Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Brief summary of parapsychology
Brief summary of parapsychology
Brief summary of parapsychology
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Brief summary of parapsychology
Parapsychology is a field of study that is concerned with unique experiences such as physic phenomena which can be described as paranormal. Parapsychology suggests that the human mind is capable of interacting, by receiving messages, with the non physical world such as non physical energy.
Parapsychologists such as Ruth Reinsel argue from experiments that non physical energy must exist because of the above average results in experiments. However in my essay I will analyse his argument, to eventually conclude that he relies on his beliefs more than factual evidence. I will also demonstrate that he relies on an extraordinary hypothesis, that he should not use, because the results can be explained by ordinary circumstances.
Secondly, I will demonstrate
…show more content…
By determining that if we were to accept his argument we would be forced to acknowledge that the whole field of parapsychology is untestable. Which ultimately forces us to recognise that parapsychology is a pseudoscience. Therefore his argument fails.
The writers use of vague language, and the failure to recognise and account for easily explained and logical circumstances, unfortunately does not give us readers any reason to accept their arguments.
Belief over logical evidence and ordinary circumstances
Reinsel began his research into parapsychology by conducting an experiment where he had a subject try to correctly identify a symbol from a pack of cards without coming into sensory or physical contact with the cards. There are twenty five cards in a deck, where there are five sets of symbols- a cross, star, circle, waves and a square. Statistically in one run, the subject should be able to correctly identify five of the symbols in a deck. (Schick and Vaughn)
Out of the 100,000 attempts Reinsel conducted, the subjects averaged 7.1 correct ‘guesses’. Because of this Reinsel argued that
…show more content…
That is, if the experimenter believes in non physical energy they will generally yield positive results, but if the experimenter does not believe or they are sceptical of the evidence they will yield negative results. However, what if experimenters claim to believe in non physical energy but yield negative results? doesn't this deny that hypothesis? (Schick and Vaughn). Well, no it doesn’t, because parapsychologists claim that they must have unconsciously doubted the existence of non physical energy. Obviously this is another form of an Ad Hoc because any data that is produced cannot deny this hypothesis. Moreover any counterexample could be simply dismissed by appealing to the unconscious mind. Additionally if we accepted his hypothesis, we would then make the whole field of parapsychology untestable (Schick and Vaughn). Any unsuccessful experiment that does against the existence of non physical energy could be dismissed because of the experimenters conscious or unconscious bias. Thus parapsychology can be considered as a pseudoscience until they can allow for hypothesis that can be
A beautiful, captivating, and revolutionary story, In the Time of the Butterflies, was written by Julia Alvarez and is a true account about struggle, courage, and love between four sisters, their families, and the people they encountered in their lives. This captivating story is so easy to relate to, as it’s written by a woman, about women, for women. What comes across clearly throughout the story is the Mirabal sisters’ passion for the revolution and how it overwhelmed their lives and the lives of anyone that was involved, or came into contact, with them. This resulted in the sisters being better revolutionaries than mothers, wives, sisters, or daughters. Their passion for the revolution is what drove them the most and what ultimately drove them to involuntarily put their families’ lives at risk. They participated, and were involved in the revolution in spite of the risk of imprisonment and torture. The Mirabal sisters fought until death for what they believe in and the benefit of their country.
In order to be considered a non-evidentialist, one must believe that actual evidence is not required for all of our beliefs. Pascal believ...
Any hypothesis, Gould says, begins with the collection of facts. In this early stage of a theory development bad science leads nowhere, since it contains either little or contradicting evidence. On the other hand, Gould suggests, testable proposals are accepted temporarily, furthermore, new collected facts confirm a hypothesis. That is how good science works. It is self-correcting and self-developing with the flow of time: new information improves a good theory and makes it more precise. Finally, good hypotheses create logical relations to other subjects and contribute to their expansion.
...w. There is nothing enabling a scientist to say that induction is a suitable arrangement of evidence in which there is no way to account for the evidence, therefor being no liability in using induction to verify the statement.
The Raven paradox includes three plausible premises, and derives from them a fairly implausible-looking conclusion about the confirmation of generalizations.
William Clifford author of the “Ethics of Belief” creates the argument that it is always wrong for anyone to believe anything upon ‘insufficient evidence’. What does Clifford define evidence as and what is sufficient? Clifford’s argument is more scientific. Basing our beliefs off methodical approaches. If we base all our decisions off sufficient and what we declare to be reliable then what do we stand for? We have our own credentials to believe things even if we do not know why. These beliefs could be innate and
The famous philosophers Gilbert Ryle, René Descartes, and Thomas Nagel help us better understand the idea regarding mental and physical phenomena’s. A mental phenomenon is best described as feelings, emotions, and desires that are processed in the mind, and a physical phenomenon is best described as observable facts by the body that is processed by the brain. An example of a physical fact is a cell phone. A cell phone can be wholly explained, and all the parts can be fully identified and know by everyone to be the same. A physical fact is much different from a mental fact because mental facts can only be perceived by one’s self. An example of a mental fact is love because no one but yourself can know the feeling of the love that you felt for
To me Pseudoscience is a hypothesis that just has information added to it over time. There would be no actual data that proves something. What I understand is that it is built off the beliefs of people and there is absolutely no way to prove if the suggested hypothesis or theory actually is relevant.
There are many examples in the history of science that support this premise. For instance, nonphysical explanations of magnetism, where at one time, people tried to explain then phenomenon of magnetism by appeal to the presence of nonphysical spirits which they claimed inhabited magnetized rocks or pieces of metal. This explanation turned out to be false, and was replaced by a physical explanation in terms of electromagnetic force. Likewise, nonphysical explanations of planetary motion tried to clarify the movements of the planets by appeal t nonphysical intelligences that were responsible for producing the orbital movements of the planets. This explanation also turned out to be false, and was replaced by a physical explanation in terms of the curvature of spacetime: the planets move in orbit because spacetime is warped by massive objects such as the Sun. In both of these cases, people tried to explain something by appeal to nonphysical entities, but in each of these cases the nonphysical explanations were falsified and replaced by physical ones. Since these cases have always been the norm in the past, physicalists say that we have every reason to expect they will remain the norm in the future, or that we have every reason to expect that every attempt to explain phenomena by appeal to nonphysical entities will fail, and every attempt to
believes it. There are also a few objections to his theory that raise questions as to if it can
Human beings’ belief systems don’t always work according to evidence. Belief is made up of
Upon reading Will to Believe, there is no doubt we will all begin to question how we’ve gotten to our beliefs and why we believe what we do. William James argues against forced beliefs and expresses the importance of choice. The idea of choice is one I strongly agree with. Although we are easily influenced by others, when it comes to beliefs free will must come into play. As far as the science method, which I have discussed, a belief is just as valid whether there is evidence or not because most scientific methods will never be one hundred percent proven and they will change over
The examples Beauregard uses to prove his argument are focused primarily on the subject’s out of body experience, which appear to have some empirical evidence to support the subject’s claim. Beauregard also utilizes several scientific studies done throughout the years. The first example Beauregard utilizes is that of Pam
Many times we have been in a dilemma whether to believe or not someone who tries to persuade us for something and very often by listening his arguments and by having enough evidence we finally manage to get out of the dilemma. Nevertheless sometimes we cannot be sure about an event because although there is enough evidence, our minds cannot be persuaded. An example to justify that is the existence of the Loch Ness monster, or as it is widely known “Nessie”.
exist and in fact that science does back it up to an extent. I am not trying to persuade you