Amazon.com: How to Think About Weird Things: Critical Thinking for a New Age: 9780078038365: Schick, Theodore, Vaughn, Lewis: Books Amazon.com: How to Think About Weird Things: Critical Thinking for a New Age: 9780078038365: Schick, Theodore, Vaughn, Lewis: Books Skip to main content .us Hello Select your address A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas. An auxiliary officer reported five lighted objects that appeared to be burning and about 20 times the size of a passing plane. Topics will include creationism and evolution, medical . Bought used but the conditions were great! How to Think About Weird Things Critical Thinking for a New Age by Theodore Schick, Lewis Vaughn, and Theodore, Jr. Schick. It has to answer questions to obtain explanations of the unknown. helps the reader develop the skills needed to tell the true from the false and the reasonable from the unreasonable. Three thumbs up. 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. Required fields are marked *. Being weird is your hidden advantage. . 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. Listen to the MP3 Audio here: Michael Shermer on Why people believe weird things at TED Talks TRANSCRIPT: I'm Michael Shermer, director of the Skeptics Society, publisher of Skeptic Magazine.We investigate claims of the paranormal, pseudo-science, fringe groups and cults, and . in philosophy from Harvard University and his Ph.D. from Brown University. 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". Upon arriving, she comes to question everything she thought she knew about him, and herself. How to Think About Weird Things: Critical Thinking for a New Age by Theodore, Jr. Schick, Lewis Vaughn. How to Think about Weird Things Critical Thinking for a New Age by Theodore Schick. Acknowledgement of cultural contexts should always be a part of knowledge sharing and building. However, its proponents are adept at explaining away that evidence. No, I'm not kidding. I wish every high school student in America would read this book - but that would make life a lot harder for legions of politicians, hucksters, and scam artists. . CDs, DVDs, access codes, or lab manuals) is only included with a new textbook purchase. The Skeptical Inquirer magazine in the US is also excellent, and provides some free content. Suppose Im in the basement and cant see outside. You don't enjoy talking too much because you are an introvert. Theodore Schick received his B.A. In 1976, six workers reported a UFO over the site of a nuclear plant being constructed near the town of Apex, North Carolina. Your weirdness is a differentiator. Well worth a subscription. Of course, we have our hunches about whats most likely to be true. Perhaps the most obvious strategy we can employ when a belief in which we have invested a great deal is threatened is to start explaining away the evidence. Grieving parents contact spiritualists who offer to put them in contact with their dead children. 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. Save up to 80% versus print by going digital with VitalSource. ISBN-10. Our wandering mind can never go idle. We remove the responsibility for the result from the clients and do everything to ensure that the scientific work is recognized. Conspiracy theories are also popular, including that the Holocaust never happened and that the terrorist attacks on the United States of 11 September 2001 were an inside job. Quantum mechanics and black holes are very weird indeed. This book really makes you "think about what you're thinking about." . How to Think About Weird Things: Critical Thinking $211.14 (31) Only 1 left in stock. Had I been so fortunate, this book would have been the best text I could imagine for such a course. Despite second thoughts about their relationship, a young woman (Jessie Buckley) takes a road trip with her new boyfriend (Jesse Plemons) to his family farm . He is the author of Doing Philosophy: An Introduction through Thought Experiments, the editor of The Philosophy of Science: From Positivism to Post-modernism, and has published articles in several fields of philosophy including: philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, philosophy of religion, philosophy of language, meta-philosophy, epistemology, ethics, and aesthetics. When is a claim strongly confirmed by a piece of evidence? The county magistrate described a rectangular football-field-sized object that looked like it was on fire. Your email address will not be published. For example, suppose Simon claims a psychic ability to know the future. Take young-Earth creationists, for example. Yet many put down such coincidences to supernatural powers. First,a matter of emphasis. 3. Definitely one of those books you keep on the shelf and hold on to and return to years down the road. The most obvious application of this understanding comes up in political discussions. Schick andVaughns book isa rather popular college text, and itsin its sixth edition. The Mars face, on the other hand, provides an example of weak or non-existent evidence. What does it matter if Sally is a closed-minded naysayer when it comes to belief in psychic powers? Psyche is published by registered charity Aeon Media Group Ltd in association with Aeon America, a 501(c)(3) charity. It is quite extensive and covers many areas such as: doctor evidence, personal experience, placebo, how to spot quack cures, case studies, animal studies, clinical trials, etc. The Digital and eTextbook ISBNs for How to Think About Weird Things: Critical Thinking for a New Age are 9781260687095, 1260687090 and the print ISBNs are 9781259922558, 1259922553. Heres the second thing that Schick and Vaughn set at the front and center of critical thinking, and which I would put this way: There are things, in other words, that are logically possible but not physically possible. Millions of pieces of bread are toasted each morning. It was a coincidence, perhaps caused by a flock of birds or unusual weather. Einstein's theory of relativity provides a way of looking at the universe that makes it both logically and physically possible for the future to exist now. When it comes to religious and political beliefs, for example, or beliefs about the character of our close relatives, we can find it extraordinarily difficult to change our minds. Consequently, they fail to provide strong evidence for such beings. 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. Its also worth remembering that such stories are in any case often dubious. You will find more lots books in various disciplines. Science is a method of discerning the truth, not a particular body of truths. Those babies took milk and turned it into 12 pounds of flesh, bone, and brain. on the Internet. Nearby, a sinister secret lurks in the depths of a government lab. Author: Theodore Schick, Lewis Vaughn. How to Think About Weird Things was recommended as a primer on diagnosing Woo by Orac over at Scienceblogs. WEIRD subjects, from countries that represent only about 12 percent of the world's population, differ from other populations in moral decision making, reasoning style, fairness, even things like . 2. He lives in Oxford. I don't know why there is only one other review atm. For the most part, what I mean by a "weird thing" is: a claim unaccepted by most people in that particular field of study, a claim that is either logically impossible or highly unlikely, and/or a claim for which the evidence is largely anecdotal and uncorroborated. In any case, its really, really good. I used this as a textbook when I taught critical reasoning. How to Think about Weird Things: Critical Thinking for a New Age - 7th edition ISBN13: 9780078038365 ISBN10: 0078038367 by Theodore Schick Cover type: Paperback Edition: 7TH 14 Copyright: 2014 Publisher: McGraw-Hill Publishing Company Published: 2014 International: No Author bio Table of contents Digital rights eBOOK $57.50 You Save $28.50 (33%) weird things isnt even referring to weird things, for in our current world we have been so inundated in insanity and the spectacular that weird is our normal. 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. A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality study guides that feature detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, quotes, and essay topics. When we first see her, she is already plotting Duncan's murder, and she is stronger, more ruthless, and more ambitious than her husband. 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. Im a philosopher who has spent a great deal of time thinking about the reasonableness of such weird beliefs. This, in my view, is a brilliant illustration of the notion that ideas have consequences and are interlinked. I think that the above quote is something to ponder as a contrast to Schick and Vaughn. Conspiracy theories such as QAnon and the Sandy Hook hoax shape our current political landscape and feed extremist political thinking. Psychologists have developed theories to account for this tendency to overdetect agency, including that we have evolved whats called a hyperactive agency detecting device. 7. Intriguing articles, practical know-how and immersive films, straight to your inbox. This is an excellent book that explains critical thinking, Reviewed in the United States on July 5, 2014. 2. For example, when we observe a movement or pattern we cant understand, such as the retrograde motion of a planet in the night sky, were likely to think the movement is explained by some hidden agent working behind the scenes (that Mars is actually a god, say). This view of the universe has come to beknown as the block universe view because it takes the universe to bea static, unchanging block. But the universe doesnt seem static. Unfortunately, it's not entirely perfect; it's full of technical glitches, storage issues, and not a little bit of confusion. . In fact, its powerfully disconfirmed. Understand what strong evidence actually is. Suppose for example that Fred claims Alice visited him last night, sat on his sofa and drank a cup of tea. Uploaded by We tend significantly to underestimate how prone to illusion and deception we are when it comes to the wacky and weird. 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. Babies weight around 8 pounds when they're born, and around 20 pounds a year later. He is the author of Doing Philosophy: An Introduction through Thought Experiments, the editor of The Philosophy of Science: From Positivism to Post-modernism, and has published articles in several fields of philosophy including: philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, philosophy of religion, philosophy of language, meta-philosophy, epistemology, ethics, and aesthetics. (Nothing, for example, about framing or anchoring effects.) This book literally teaches you how to think about weird things. And this time in reading it, I thought that I might generate a blog postto accompanyeach chapter, responding to thingsthat leap out at me on this particular read-through. Your email address will not be published. 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). Clearly, people can be exploited. One example of our tendency to overdetect agency is pareidolia: our tendency to find patterns and, in particular, faces in random noise. Some believe it is created by the interaction between our consciousness and our four-dimensional selves. This was not that book. Fantastic book, read this as part of a university paper at the University of Canterbury. Product details Format Paperback | 352 pages Dimensions 152 x 229 x 15mm | 447g Having eaten mostly milk. They too saw the UFO. Theodore Schick received his B.A. Get the best deal for how to think about weird things from the largest online selection at eBay.ca. Product Identifiers. By applying the scientific method to the question of the existence of gods, it is quite clear that it is very unlikely that gods exist - but to force this conclusion onto entire cultural groups seems a recipe for violence (such a thing has occurred within the past few centuries countless times to indigenous peoples the world over via colonisation). 7. They also know what they need to do to fit in. A couple years later, as I have been looking to develop my ability to influence and convince, and to improve mental acuity, I returned to this book in the new edition. William Salomone. The British mathematician Norman Fenton, professor of risk information management at Queen Mary University of London, provides a brief online introduction to Bayesian approaches to assessing evidence. It concentrates on weird things, as the title indicates. 3. However, those who hold weird beliefs often muddle consistency and confirmation. How to Think About Weird Things: Critical Thinking for a New Age (7th Edition) - eBook PDF. His spiritual sightis stereoscopic, like his physical sight: he sees two different pictures at once and yet sees all the better for that. As we saw above, that theory really is strongly confirmed by the evidence. Why? They believe in the literal truth of the Biblical account of creation: that the entire Universe is under 10,000 years old, with all species being created as described in the Book of Genesis. The book Critical Thinking (2017) by Tom Chatfield offers a toolkit for what he calls being reasonable in an unreasonable world. Jane walks in with a wet coat and umbrella and tells me its raining. Your subscription to Connect includes the following: SmartBook - an adaptive digital version of the course textbook that personalizes your reading experience based on how well you are learning the content. Access to your instructors homework assignments, quizzes, syllabus, notes, reminders, and other important files for the course. Progress dashboards that quickly show how you are performing on your assignments and tips for improvement. The option to purchase (for a small fee) a print version of the book. This is especially true when it comes to selfish behavior; unvarnished self-interest is a learned social norm, not an unwavering feature of human behavior. Please use a different way to share. 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. | Browse our daily deals for even more savings! 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. Thanks for exploring this SuperSummary Plot Summary of "Why People Believe Weird Things" by Michael Shermer. As science keeps reminding us, reality often is weird. Thats particularly the case for beliefs in which we have invested a great deal emotionally, socially and/or financially. Well, it is of course possible that Jane is playing a prank on me with her wet coat and brolly. Ham believes that, by explaining away the evidence against young-Earth creationism in this way, he can show that his theory fits and so is scientifically confirmed by that evidence: According to Ham, young-Earth creationists and evolutionists do the same thing: they look for ways to make the evidence fit the theory to which they have already committed themselves: But, of course, scientists havent just found ways of showing how the theory of evolution can be made consistent with the evidence. If were starting from a very low base, probability-wise, then much more heavy lifting needs to be done by the evidence to raise the probability of the claim to a point where it might be reasonable to believe it. Get help and learn more about the design. When it comes to weird beliefs, its important we avoid being closed-minded naysayers with our fingers in our ears, but its also crucial that we avoid being credulous fools. Here I present five key pieces of advice that I hope will help you figure out for yourself what is and isnt reasonable. 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. Almost everyone agrees that, when it comes to black holes, scientists are the relevant experts, and scientific investigation is the right way to go about establishing whether or not they exist. And here we encountera sidebar titled The Psychic Scorecard (29) which brieflytouches onthe bleak track record of professionalpsychics. It's thought that your skin replaces itself regularly without you ever realizing it. Schick and Vaughn are also good at drawing out additionalimplications surrounding claims. This is an excellent book that explains critical thinking, logical fallacies and argumentation / logic while at the same time demonstrating how to apply them to pseudoscience and current topics in the headlines. Consequently, weve evolved to err on the side of overdetection often seeing agency where there is none. The fact is, we should expect huge coincidences. is a philosopher and author. 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? Mainstream religions are often committed to miracles and gods. Michael Shermer. Sometimes whales and dolphins are found with atavistic limbs leg-like structures where legs would be found on land mammals. Privacy Statement, Stuvia is not sponsored or endorsed by any college or university, Comme convenu! Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club thats right for you for free. This text serves well as a supplemental text in critical thinking, logic, introduction to philosophy, philosophy of science, epistemology, metaphysics, introduction to psychology, anomalistic psychology, perception and cognition, as well as any introductory science course. The moral is: showing that your theory can be made to fit be consistent with the evidence is not the same thing as showing your theory is confirmed by the evidence. Thus he has always believed that there was such a thing as fate, but such a thing as free will also. Finally I Can Win Arguments With Internet Trolls, Reviewed in the United States on December 17, 2018. Our confidence in a thing being true riseswherever ourreasoning is sound and there is goodphysical evidencethat accompanies our beliefs. 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