acceptance of an idea acquired through tradition, intuition, or authority is a flawed method of acquiring knowledge. An intuitive belief that eating pizza late at night will make you dream about dying is probably not going to adversely affect your life. Likewise, not eating pork because your pastor says it is a sin or never wearing white shoes after Labor Day will have few negative consequences in the larger scheme of things. But feeding your infant nothing but eggs for the first year of her life on the advice of your meditation guru (as a relative of one of the authors of this book did) is a decision better made after a more rigorous evaluation of information. Accepting such advice on the basis of this particular authority is doubly flawed: a flawed source and a flawed process.
Personal Experience: I Believe It Is True Because I Experienced It
Personal experience is a very powerful way of knowing the world. You know something because it happened to you, and now it’s part of your personal history. This way of knowing may be convincing to you, but often it is not convincing to others.
According to the Old Testament, Noah was told by God that the world was going to end in a flood and that he should build an ark. The conversation motivated him to do as he was told but had little effect on anyone else.
Often, this way of knowing puts an end to discussion with friends and family. Usually, it goes something like this: “You don’t understand _____ like I do. I know _____ is true because it happened to me.”
Consider the following:
“I know what it’s like to be poor and homeless because I’ve lived on the street.”
“I know that divorce has a negative influence on children because I was only 10 when my parents divorced.”
“I know that talking on a phone doesn’t interfere with driving because I do it all the time, and I’ve never had an accident.”
Personal experience is very difficult to argue against and equally difficult to convey to others. It often is the basis of religious or mystic experiences. The problem with this way of knowing is that personal experience is personal and subjective. There is no way for others to make it objective. It is also a problem because there is no way of knowing if your experience is typical or usual. It could be that your experience is very rare.
Reasoning: I Believe It Is True Because It Is Logically Derived
Rational thought is thinking with reason. Rules of logic are applied so that reasonable conclusions are made. Logical reasoning is a more rigorous way of arriving at knowledge. However, logical reasoning requires confirmation from other evidence. A conclusion reached from logical deduction is only as good as the assumptions of the reasoning process. If the assumptions are flawed, the conclusion, although logical, is still flawed.
Consider the following:
All poodles are dogs. (Major premise)
Fido is a poodle. (Minor premise)
Therefore, Fido is a dog. (Conclusion)
The conclusion is logical and follows from the premises.
However, consider the following:
All poodles are afraid of hot air balloons.
Fido is a poodle.
Therefore, Fido is afraid of hot air balloons.
The conclusion is logically valid, but Fido, the dog of one of your authors, is afraid of just about everything except hot air balloons. The premise that all poodles are afraid of hot air balloons must be wrong, or the premise that Fido is a poodle must be wrong. Each premise must be demonstrated to be true in some way other than logical reasoning before the process of logical reasoning will work.
Empiricism: I Believe It Is True Because I Measured It
Empiricism is acquiring knowledge through our senses or with instruments that extend our senses. In research, we often think of instruments such as microscopes or telescopes, but in psychology, we refer to intelligence tests and surveys as instruments. The important point is that other people can verify such observations and measurements using their senses or their instruments. Directly observing an event and using a machine to measure something are both means of obtaining empirical evidence.
Of course, it would be foolish to always require direct sensory experience before we believe something. For example, just because we have never skied at Park City, Utah, does not mean that the ski resort does not exist. Empiricism must be combined with rational thought to make meaning of our world, and this is what science does.
FYI
Interestingly, as its first entry, the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines empiricism as “a: a former school of medical practice founded on experience without the aid of science or theory b: QUACKERY, CHARLATANRY.” This is not what we are referring to in our use of the word. Our use reflects the second entry: “the practice of relying on observation and experiment especially in the natural sciences.” Curious how the word refers to both quackery and the natural sciences!
Science
Science is a way of acquiring knowledge through the continual interaction of empiricism and reasoning. Observation of real events provides the basis for hypotheses that can be tested in methodical and systematic ways. Hypotheses that are not supported by further empirical evidence are abandoned, and new hypotheses are constructed. In this way, general principles are identified, and predictions can be made. This is the basis of theory building. Hypotheses that have been tested and found to be supported by the available evidence are then encompassed in the body of knowledge of the discipline.
Science has been very successful in helping us understand ourselves and our universe, but it is not without limitations. Scientists don’t have all the answers. Science is always limited by empiricism. If we can’t devise a way to measure something, we can’t use science. Consider the following questions:
Is there a soul?
Is there an afterlife?
Is there a creator?
These questions may be very important, but because science relies on empiricism, we can’t investigate these topics until we have the appropriate measures to do so. Until then, we have only reason, so we leave these topics for philosophers and theologians to explore.
Conceptual Exercise 1A
Consider each of the following beliefs. By what process do you think it is likely the believer acquired the belief?
1 Too many cooks spoil the broth.
2 Boys will be boys.
3 Politicians
