Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Babies weight around 8 pounds when they're born, and around 20 pounds a year later. absolutely a relic of the 90s, published right before post-modernity entered the mass public consciousness, before western civilization entered what we now call the digital age. The authors defend the scientific method as the only way to determine what is true, and thus be in the best possible position to make good decisions - but it doesnt always follow that knowing what is scientifically true will lead to knowledge of how to construct a fair and equitable society. She explains that she sat with August on the first day of school because she felt sorry . Another reason could be because you are a silent type. Its an extraordinary claim requiring extraordinary evidence. Kissing allows people to use smell and taste to assess each other as potential mates. That understanding can also help you actively influence the decision making of others, for better or worse. Psychologists call this tendency confirmation bias. I focus here on a particular kind of weird belief: not only are these beliefs that concern the enticingly odd, theyre also beliefs that the general public finds particularly difficult to assess. Think you're smart? Paperback, 9780767409773, 0767409779 Show me Im mistaken in believing that the Matterhorn is near Chamonix, and Ill just drop that belief. So now consider our report of the UFO hanging over the nuclear power construction site. Author: Theodore Schick, Lewis Vaughn. Observe 2. ISBN-10. The Skeptical Inquirer magazine in the US is also excellent, and provides some free content. Their niceness is a mask they've deliberately put on. Your email address will not be published. Still, if we count only Simons hits and ignore his misses, its easy to create the impression that he has some sort of gift. This book really makes you "think about what you're thinking about." Thus, I read a text book for fun. We should expect such hard-to-explain reports anyway, whether or not were visited by aliens. Using video, images and music, pro. And, of course, nature is occasionally going to throw up the face-like patterns just by chance. | Browse our daily deals for even more savings! document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Pingback: An Invitation: Believe in Evolution, and You Too Can Join Richard Dawkins, and His Alien Friends, in the Universes Superior Club Prometheus Unbound. Take enough photos of Mars, and some will reveal face-like features just by chance. A worthwhile textbook on critical thinking, written for the modern audience without focusing on pointless abstractions. Lewis Vaughn is the author or coauthor of several books, including: Philosophy Here and Now (2013); Bioethics: Principles, Issues, and Cases, Second Edition (2013); Great Philosophical Arguments (2012); Classics of Philosophy (2011); Philosophy: The Quest for Truth, Eighth Edition (2012); How to Think About Weird Things: Critical Thinking for a New Age, Sixth Edition (2011); Doing Ethics: Moral Reasoning and Contemporary Issues, Third Edition (2013); Doing Philosophy: An Introduction Through Thought Experiments, Fourth Edition (2010); The Moral Life, Fourth Edition (2011); and Writing Philosophy: A Student's Guide to Writing Philosophy Essays (OUP, 2005). I ended up asking my prof if there were better books out there that discussed critical thinking. However, those who hold weird beliefs often muddle consistency and confirmation. Its certainly not confirmed by the available evidence about dogs. But is precognition real? Such models draw their inspiration from Hermann Minkowskis interpretation of Einsteins special theory of relativity. I couldn't stop thinking about how this book was, "so cool." I got more from class notes at lectures than this book. It was a coincidence, perhaps caused by a flock of birds or unusual weather. Not everything we encounter is weird and spooky and paranormal. And so he can continue to insist his belief is logically consistent with the evidence. When is a claim strongly confirmed by a piece of evidence? Grieving parents contact spiritualists who offer to put them in contact with their dead children. Daves friends present him with a great deal of evidence that hes mistaken. Learning to listen to others and to ask smart questions is more important. in philosophy from Harvard University and his Ph.D. from Brown University. Suppose for example that Fred claims Alice visited him last night, sat on his sofa and drank a cup of tea. Many weird beliefs also have huge social and political implications. It was the scientist Carl Sagan who in 1980 said: Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. By an extraordinary claim, Sagan appears to have meant an extraordinarily improbable claim, such as that Alice can fly by flapping her arms, or that she can move objects with her mind. No. I was hoping for a serious look into critical thinking. . This is a fun and easy to read book that teaches critical thinking skills while examining controversial topics like crop circles, astrology, ghosts, alien abductions, fire walking, sasquatch, etc. The ones that you choose to put on your plate interact with each otherand, if you choose wildly, they can challenge your very own intellectual coherence. Confirmation bias can also create the false impression that a therapy is effective. Precognitionmay belogically possible and consistent with some paradigms that do not violate physical law, but if the actualdirect evidence for it is poor or ambiguous, then we should be cautious about believing that it really exists. on May 24, 2021, There are no reviews yet. Peddlers of alternative medicine and faith healing charge exorbitant fees for their cures for terminal illnesses. One famous illustration was produced in 1976 by the Mars probe Viking Orbiter 1. Quantum mechanics and black holes are very weird indeed. As someone who finds himself more and more irritated by irrational thinking (despite my own gaping biases that lead to it), I was really interested in reading this book. Being sceptical about such reports of alien craft, ghosts or fairies is not knee-jerk, fingers-in-our-ears naysaying. CDs, DVDs, access codes, or lab manuals) is only included with a new textbook purchase. As we saw above, that theory really is strongly confirmed by the evidence. Surely, many would say, given all this evidence, its reasonable to believe there was at least something extraordinary floating over the site. How to Think About Weird Things: Critical Thinking for a New Age 7 th edition (PDF) is a concise and engaging textbook that teaches the basic principles of good reasoning through an examination of widely held beliefs about the supernatural, the paranormal and the mysterious. this is the best book out there i've read (and i've read like a ton) specifically about the paranormal. Nearby, a sinister secret lurks in the depths of a government lab. http://www.ted.com Why do people see the Virgin Mary on cheese sandwiches or hear demonic lyrics in "Stairway to Heaven"? A great introduction to critical thinking and would recommend. Babies are fucking made of milk. One example of our tendency to overdetect agency is pareidolia: our tendency to find patterns and, in particular, faces in random noise. Full of misgivings, a young woman travels with her new boyfriend to his parents' secluded farm. What does it matter if Mary believes there are fairies at the bottom of her garden, or Joe thinks his dead aunty visits him occasionally? Rather, his texts were later creatively interpreted to fit what subsequently happened. For example, suppose Simon claims a psychic ability to know the future. These discoveries strongly confirm the theory that whales and dolphins evolved from earlier limbed, land-dwelling species. ISBN-10 007287953X ISBN-13 978-0072879537 Edition 4th Publisher McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages Publication date It goes step by step through applied critical thinking to help you rebuff every new-age, esoteric, psychical or alien phenomena you can think of. Required fields are marked *. Psychic reading and astrology are huge businesses with turnovers of billions of dollars per year. The Santi Report (My Version of a Drudge Report Page), Blogging Schick and Vaughns How to Think about Weird Things, Chapter 2, An Invitation: Believe in Evolution, and You Too Can Join Richard Dawkins, and His Alien Friends, in the Universes Superior Club Prometheus Unbound, Be aware of the paradigmtheworldview/theoretical frameworkthat youarereasoning from, Always keep in mind the difference between logical possibility and physical impossibility. 1996-2023, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. 4. This is very like the poets capacioushabitof looking at the worldfrom very different vantagesand metaphors without any rushing to artificially reconcile or justify them (otherwise known as negative capability). ISBN-13: 9780073386621. These ideas, which are commonly called shower thoughts, allow us to look at things from a different perspective. Three thumbs up. Take homeopathy, for example. Had our ancestors missed an agent a sabre-toothed tiger or a rival, say that might well have reduced their chances of surviving and reproducing. 6. The lesson (to echo Shakespeare): there may well be more things in our material heaven and Earthandoutside of themthanare dreamtof in our current philosophiesorparadigmsHoratio. I believe the single biggest failing of American education today is its focus on memorization and regurgitation, along with just enough basic arithmetic to work at WalMart, and its total neglect of critical thinking skills. . Acknowledgement of cultural contexts should always be a part of knowledge sharing and building. Scientific Methodology 1. In fact, Simon once predicted that a certain celebrity would die within 12 months, and they did! The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark. I was really happy because I tend to write notes and highlight a lot, Reviewed in the United States on June 26, 2019. Understand what strong evidence actually is. Thus, I read a text book for fun. Clearly, people can be exploited. Granted, no one likes the guy who brings logic to the party, so you might not want to start off every statement with, "well, actually". Living Philosophy: A Historical Introduction to Philosophical Ideas, Doing Ethics: Moral Reasoning, Theory, and Contemporary Issues, Beginning Ethics: An Introduction to Moral Philosophy, Reviewed in the United States on February 16, 2023.
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