How to Think About Weird Things: Critical Thinking for a New Age
Theodore Schick
Language: English
Pages: 352
ISBN: 0078038367
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
This concise and engaging text teaches the basic principles of good reasoning through an examination of widely held beliefs about the paranormal, the supernatural, and the mysterious. By explaining what distinguishes knowledge from opinion, science from pseudoscience, and evidence from hearsay, How to Think about Weird Things helps the reader develop the skills needed to tell the true from the false and the reasonable from the unreasonable.
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To doubt a proposition if it conflicts with other propositions we have good reason to believe. The more background information a proposition conflicts with, the more reason there is to doubt it. When there is good reason to doubt a proposition, we should proportion our belief to the evidence. There is good reason to doubt a proposition if it conflicts with expert opinion. Just because someone is an expert in one field doesn't mean that he or she is an expert in another. If we have no reason.
Monster False Memory Syndrome Remembering: Do We Revise the Past? Past Life Remembered or Cryptomnesia? Judging:The Habit of Unwarranted Assumptions Denying the Evidence Spooky Presidential Coincidences Subjective Validation God's Salvation Church Confirmation Bias Crop Circles The Availability Error Superstitious Pigeons The Representativeness Heuristic Against All Odds What Are the Odds? You Wouldn't Believe It Rationalizing Homo Sapiens The Limits of Personal Experience.
7 Science and Its Pretenders Science and Dogma Science versus Technology Science and Scientism Scientific Methodology The Duhem Hypothesis Confirming and Confuting Hypotheses The Hollow Earth Criteria of Adequacy Testability Falsification and Psychoanalysis Fruitfulness Scope Nazi Cosmology Simplicity Conservatism Creationism, Evolution, and Criteria of Adequacy Scientific Creationism Did Adam and Eve Have Navels? Intelligent Design God the Extraterrestrial.
Of Quackery Medical Research Single Studies Conflicting Results Studies Conflicting with Fact Limitations of Studies Types of Studies In Vitro Experiments Animal Studies Observational Studies Is It Right to Promote Unproven Treatments? Clinical Trials Acupuncture, Advocacy, and Science Suggested Readings Notes 9 Case Studies in the Extraordinary The Search Formula Step 1 : State the Claim Step 2: Examine the Evidence for the Claim Step 3: Consider Alternative Hypotheses.
Step 4: Rate, According to the Criteria of Adequacy, Each Hypothesis Homeopathy Dowsing The Experience behind the Ouija Experience UFO Abductions Alien Astronauts from Yesteryear The Roswell Incident Communicating with the Dead Channeling The Biblical View of Souls Near-Death Experiences The Amityville Horror—Mongers Spontaneous Human Combustion Moody's Crystal Ball Ghosts Bad Vibes Suggested Readings Notes Epilogue: Mysteries in Perspective Credits Index Principles.