Critical Thinking – Pseudoscience and the Paranormal, Second Edition
Pseudoscience and the Paranormal
Samenvatting
Comprehensive and engaging, this extensively revised edition of a student and instructor favorite introduces the basics of critical thinking using the claims of pseudoscience and the paranormal.
Guides readers through the critical thinking process by considering different types of support (sources, logic, and scientific observation) and ruling out alternative explanations
Allows students to practice and apply their new critical thinking skills on claims of extraordinary cures including energy treatments, complementary/alternative medicine and faith healing as well as four paranormal claims of consequence: astrology, spiritualism and the afterlife, parapsychology, and creationism.
Couples a conversational, nontechnical narrative with student–friendly pedagogical tools, including critical thinking questions, a study guide for each chapter, and a companion website
Provides clear and open–minded discussions of the paranormal spectrum, belief justification surveys, the placebo effect, and the relationship between religion and critical thinking
Specificaties
Inhoudsopgave
<p>1 Critical Thinking: Your Survival Kit</p>
<p>2 The Paranormal Spectrum</p>
<p>3 What s the Harm? Why Study These Things?</p>
<p>PART 2: THE CRITICAL THINKER S TOOLKIT</p>
<p>4 Sources</p>
<p>5 Logic (Bonus: The Top Four Informal Logical Fallacies)</p>
<p>6 Logic and language: Fallacies of Ambiguity</p>
<p>7 Science</p>
<p>PART 3: ALTERNATIVE EXPLANATIONS</p>
<p>8 Oddities of Nature and the World of Numbers</p>
<p>9 Perceptual Error and Trickery</p>
<p>10 Memory Errors</p>
<p>11 Placebo Effect</p>
<p>12 Sensory Phenomena, Hallucinations, and Psychiatric Conditions</p>
<p>PART 4: PARANORMAL CHALLENGES</p>
<p>13 Claims of Extraordinary Cures</p>
<p>14 From the Paranormal Sampler: Four Claims of Consequence</p>
<p>APPENDIX A Why Do You Believe?</p>
<p>APPENDIX B: The Belief Justification Survey</p>
<p>REFERENCES</p>