What Makes An Abductive Argument (Un-)Persuasive?
*An image of the American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce, sourced from Wikipedia Formally, arguments can take on one of three forms: deduction, induction, and abduction. Deductive arguments operate such that necessarily, if the premises are true, then the conclusion must be true.
Feb 9, 2024
Immunity-Pause: An Alternative Explanation for the Pediatric Flu and RSV Surge
Disclaimer: I am not an epidemiologist or a medical doctor. I am simply a psychiatry research student with a slightly-above-undergradute-level understanding of statistics, and a background in the philosophy of science – both of which I am relying entirely upon to write this blog post.
Nov 12, 2022
Book Summary: The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt
Best quote: " . . . if you put individuals together in the right way, such that some individuals can use their reasoning powers to disconfirm the claims of others, and all individuals feel some common bond or shared fate that allows them to interact civilly, you can create a group that ends up producing good reasoning as an emergent property of the social system.
Jun 12, 2022
Reflections On My Undergraduate Experience
Last week, I graduated from Dalhousie University with a Bachelor of Science with First Class Honours in Psychology and Philosophy: Since the convocation ceremony, I’ve been reflecting on my four years as an undergraduate.
Jun 11, 2022
My Favourite Things From 2021 (With Links!)
Happy New Year! 2021 was a rough year, not just for me personally, but for pretty much everybody. If you’re like me, you’re probably anxious about what is to come in 2022–humans are naturally intolerant of uncertainty, and the new omicron variant of COVID-19 has given us a lot of uncertainty.
Jan 2, 2022
Vaccine Passports Can Succeed Without Vaccine Ableism
Today is Monday August 9, 2021. This morning, Premier Iain Rankin promised that if he is re-elected on August 17, then there will be vaccine passports for access to non-essential services (movie theatres, restaurants, bars, gyms, etc).
Aug 9, 2021
Why It's Good to Discipline Children For Lying: Speculations on Theory of Mind
Psychologists define theory of mind as “…the ability to attribute mental states…to ourselves and others.” It is the capacity to know that other people have their own subjective experiences, thoughts, and so on.
Jun 16, 2021
On Derek Parfit's Psychological Connectedness Theory
Franz Kafka wrote in his classic story, “The Metamorphosis” about a man named Gregor Samsa who, one day, awoke to find himself in the body of a beetle. We’re assured that the beetle actually is Gregor Samsa because Kafka makes it clear that Samsa’s psychology persists in the body of the beetle.
Jun 16, 2021
Reflections on Freedom and COVID-19
Tonight I sat and watched the news while eating supper. In normal times, these ordinary activities serve as a chance to slow down and relax at the end of a lively day.
Nov 27, 2020
Sigmund Freud: A Glossary for the First Time Reader
Below, I present you with a glossary containing what I think are the most important terms to know for reading Sigmund Freud. As you probably know if you’re reading this, Freud is the father of psychoanalysis.
Mar 30, 2020