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Bandwagon Fallacy; or, Welcome to the Internet

January 28, 2018

Philosophy

citizen, democracy, fallacy, reason, social masses, social media

Being ignorant is bad, but being ignorant while pretending to know is even worse. I was browsing the topics of an online forum, and a thread on the democracy of ancient Athens drew my attention. One of the participants mentioned Plato’s praise of democracy as a form of government, and several others agreed.

Now, that in itself was surprising to see on a forum (and a Greek forum, to boot), since you’d expect someone bothering to comment on such a thread to know that Plato despised democracy. But there was worse in store for me: I came face-to-face with the Bandwagon Fallacy – or Appeal to Popularity. Welcome to the Internet.

Bandwagon Fallacy
Athens was the birthplace of democracy, Plato established the Academy in Athens, ergo, Plato loved democracy, right? Well, some guys on the Internet think so, therefore who am I (or Plato) to say otherwise…
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Why Are 80s Retro Items Expensive?

January 26, 2018

Society

change, comparing, economy, growing up, nostalgia, society

In my post about nostalgia I talked about the fact that we recollect not space or time, but feelings. Still, problems related to time (and space) can and do creep in. Have you notice how expensive retro items have become?

For instance, I couldn’t have imagined when I was a kid, growing up in the 80s, that items such as my Casio wristwatch, my Tomy water games, or my board games, would three decades later be worth 10 times their value. To some extent, this is something you can expect with retro or vintage items.

And yet, one would think that such should be the case with something that is either far older (say, a toy from the 1920s) or far more rare (say, a limited-edition camera). To see a simple plastic toy from the 80s, which was surely produced in substantial quantities, cost a hundred euros or more, is baffling. What could be the reason for that, why are some 80s retro items expensive?

retro items expensive
I had a similar watch in the 80s. Back then it cost peanuts. Nowadays, not exactly
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Superstitious People and the Meaning of Life

January 24, 2018

Philosophy

causality, ignorance, luck, meaning, perception, superstition

The title (“Superstitious People and the Meaning of Life”) might come off as hopelessly pompous. Let me assure you that you will not find answers about the meaning of life in this article 😛

First of all, let’s start with the basics: what do we mean by superstitious people? And then we will have to deal with the crux of the matter: why are there superstitious people?

A superstitious person is one who perceives a connection that is non-causal between two events. In simpler terms, a superstition is the belief that event A causes event B, although there is no apparent link between them.

For example, an evident causal connection (a causal link, in other words) is that between accidentally dropping a glass of water, then seeing the floor wet and full of glass shards. Your dropping the glass (event A) has caused the state of the floor (event B). Sometimes a causal link can be more complex, such as in the linkage between thunder and rain. There can be thunder without rain, as there can be rain without thunder. But if there is thunder followed by rain, there is an obvious connection between the two events.

superstitious people
Me? Unlucky? Get outta here!
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