Perhaps by my peers I am considered a skeptical person. Yet in reality I'm not some party pooper who just won't believe anything he is told. I'm in fact a scientist. Just like most people, I don't like being tricked or fooled into believing false stories. So I defend myself with the power of Scientific Thinking Principles! Armed with the abilities of ruling out rival hypotheses, correlation vs. causation, falsifiability, replicability, extraordinary claims, and occam's razor I will be hard pressed to be fooled.
Knowing these techniques is an extremely helpful in both everyday life as well as in school. Psychology has taught me to ask questions. Perhaps some tricky events can be explained by simpler means. Or maybe some effects are actually from a different cause than I originally thought. However, it is important to keep reminded myself to use them, because it is very easy to completely ignore scientific thinking and fall back into perhaps blind acceptance. I will always keep these scientific thinking principles in mind for years to come.
I'm not a Skeptic, I'm a Scientist!
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This is a very thoughtful post. Seeing all of the reminders on the sides of the pages lately, I do not stop to read them or wonder what one of the six principals they are talking about. Rather, I have learned to just know what they are, occasionally checking to see if I am correct, but this skill I now take for granted is a very useful tool. It can help people in everyday life, and also works well when critically thinking in other classes. These principals are definitely a good think to keep in mind.
I agree, thinking in scientific ways can lead to stronger thoughts, opinions, and ideas in every part of life- not simply academic parts. I do not think that critical, psychological thinking is the same thing as skepticism. Being skeptical implies that one hesitates to accept information as valid even when it is presented factually. Psychological principles give one the ability to further look into any information at hand, and delve into its causes, effects, and claims.
Nothing wrong with being a realist. I think by upholding these practices leads to a more successful life in terms of more well developed opinions, thoughts, ideas, etc. You are practicing the behavior to not have a blind-spot. By understanding each side of an issue, is the only way to understand an issue.
I agree with you that thinking scientifically about about things is very important to seeing the truth and understanding but also feel that sometimes everyone needs to be careful on how far they go. Scientific knowledge is always growing which means that human understanding is also changing to understand things in new ways. The way we understand things today could be completely different than how we understand it tomorrow. I think we all need to be scientific in how we analyze things but also remember to be weary of our own abilities this shouldn't be a problem for analyzing normal everyday things but also should not be forgotten when thinking and analyzing deeply.
Good post. I agree with you on the uses of these principles through every day life. In particular I enjoy finding the simplest explanation for tricky events. When I use this method I feel as though my thought process is very efficient; which saves me time and provides a logical answer! Also, correlation vs. causation is interesting to apply to situations. These principles have opened my eyes to alternative reasoning to every day life.