On the observation of superstition amongst animals. It is easy to see how religion developed in humanity when this sort of superstition is combined with human imagination, curiosity, tendency to ascribe animacy to the inanimate, and desire for meaning, purpose, order and justice. It reminds me also of the problem of induction. Science and superstition are both based off of induction. The difference is that superstition is based off of induction from one or two cases, whereas science is repeatedly doing experiments to make as many data points as possible to extrapolate from, as well as doing experiments specifically designed to show if the hypothesis is *wrong*. Knowledge about how the universe works can only be obtained by induction from a finite number of cases, and science is just the procedure of doing as many cases as possible, as precisely as possible, narrowing down as much as possible the precise nature of the cause and effect. psychclassics.yorku.ca/Skinner/Pigeon/
Posted on: Wed, 10 Dec 2014 09:59:38 +0000
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