to obtaining their "truth" from "trusted" third parties rather than from their own critical thinking. When your worldview is a consequence of being spoon fed "truth" by people and institutions you "trust", what happens when your trust in those people and institutions is undermined? Panic. Anxiety. Discord. We see these things everywhere on social media today.

(Lost in Thought)

Knowing "truth" is a tricky thing. Descartes proved long ago that it's impossible for any of us to know with certainty anything more than "I am." Everything beyond "I am" is speculation and inference that must be anchored in selective (and sometimes irrational or even improper) assumptions. How can we know those assumptions are true? We can't. At least not in the absolute sense.

However, via critical thinking--that is, by being more disciplined about who and what we trust--we can make more sense of the world, meaning we can know with greater certainty those things that are less likely to be true. While discerning absolute truth beyond "I am" may be impossible, recognizing untruth is comparatively easy when critical thinking is employed. Once we can readily recognize untruths, we are less easily manipulated and our overwhelming anxiety is greatly reduced.

Developing these critical thinking skills isn't difficult. We need only develop a working knowledge of the cognitive biases and logical fallacies that others use so often to deceive and confuse us. Once we can easily identify "on the fly" our own cognitive biases and other's logical fallacies, untruth falls away.

With that in mind, I'll be posting a series of articles discussing these well understood cognitive biases and logical fallacies. My hope is that readers will use these articles to make more sense of their world and especially to ease their anxiety in these deceitful times.

First, a couple of definitions:

"Cognitive biases" are insidious and often unconscious human tendencies to think in certain limited ways that impact how we take in or retain information. An example is the well-documented "confirmation bias"--the tendency of nearly all humans to search for, interpret, remember and accept as likely true "facts" that confirm their pre-existing viewpoint while overlooking, discarding or discounting "facts" that contradict their pre-existing worldview. We should all resolve to begin noticing just how often we engage in confirmation bias--grasping onto the "facts" that we prefer while overlooking or mentally "attacking", often with logical fallacies, those that contradict our thesis.

Whereas cognitive biases often impact how we absorb and retain information, "logical fallacies" impact how we process it. A logical fallacy is an irrational conclusion anchored in errors of reasoning. A classic example is "non sequitur"--Latin for "it does not follow". A non sequitur is an argument where the second part of the statement does not logically follow from the first part. For instance: "All apples are fruits, therefore all fruits are apples" is an example of non-sequitur.

While cognitive biases and logical fallacies are different, they are related and they feed upon each other. For instance, cognitive biases often influence our susceptibility to logical fallacies--I'm far less likely to recognize when a politician that shares my worldview engages in non sequitur than one who doesn't.

Politicians, cult leaders, religious figures, narcissists and others actively manipulate us by exploiting our cognitive biases and our unfamiliarity with logical fallacies. When we can't think critically for ourselves, we are nothing more than "sheeple". Anyone wanting to own his own mind and end the manipulation to which he's constantly subjected, and thereby reduce his anxiety, must learn basic critical thinking skills. I hope this series of articles helps.

Best,

Sean