Friday, August 23, 2019

Doubtful

Let me recommend The Skeptic's Guide To The Universe, a book by Dr. Steven Novella, a neurologist from Yale, as well as several contributors. It's based on Novella's podcast.

Much of the book is taken up with core concepts of basic skepticism--reasons why people often fool themselves.  There are the facts of psychology (which the doctor should know), logical fallacies and biases, pseudoscience and historical tales of frauds and errors.

This is the best part of the book and should be required reading in schools.  Humans simply don't think logically and, while that will never stop, they should at least be aware of why they make these mistakes.  There's confirmation bias, cherry picking, straw man arguments, appeal to authority and so many other ways to go wrong.  Being aware of these problems will not prevent you from going wrong, but at least you might be a little more humble about your beliefs.

The rest of the book includes specific adventures in skepticism that the authors have been through, some worst-case scenarios to flow out of ignorance, problems with the media and how to try to change yourself as well as the world.

The book is 473 pages. Human folly is limitless, but The Skeptic's Guide To The Universe is a good start in the fight.

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