Conference: “Thomas Durand – Skepticism & Cognitive Biases”

Montpellier National School of Chemistry, Mousseron Lecture Hall, 240 Avenue du Professeur Émile Jeanbrau, 34090 Montpellier.

Skepticism focuses on discourse in the realm of beliefs and pseudoscience in order to master the intellectual tools needed to evaluate the validity of discourse in general.

The first step in skepticism is to become aware of our own biases, the blind spots in our rationality, and what results from them despite ourselves: the persistence of refuted beliefs. No one is immune to persisting in error because certain beliefs turn our intelligence against us.
Fortunately, there are ways to limit the damage, identify situations where error is likely, suspend our judgment, and ask ourselves the right questions. This allows us to avoid falling into the traps set before us, but also to outwit the greatest manipulator of all: ourselves.

This conference is organized by ED GAIA and the Montpellier Geosciences Laboratory.

About Thomas Durand

Science popularizer, host of La Tronche en Biais, author of books on science and critical thinking (L’ironie de l’évolution, Seuil 2018. Connaissez-vous l’homéopathie ? Editions Matériologiques 2019. Quand est-ce qu’on biaise ? Humenscience 2019. Pyramidologie, 2021), and director of the Association pour la Science et la Transmission de l’Esprit Critique (ASTEC), Thomas Durand is also a novelist and playwright.

• Registration is free but mandatory . Click here to register .