An example of something that was counter-intuitive
Some countries try to stimulate their economies by increasing the money supply. When people have a lot of money, you would expect them not to be poor since they can buy whatever they desire. Economists have tried to explain what happens in most countries where such policies are implemented. In most cases, it is found that people tend to become poorer despite the availability of money. The common intuition is that the economy will get stimulated, but economists describe this as a country being in a liquidity trap. People demand more than what is the productive capacity of their country, resulting in inflationary gaps where more money pursues few goods. Consequently, the country gets into an economic downturn and people continue to dwell in poverty.
An example of the three paradoxes that Prof Kane talked about during class
One of the examples of the paradoxes discussed was the paradox of political liberty. The claim about the political freedom is something that looks paradoxical and people need to reconsider it. When people claim they have political liberty, they often commit a fallacy of insufficient evidence since such a claim is paradoxical and ought to be dismissed. The idea of liberty implies the presence of freedom to pursue what one considers right without any inhibition. However, this does not literally happen since there are so many political constraints that deter people from pursuing political liberty.
An example of groupthink
Group- think is something psychological that involves a group of individuals making a particular decision. Individuals in the group usually do not involve themselves in the critical evaluation of the consequences of their decisions. An example of groupthink is the industrial actions that workers in business organizations engage in. Workers sit and make a decision to undertake an industrial action to express a particular issue that affects them as a group without considering what might befall each.
An example of deductive and inductive reasoning
Deductive reasoning entails a process of arriving at a specific conclusion from a general phenomenon. It involves arriving at a particular conclusion from a general list of premises that were initially assumed true. An example of research decisions that are governed by deductive reasoning is the discovery of the first law of thermodynamics which states that energy is neither destroyed nor created but only changes in form. This law was deduced from a series of observations that were true, and it was generalized for all forms of energy. Inductive reasoning is usually applied in scientific research where small samples are used to make a certain general conclusion. For example, the scientist who discovered the causative agent of malaria tested few individuals who showed the certain symptoms ad found them having the Plasmodium. Then, he concluded that any person who contracts the disease must have come into contact with that pathogen that causes malaria.
An interesting story about unintended consequences
One of the most interesting stories with an element of unintended consequence is the story of Cobra effect. This occurred during the British rule in India when the British government was concerned about the rising number of poisonous snakes. Therefore, the government offered some rewards for anybody who killed cobra snakes to reduce the population of the wild snakes. During the same period, the government became aware of a business organization that was breeding snakes for commercial activities and immediately withdrew the reward, resulting in an increased population of snakes contrary to what it was initially intended.
