Humans are rational. Critically discuss the theoretical and empirical Essay

Humans are rational. Critically discuss the theoretical and empirical evidence from psychology for and against this assertion - Essay Example These biases, such as confirmation bias, anchoring, base rate neglect and overconfidence, make up the first section of this essay. The biases are present in behavioral economics, which dictates that humans will behave in a way that is efficient for them in an economic sense, and this makes up the second portion of this essay. There is some indication that humans can be rational when it comes to domain specific tasks – such as exposing cheating or enforcing social contracts. Because of this, more study should be done regarding other domain specific tasks to indicate if there are pockets of rationality in other domain specific areas. Moreover, there is considerable thought that the irrational nature that is detected on the tests could be the result of something other than irrationality at work – such as poorly worded tests, computational errors, incorrect norms being applied, or inattention of the participants. Therefore, it is possible that humans are not as irrational a s these tests might presume. This analysis makes up the third and last portion of this essay. Discussion Reasoning is a part of cognition, which is virtually wholly made up of using inference. There is some question of whether or not reasoning has a separate cognitive system unto itself, or whether or not it is merely a part of the whole of cognition (Manktelow & Chung, 2004, p. 66). That said, reasoning must be distinguished from intuition. The main difference between reason and intuition is that reasoning is done deliberately and consciously, while intuition springs forth from the mind in a spontaneous fashion, without effort or a conscious search (Kahneman, 2003, p. 1450). Thus, when a person is doing an income tax form, he is using reasoning; when that same person revolts at eating a piece of chocolate that is the shape of a cockroach, that person is working from intuition (Kahneman, 2003, p. 1450). Reasoning is a function that is only in the higher order beings, as there has be en no evidence that reasoning is present in animals or children who are pre-verbal (Mercier & Sperber, p. 3). There are three basic types of reasoning, according to Samuels et al. (2004). They are descriptive, which describes how humans actually reason; normative, which describes how humans should reason; and evaluative, which describes the difference between how humans actually reason and how they should reason. In other words, there is an assumed standard that has been established by the normative project, so researchers interested in the evaluative project are interested in finding out how actual reasoning fit the assumed standard (Samuels et al., 2004, p. 1). These are the bases of deciding whether humans are rational or irrational – does their reasoning fit what is normative? If this is the case, then rationality can be presumed, for this would mean that the individual is making decisions that benefit him or herself. There are a series of normative rules that prescribe h ow humans should behave. One of these is cancellation, which means that a human will eliminate â€Å"any state of the world that yields the same results, regardless of one’s choice† (Tverskey & Kahneman, 1986, p. s252). Cancellation is important because only one state will be realized, which makes it easy to evaluate the other options separately for each state. Transivity is another rule, which means that each option in an

Chemistry Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Chemistry - Research Paper Example the historical background of hydrogen, its chemical formula and elements, as well as its use in compounds that make up the fabric of our very existence. Hydrogen was first produced artificially by a scientist named T. Von Hohenheim in the 16th century. In combining metals and strong acids he created a flammable gas; however he didn’t realize that what he had created was hydrogen. It wasn’t until 1671 that Robert Boyle combined iron fillings and dilute acids that the element was rediscovered. In 1766 Henry Cavendish became the first to understand that the gas produced by these combinations itself constituted a wholly unique substance. Finally, in 1783 Antoine Lavosier gave the element the moniker of hydrogen upon discovering that water was produced when the then unnamed substance was burned. (Rigden 2003) The name is derived from hudur, which means water and and gennan, meaning generate, thus giving it water generator. It was named this because of Cavendishs experiment where he combined oxygen and hydrogen. Hydrogen has the atomic number 1 and the symbol H. Hydrogen is a colorless, odorless, tasteless gas (at room tempe rature) and highly explosive. Hydrogen is the least dense gas known to man. Its melting point is 14o K and the boiling point is 20.28o K. The atomic mass of hydrogen is 1.00794 amu. Because it has only one electron it will react very quickly and, in many cases, violently. To view this, combine hydrogen with fluorine. Hydrogen has three isotopes. The first is H-1, Protium, which is stable. Protium makes up 98% of naturally occurring hydrogen. The second is H-2, Deuterium, which is also stable. Deuterium makes up 1.99% of naturally occurring hydrogen. The third is H-3, Tritium, which is radioactive. Tritium has a half-life of 12.3 years. Tritium makes up about 0.001% of naturally occurring hydrogen. Hydrogen has numerous uses, the most common of those are balloons, metal refining, and production of electricity. Some of those uses are dangerous.