Ep. 13 - Reflection-Philosophy Order Effects and Correlations Across Samples

Upon Reflection

Suppose you glance at a clock that, unbeknownst to you, is broken, showing the same time all day. Nonetheless, you happened to look at the clock precisely when it showed the correct time. So your belief about the time is correct. My question is this: did you know what time it is? Perhaps you think that you did. After all, you formed a belief on the basis of a device that most people trust and the belief was true! What else would it mean to know something? Well, in academic philosophy, the orthodox answer to this kind of thought experiment is "no". People who perform better on tests of reflective thinking tend to report philosophers' orthodox answer to this kind of thought experiment. And, if you've been following my research, you know that philosophers are particularly reflective thinkers. These correlations may make you wonder about causation. Does thinking reflectively cause people to accept philosophers' orthodoxy? Or is it the other way around: does studying thought experiments like the broken clock case somehow result in people performing better on reflection tests? In this episode, I'll tell you about the experiment I ran to find out. The paper is titled "Reflection-Philosophy Order Effects and Correlations Across Samples" and has been accepted for publication in Analysis. The paper will also mention a bunch of other thought experiments, tests of reflective thinking, and measures of research participants' data quality. Byrd, N. (2025). Reflection-Philosophy Order Effects and Correlations Across Samples. Analysis. Preprint: 10.31234/osf.io/y8sdm. Open access article: 10.1093/analys/anaf015 As always, free preprints of my papers are available on my CV at byrdnick.com/cv under "Publications". This episode's affiliate partner is Spark Education, who is offering free 30-minute class demo for your child. You can read about the testimonials, stats, and all the activities included in their latest offer at SparkMath.pxf.io/PObNOR. You can find the Upon Reflection podcast here or in your podcast app. If you like what you hear, you can subscribe wherever you find podcasts, follow on BlueSky at @ByrdNick.com, on Mastadon (@ByrdNick), and all the other platforms. If you end up enjoying the Upon Reflection podcast, then feel free to tell people about it, online, in person, or in your review. Related posts Upon Reflection, Ep. 10: Great Minds Do Not Think Alike Upon Reflection, Ep. 8: Reflective Reasoning & Philosophy Upon Reflection, Ep. 6: Your Health vs. My Liberty (COVID-19 Research Paper) Upon Reflection, Ep. 2: Not All Who Ponder Count Costs (Reflection & Moral Dilemmas) Oppenheimer: ‘Philosopher-Scientist-Statesman’