Читать книгу Uncomfortable Ideas - Bo Bennett PhD - Страница 14

Very often, one who presents fringe ideas is well aware of the common objections to the idea and like a good salesperson has crafted answers that address the objections. These answers can be fallacious, flawed, or outright lies designed to get one to buy into the idea. Once a person has accepted the idea, evidence against the idea has less of an effect on them rejecting the idea. This is why it is important to entertain an idea without pressure and have enough time to evaluate the arguments for and against the idea critically. For example, if someone tried to sell you on the idea that the earth was flat, they might claim that the horizon always rises to meet eye level, which is impossible on a ball earth. Not having investigated this, you can be skeptical, but you would really not be able to refute their claim. A few minutes of research, however, would demonstrate that this claim is simply untrue. The point is not to debunk what you have predetermined to be a false claim (this is reactionary thinking, not critical thinking), but to entertain the claims and evaluate them for accuracy.