in philosophy from Harvard University and his Ph.D. from Brown University. How to think about weird things From discs in the sky to faces in toast, learn to weigh evidence sceptically without becoming a closed-minded naysayer by Stephen Law From the UFO photo archives of Gordon MacDonald Stephen Law is a philosopher and author. The methodology presented by Shermer allows one to think clearly and understand why humans want to believe in so many false things. . Very useful book for understanding sound scientific and logical principles for evaluating information. 4. While most scientists are sceptical about psychic abilities, what of the thousands of reports from people who claim to have received insights from psychics who could only have known what they did if they really do have some sort of psychic gift? ISBN-10: 0073386626. Details; Description; Show me Im mistaken in believing that the Matterhorn is near Chamonix, and Ill just drop that belief. We're available through e-mail, live chat and Facebook. Its an extraordinary claim requiring extraordinary evidence. 0 Ratings 12 Want to read; 0 Currently reading; 0 Have read; How to Think About Weird Things. Maybe the way we talk about one thing is not the way we should talk about another. Publish Date: Dec 05, 2007. Conspiracy theories such as QAnon and the Sandy Hook hoax shape our current political landscape and feed extremist political thinking. 14 day loan required to access PDF files. 5. Total Price: $23.99. Science is a method of discerning the truth, not a particular body of truths. My book Believing Bullshit: How Not to Get Sucked into an Intellectual Black Hole (2011) identifies eight tricks of the trade that can turn flaky ideas into psychological flytraps and how to avoid them. Add to Wish List Link to this Book Add to Bookbag Sell this Book Buy it at Amazon Compare Prices. web pages Rather, such variables as genetic predisposition, parental predilection, sibling influence, peer pressure, educational experience and life impressions all shape the personality preferences that, in conjunction with numerous social and cultural influences, lead us to our beliefs. I think that the above quote is something to ponder as a contrast to Schick and Vaughn. Learning to listen to others and to ask smart questions is more important. But notice that, had the reporters not discovered the truth, this story would likely have gone down in the annals of ufology as one of the great unexplained cases. Heres an example. Bought used but the conditions were great! He has also contributed to a number of volumes in Open Courts Philosophy and Popular Culture series as well as Blackwells Philosophy for Everyone series.Lewis Vaughn is the author of numerous textbooks in philosophy, critical thinking, and ethics including The Power of Critical Thinking(2019); Concise Guide to Critical Thinking (2017); Philosophy Here and Now(2019); Living Philosophy: A Historical Introduction to Philosophical Ideas(2018); Doing Ethics: Moral Reasoning, Theory, and Contemporary Issues(2019); Beginning Ethics: An Introduction to Moral Philosophy (2015); Bioethics: Principles, Issues, and Cases(2017); and Writing Philosophy(2018). Summer thinks that kids are weird. I used this as a textbook when I taught critical reasoning. It matters that we dont delude ourselves into thinking were being reasonable when were not. Take enough photos of Mars, and some will reveal face-like features just by chance. Study and Critical Thinking Skills in College, 7th Edition. Take homeopathy, for example. 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. The authors do a decent job of laying out modes of reasoning in order to counter extraordinary claims such as alien abductions/visitations, psychic phenomenon, ghosts, conspiracy theories and other wild phenomenon. Uploaded by But when it comes to pinning down precisely why such beliefs are or arent reasonable, even the most intelligent and well educated of us can quickly find ourselves out of our depth. I don't know why there is only one other review atm. 100% Success rate. I was quite disconcerted by one of the imagined scenarios given as a revision tool which said something to the effect of, if you encountered a village of people who believed in some god, how would you go about convincing them that this god is not real? By explaining what distinguishes knowledge from opinion, science from pseudoscience, and evidence from hearsay, How to Think about Weird Thingshelps the reader develop the skills needed to tell the true from the false and the reasonable from the unreasonable. It could also serve as a main text for courses in evaluation of the paranormal, philosophical implications of the paranormal, occult beliefs, and pseudoscience. Sometimes, belief in weird things is pretty harmless. So, while ghosts might be weird, thats no reason to dismiss belief in them out of hand. Of course, were not going to just take Freds word for that. this is antiquated by its nature, a book that presumes that its pure thinking of facts and logic and reason is the supreme way to humor matters of superstition and faith, or even other truths. It explains seemingly mysterious phenomena like spontaneous human combustion, divining, and the Amityville Horror, and tells you why the U.S. Army was actually trying to build an army of "warrior monks" who could use ESP, leave their bodies at will, levitate, and walk through walls. Strange things are afoot in Hawkins, Indiana, where a young boy's sudden disappearance unearths a young girl with otherworldly powers. 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. . Huge amounts of money are often also at stake when it comes to weird beliefs. Unfortunately, it's not entirely perfect; it's full of technical glitches, storage issues, and not a little bit of confusion. 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. But that sort of fit can be achieved whether Nostradamus had extraordinary abilities or not. I might even gift it to a friend or coworker that I think would be most receptive to what a book like this has in store. One example of our tendency to overdetect agency is pareidolia: our tendency to find patterns and, in particular, faces in random noise. Stare at passing clouds or into the embers of a fire, and its easy to interpret the randomly generated shapes we see as faces, often spooky ones, staring back. People believe weird things because of wishful thinking and continue to believe in those things despite contrary evidence because they are unwilling to alter preconceived notions. Our UFO story isnt over yet. Sometimes whales and dolphins are found with atavistic limbs leg-like structures where legs would be found on land mammals. However, when it comes to ghosts, psychic powers or conspiracy theories, we often hold wildly divergent views not only about how reasonable such beliefs are, but also about what might count as strong evidence for or against them, and who the relevant authorities are. Each chapter has, at its end, study questions and such; they lack recommendations for further reading. 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. How to Think About Weird Things was recommended as a primer on diagnosing Woo by Orac over at Scienceblogs. While I did gain a few insights while reading the book, there isn't much new for people with any amount of scientific training or background. . Reviewed in the United States on December 12, 2019. With everyday normal life moving too fast to comprehend, people are turning to the bizarre and wacky for comfort. on May 24, 2021, There are no reviews yet. And what, in chapter 2, did I find particularly notable? Psyche is published by registered charity Aeon Media Group Ltd in association with Aeon America, a 501(c)(3) charity. Please use a different way to share. 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. Having eaten mostly milk. Full of misgivings, a young woman travels with her new boyfriend to his parents' secluded farm. In fact, it is likely to do this around 900 times during your lifetime. Chesterton is clearly dismissing the importance of maintaining intellectual coherence in discourse. It falters in terms of how to reconcile these approaches with the existence of unscientific phenomena which cannot be wholly undone without cruelty, discrimination or violence - culture, gender identity, etc. Shouldnt we give at least as much weight to the testimony of the many people who claim to have benefitted from homeopathic treatment? I think its interesting that Schick and Vaughn, as they get into the meat of their book,put at front and center, ala Thomas Kuhn, the importance of paradigms, which I would put this way: The example that they use is an excellent one, for it illustrates how your worldview can lead to incorrect inferences with regards to data and evidence: On hearing of a meteorite dropping to Earth, Thomas Jefferson famously declared that he would sooner believe thatindividuals bearing witness to such a thing were lyingas to believe that rocks actually fall out of the sky. Publisher. How to Think About Weird Things: Critical Thinking for a New Age 8th Edition is written by Theodore Schick and published by McGraw-Hill Higher Education. In any case, its really, really good. Finally, the press got interested. Plenty also believe in supernatural powers, including psychic abilities, faith healing and communication with the dead. Edition: 5th. And, of course, many trust in alternative medicines such as homeopathy, the effectiveness of which seems to run contrary to our scientific understanding of how the world actually works. This binder-ready, loose-leaf version includes free shipping.Complete system requirements to use Connect can be found here: http://www.mheducation.com/highered/platforms/connect/training-support-students.html. The cover was a little work out but it had all the pages and no markings! ISBN-10 007287953X ISBN-13 978-0072879537 Edition 4th Publisher McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages Publication date The fact is, we should expect huge coincidences. Surely, many would say, given all this evidence, its reasonable to believe there was at least something extraordinary floating over the site. This brief, affordable text helps students to think critically, using examples from the weird claims and beliefs that abound in our culture to demonstrate the sound evaluation of any claim. Product Identifiers Publisher McGraw-Hill Higher Education ISBN-10 0767420489 ISBN-13 9780767420488 eBay Product ID (ePID) 1795696 But its far more likely she would appear with a wet coat and umbrella and tell me its raining if thats true than if its false. CUDA: Improved Layout Transform Schedule Summary This PR does the following Adds a scheduling rule for layout transform operator CUDA target Forwards this information by adding "schedule_rule" attribute to layout transform topi Annotates the layout transform topi with some information needed during scheduling. Whatever that unappealing quality was, it dissipated in the following chapters, and I am delighted that I stuck it out and took the time to reflect on the messages of the text. Why? But what about that radar blip? It concentrates on weird things, as the title indicates. : . Other Editions of How to Think about Weird Things How to Think about Weird Things: Critical Thinking for a New Age - 7th edition Not, of course, that because this UFO report turned out to have a mundane explanation, all such reports can be similarly dismissed. This, I think, is a clever way for Schick and Vaughn to entangle good reasoning with evidence and data: its not enough to think clearly, you should try to produce physical evidence for your claims as well. Psychologists call this tendency confirmation bias. We want, as far as possible, to be reasonable. The textbook How to Think About Weird Things: Critical Thinking for a New Age (2019, 8th ed) by the philosophers Theodore Schick and Lewis Vaughn, offers step-by-step advice on sorting through reasons, evaluating evidence and judging the veracity of a claim. 1. Great stuff. Well worth a subscription. Yes, if there was an ancient Martian civilisation, then we might discover what appeared to be a huge face built on the surface of the planet. The county magistrate described a rectangular football-field-sized object that looked like it was on fire. How To Think About Weird Things 4th Edition by Theodore Schick Synopses & Reviews Publisher Comments 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. For example, suppose Simon claims a psychic ability to know the future. He lives in Oxford. I bought it because I love to learn. Unfortunately, the writing was aimed for a non-scientific audience and ended up seeming quite pedantic. Every other year or so I find myself returning to Theodore Schick and Lewis Vaughnscritical thinking text,How to Think about Weird Things,and rereading the wholedarn thing through again. Thus, I read a text book for fun. For example, they can be generated by the power of suggestion: tell people that a treatment will improve their condition, and many will report that it has, even if the treatment actually offers no genuine medical benefit. Overview; View 14 Editions Details; Reviews Lists; Related Books; Publish Date. I really enjoyed the chapter on medical miracle cures. In applying critical thinking, is thereever a moment where common senseor other considerationsshould restrain us (lest we miss theforest for the trees)? Thats pretty strong evidence its raining. Similarly, given the low prior probability of the claims that someone communicated with a dead relative, or has fairies living in their local wood, or has miraculously raised someone from the dead, or can move physical objects with their mind, we should similarly set the evidential bar much higher than we would for more mundane claims. It's thought that your skin replaces itself regularly without you ever realizing it. CDs, DVDs, access codes, or lab manuals) is only included with a new textbook purchase. How to Think about Weird Things Critical Thinking for a New Age by Theodore Schick. Discover your study material at Stuvia. Buy How to Think About Weird Things: Critical Thinking for a New Age 5th edition (9780073386621) by Theodore Schick and Lewis Vaughn for up to 90% off at Textbooks.com. Often, its the most desperate who will turn to such businesses for advice. Take the fossil record embedded in sedimentary layers revealing that todays species evolved from earlier species over many millions of years. A cow, for example, could logically jump over the moonthereis nothing in logic that prevents thisbut there are things that we have discovered about the nature of the physical world that make this impossible (for one, a cows hind musclesdo not generate enough force to escape Earths gravity). The ordinary man has always been sane because the ordinary man has always been a mystic. 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