Ad hoc hypothesis & selective thinking

April 22, 2003 on 11:12 pm | In Ad Rem | 3 Comments

Do you know if you deceive yourself? If you have strong beliefs, do you fight against opposing ideas without wavering? Does your agenda blind you? I highly reccomend to everyone of all ages to read the following articles in the Skeptic’s Dictionary.

“Our capacity for self-deception has no known limits.” Michael Novak

See the Skeptical Dictionary’s entries on the following. I have put them in order of my preference: ad hoc hypothesis, selective thinking, the post hoc fallacy, communal reinforcement, testimonials, self-deception, subjective validation, confirmation bias, control study, Ockham’s razor, the placebo effect, cold reading, wishful thinking.

An ad hoc hypothesis is one created to explain away facts that seem to refute one