6-3. Questions On The Experience Of Others
Thinking Material by R W Jepson

  1. Give, from your own experience, one or two examples of the fallibility of the senses.
  2. Give examples from your own reading or experience of errors caused by (a) interpreting a perception in the light of preconceived opinion; and (b) confusing a sense impression with the inference made from it.
  3. Give some examples of 'making the wish father to the thought.'
  4. Give some examples of superstitions still widely believed in. Suggest some reasons why they survive.
  5. Illustrate the influence of Prejudice on (a) observation, and (b) memory.
  6. Explain and illustrate the tendency of the human mind to neglect negative evidence.
  7. Is a 'good' memory a blessing or a curse?
  8. What criteria would you use in judging a person's authority to give expert testimony?
  9. "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines." (Emerson.)
    Explain and comment.
  10. Write short explanatory notes on (a) the Mercantile theory (b) Laissez-faire, (c) Splendid isolation, and explain briefly the conditions which made each unworkable.
  11. At the time of the loss of the American Colonies, commonly accepted ideas were
    1. that trade with colonies must be governed by the Navigation Acts in order to secure profits for the mother country.
    2. that colonies were like fruits which clung to a tree until they were ripe, and then dropped off.
  12. Show how these ideas were subsequently discounted.
  13. "Distance lends enchantment to the view." Explain this saying and illustrate its application.
  14. What is to be said for and against the British practice of appointing 'amateurs' as heads of state departments?
  15. On more than one occasion policemen and schoolmasters have protested against the practice of filling the more responsible posts in the police force and the teaching profession with recruits from outside their regular ranks. What is to be said for and against their protests?
  16. "Enjoy your schooldays while you can; you will never have such happy days again; my schooldays were the happiest in my life." This is the sort of thing old gentlemen who give prizes away on Speech Days say (or used to say) to their young audiences. If you were given the opportunity to reply, what would you say?
  17. Find examples from current newspapers and advertisements of the use of testimony by people in the public eye on subjects on which they can claim no expert knowledge.
  18. Give some examples of historical dicta which have been exploded and yet still widely persist.
  19. Illustrate the dangers of 'over-simplification.'
  20. "It has never been denied. Therefore it must be". Explain the fallacy in this argument.
  21. Why is it not an easy matter to tell just what we saw and heard at a particular time?