The Baloney Detection Kit
About this book
This 16-page booklet is designed to hone your critical thinking skills. It includes suggestions on what questions to ask, what traps to avoid, specific examples of how the scientific method is used to test pseudoscience and paranormal claims, and a how-to guide for developing a class in critical thinking.Plus, you’ll also find:Sagan’s Ten Tools for Baloney Detection and Shermer’s Ten Questions For Baloney DetectionHow Thinking Goes Wrong: The 25 Fallacies of ThinkingProblems in Scientific ThinkingTheory Influences ObservationsThe Observer Changes the ObservedEquipment Construct ResultsProblems in Pseudoscientific ThinkingAnecdotes Do Not Make a ScienceScientific Language Does Not Make a ScienceBold Statements Do Not Make True ClaimsHeresy Does Not Equal CorrectnessBurden of ProofRumors Do Not Equal RealityUnexplained is Not InexplicableFailures are RationalizedAfter-the-Fact ReasoningCoincidenceRepresentativenessLogical Problems in ThinkingEmotive Words and False AnalogiesAd IgnorantiamAd Hominem and Tu QuoqueHasty GeneralizationOver-reliance on AuthoritiesEither-OrCircular ReasoningReductio ad Absurdum and the Slippery SlopePsychological Problems in ThinkingEffort Inadequacies and the Need forProblem-Solving InadequaciesIdeological Immunity, or The Planck ProblemEight Sample Syllabi: How to Teach a Course in Science & PseudoscienceThe Most Recommended Skeptical BooksScience and Skepticism: Science, Scientific Method and Skepticism — How They Contribute to Rational and Critical Thinking