Surviving Through Your SCARS Conscious Awareness

Descartes-Rationalism Four Rules for Avoiding Mistakes What is a mistake? A mistake is a bad cognitive or practical investment. A mistake is investing confidence in a belief or activity that is not worth that investment What is a rule? Examples worthy of imitation

Descartes-Rationalism Rule 1: Never accept anything as true that is not clearly know to be true Methodology: Begin by trusting no one or no thing. Doubt everything. Trust no one. Avoid prejudice-avoid making a decision before presented with the evidence=avoid ignoring evidence Avoid precipitancy-avoid making a hasty decision based on no or inadequate evidence 3. Accept only what is free from doubt. Never get involved in an activity unless you clearly understand what the risks are

Descartes-Rationalism Rule 2 Analysis Divide each of the difficulties under examination into as many parts as possible, and as might be necessary for its adequate solution.

Descartes-Rationalism Rule 3: Synthesis Move from simple issues to complex ones.

Descartes-Rationalism Rule 4: Completeness Make enumerations so complete, and reviews so general, that I might be assured that nothing was omitted.

Hume-Empiricist Cause and effect reasoning can only be known by experience

Hume-Empiricist Cause and effect reasoning have the following components: 1. We remember to have had frequent instances of the existence of one species of objects 2. We also remember, that the individuals of another species of objects have always attended them, 3. We call to mind that these have existed in a regular order of contiguity and succession (constant conjunction) with regard to them. 4. We, thus, identify the first as the cause of the second.

Hume-Empiricist Example 1. We remember, to have seen that species of object we call flame, and 2. We have felt that species of sensation we call heat. 3. We likewise call to mind their constant conjunction in all past instances. 4. Without any farther ceremony, we call the one cause and the other effect, and infer the existence of the one from that of the other.

Hume-Empiricist Basic assumption of causal reasoning: new instances, of which we have had no experience, must resemble those, of which we have had experience the course of nature continues always uniformly the same

Hume-Empiricist Weakness of these assumptions: There is no reason to assume that nature is uniform. We can at least conceive a change in the course of nature

Scientific Reasoning Synthesis of both rationalism and empiricism Rationalism for theory formation and analysis Empiricism for the verification of a theory