Epistemic Closure - How to Avoid it.

I stumbled upon this article by William Saletan yesterday and thought it contained excellent advice on how to avoid epistemic closure - and the inevitable ensuing delusions that epistemic closure fosters.

One of the interesting arguments Saletan mentioned went something like "when you're in a war, you don't have the luxury to listen with an open mind to those who disagree with you. You certainly don’t need to intentionally expose yourself to their ideas and/or evidence." That argument reminded me of an earlier post where I noted that several prominent conservative politicians and spokespersons had openly admitted that they wanted President Obama’s policies to fail.

Not President Obama, mind you, but his policies.

The temptation to set up a closed informational/argumentative feedback loop arises from feelings of certainty. That’s what enables people who are defending or attacking those who disagree with them to think they are at war.

I pledge to never be at war. My ideas and ideological soul mates are dear to me, but the truth is dearer still.

Note: I copped that from Aristotle, who said that about Plato right before he refuted Plato’s theory of the Forms.

Joe H