Class criteria for accepting statements beyond our experience
On February 3, the class came up with criteria for (1) provisionally
accepting a statement about something beyond our everyday experience,
and (2) provisionally accepting an extrapolation to something that we
have not yet seen in experiment or observation.
Outside everyday experience, but within the reach of experiment or
observation:
- Need multiple consistent sources
- The fundamental basis must be simple (e.g., based on simple principles
of physics, even if the claimed phenomenon or explanation is complex)
- There must have been a fair trial of other possibilities, so that the
claimed explanation clearly does better than other options
- There must be broad consistency with known phenomena; to use the
analogy in class, the claimed phenomenon or explanation must fit in the
jigsaw puzzle
Extrapolation of ideas to something we have not seen in experiment or
observation:
- The original idea which is being extrapolated must be well-corroborated
- The extrapolation should not be too far beyond what has been verified
in experiment or observation
- Psychologically, the idea will be easier to believe if it is acceptable
within the world view of an individual person. Thus this is a subjective,
not an objective, criterion
- There needs to be a clear link to previous ideas rather than the
extrapolation being on a cognitive island
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