How To Think About Weird Things
Download How To Think About Weird Things PDF/ePub or read online books in Mobi eBooks. Click Download or Read Online button to get How To Think About Weird Things book now. This website allows unlimited access to, at the time of writing, more than 1.5 million titles, including hundreds of thousands of titles in various foreign languages.
How to Think about Weird Things
Author: Schick, Jr. (Theodore)
language: en
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages
Release Date: 2010-05
This brief, inexpensive text helps the reader to think critically, using examples from the weird claims and beliefs that abound in our culture to demonstrate the sound evaluation of any claim. The authors focus on types of logical arguments and proofs, making How to Think about Weird Things a versatile supplement for logic, critical thinking, philosophy of science, or any other science appreciation courses.
Why People Believe Weird Things
A survey of a range of irrationalisms, with explanations of their empirical and logical flaws, this book describes the differences between science and pseudo-science, and goes on to describe and critique popular contemporary irrationalisms. Why do smart people believe weird things?Why do so many people believe in mind reading, past-life regression therapy, extra-terrestrial abduction and ghosts? What is behind the rise of 'scientific creationism' and Holocaust denial? In an age of supposed scientific enlightenment why do we appear more impressionable than ever?Scientific historian, and director of the Skeptics Society, Michael Shermer debunks these extraordinary claims in a no-holds-barred assault on the popular superstitions and confused prejudices of our time. Exploring the very human reasons behind otherworldly phenomena, conspiracy theories and cults Shermer explains why are they are so appealing to so many."Skepticism is the agent of reason against organized irrationalism -and is therefore one of the keys to human social and civic decency."Stephen Jay Gould, from his forewordShermer reveals the darker side of wishful thinking, through the recovered memory movement, satanic rituals and other modern witch hunts, and ideologies of racial superiority. Confronting those who take advantage of the gullibility of other people to advance their own, self-serving agendas Why People Believe Weird Things is compelling and often disturbing. It is a perceptive portrait of the human capacity for self-delusion and a celebration of the scientific spirit.
How to Think about Weird Things
Teaches readers how to tell good science from bad science. Covers an enormous range of bogus sciences and extraordinary claims. Stresses principles that help you critically evaluate outlandish claims -- and tells you why these principles are so important. Includes: explanations of 34 principles of knowledge, reasoning, and evidence that you can use to enhance your problem solving skills and sharpen your judgment; discussions of over 50 paranormal, supernatural, or mysterious phenomena; details of a step-by-step procedure for evaluating any extraordinary claim; and a detailed discussion of the characteristics, methodology, and limitations of science. Illustrated.