A / Instructions:
1. Read the article below by Kirsten Weir.
2. After reading the article below, consider the following: Charles L. Stevenson, in the essay “The Nature of Ethical Disagreement,” claims that disagreements in belief can often be resolved by the methods of science. This is because science can give us facts and facts are supposed to form our beliefs, but research has shown that much of what we believe is not determined by the facts but by what we wish to be true. This might correspond to what Stevenson claims are disagreements in attitude which are much more difficult to resolve. Our attitudes toward a belief or issues sometimes determine what we allow ourselves to count as facts or evidence.
3. For discussion: Given what you have read in the article below and what you read in the essay by Charles L. Stevenson, answer the following: How can we objectively view the facts without interpreting them differently if they challenge our personal beliefs, group identity, or moral values? More specifically, how do we approach moral decision-making in light of what Weir and Stevenson have shown about our attitudes toward facts that challenge our current beliefs?
“Why we believe alternative facts: How motivation, identity, and ideology combine to undermine human judgment”
By Kirsten Weir
American Psychological Association
May 2017, Vol 48, No. 5
https://www.apa.org/monitor/2017/05/alternative-facts
Fact or opinion?
