Looseleaf for How to Think About Weird Things: Critical Thinking for a New Age

by Schick, Theodore; Vaughn, Lewis

• ISBN13: 9781260687132
• ISBN10: 1260687139
• Additional ISBN(s): 9780078038365, 9781259416507, 9781260548075, 9781265470418
• Edition: 8th
• Format: Loose-leaf
• Copyright: 2019-02-01
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education
• More Book Details

Table of Contents

Foreword

Preface

Chapter 1Introduction: Close Encounters with the Strange

The Importance of Why

Beyond Weird to the Absurd

A Weirdness Sampler

Notes

Chapter 2The Possibility of the Impossible

Paradigms and the Paranormal

Logical Possibility Versus Physical Impossibility

The Possibility of ESP

Theories and Things

On Knowing the Future

Summary

Study Questions

Evaluate These Claims

Discussion Questions

Field Problem

Critical Reading and Writing

Notes

Chapter 3Arguments Good, Bad, and Weird

Claims and Arguments

Deductive Arguments

Inductive Arguments

Enumerative Induction

Analogical Induction

Hypothetical Induction (Abduction, or Inference to the Best Explanation)

Informal Fallacies

Unacceptable Premises

Begging the Question

False Dilemma

Irrelevant Premises

Equivocation

Composition

Division

Appeal to the Person

Genetic Fallacy

Appeal to Authority

Appeal to the Masses

Appeal to Tradition

Appeal to Ignorance

Appeal to Fear

Straw Man

Insufficient Premises

Hasty Generalization

Faulty Analogy

False Cause

Slippery Slope

Statistical Fallacies

Misleading Averages

Missing Values

Hazy Comparisons

Evaluating Sources: Fake News

Summary

Study Questions

Evaluate These Claims

Discussion Questions

Field Problem

Critical Reading and Writing

Notes

Chapter 4Knowledge, Belief, and Evidence

Babylonian Knowledge-Acquisition Techniques

Propositional Knowledge

Reasons and Evidence

Expert Opinion

Coherence and Justification

Sources of Knowledge

The Appeal to Faith

The Appeal to Intuition

The Appeal to Mystical Experience

Astrology Revisited

Summary

Study Questions

Evaluate These Claims

Discussion Questions 

Field Problem

Critical Reading and Writing

Notes

Chapter 5Looking for Truth in Personal Experience

Seeming and Being

Perceiving: Why You Can’t Always Believe What You See

Perceptual Constancies

The Role of Expectation

Looking for Clarity in Vagueness

The Blondlot Case

“Constructing” UFOs

Remembering: Why You Can’t Always Trust What You Recall 

Conceiving: Why You Sometimes See What You Believe

Denying the Evidence

Subjective Validation

Confirmation Bias

The Availability Error

The Representativeness Heuristic

Anthropomorphic Bias

Against All Odds

Anecdotal Evidence: Why Testimonials Can’t Be Trusted

The Variable Nature of Illness

The Placebo Effect

Overlooked Causes

Scientific Evidence: Why Controlled Studies Can Be Trusted

Summary

Study Questions

Evaluate These Claims

Discussion Questions 

Field Problem

Critical Reading and Writing

Notes

Chapter 6Science and Its Pretenders

Science and Dogma

Science and Scientism

Scientific Methodology

Confirming and Refuting Hypotheses

Criteria of Adequacy

Testability

Fruitfulness

Scope

Simplicity

Conservatism

Creationism, Evolution, and Criteria of Adequacy

Scientific Creationism

Intelligent Design

Parapsychology

Summary

Study Questions

Evaluate These Claims

Discussion Questions

Field Problem

Critical Reading and Writing

Notes

Chapter 7Case 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

Intercessory Prayer

UFO Abductions

Communicating with the Dead

Near-Death Experiences

Ghosts

Conspiracy Theories

Climate Change

Summary

Study Questions

Evaluate These Claims

Field Problem

Critical Reading and Writing

Notes

Chapter 8Relativism, Truth, and Reality

We Each Create Our Own Reality 

Reality Is Socially Constructed

Reality Is Constituted by Conceptual Schemes

The Relativist’s Petard

Facing Reality 

Summary

Study Questions

Evaluate These Claims

Discussion Questions

Field Problem

Critical Reading and Writing

Notes

Credits

Index