Saved by Jonathan Quaade
Knowing Things Is Hard
Providing people with more and better information is unlikely to improve matters. Scientists hope to dispel wrong views by better science education, and pundits hope to sway public opinion on issues such as Obamacare or global warming by presenting the public with accurate facts and expert reports. Such hopes are grounded in a misunderstanding of h
... See moreYuval Noah Harari • 21 Lessons for the 21st Century
“Your Truth” doesn’t exist.
“Truth? What is that?” — it’s the rhetorical question Pontius Pilate posed to Jesus in the Gospel of John.
Pilate’s world-weary cynicism suggested that truth is slippery and subjective, impossible to pin down. His question should resonate with modern audiences — in our current grappling with the nature of reality, facts, a
... See more
The problem is that, without a proper method, empirical observations can lead you astray. Hume came to warn us against such knowledge, and to stress the need for some rigor in the gathering and interpretation of knowledge—what is called epistemology (from episteme, Greek for learning).
Nassim Nicholas Taleb • Incerto 4-Book Bundle
While evidence shows that more of the same leads to utter defeat, nothing less than more and more seems worthwhile in a society infected by the growth mania. The desperate plea is not only for more bombs and more police, more medical examinations and more teachers, but also for more information and research. The editor-in-chief of the Bulletin of A
... See more