Why it matters

Attending the Nobel Conference every year always stimulates my thinking, especially because my science background is sketchy.

This year, the question/topic is "Who Were the First Humans?" To begin answering this question, this year's scholars/researchers have come from around the world (Arizona, Leipzig, Stanford, Oxford, the Smithsonian) and from a range of disciplines (anthropology, paleogenetics, archaeology, cognitive biologists). Their talks are lucid, complex, profound, and their interaction with each other is polite, fraught, complicated.

Here's the message that becomes increasingly clear, a message I need to keep emphasizing with my students: Claims are asserted and supported (and perhaps persuasion happens) because people make inferences using logical reasoning.

Many of my students think that "evidence" is the only thing that can support a claim. But often, we don't have tangible evidence ("demonstration" Plato and Aristotle called it). Often we have to use our logical reasoning skills.

I need to give my students LOTS more practice with this important "first human" skill.