Rating: 
(8 reviews)
Author: Jonathan C. Smith
ISBN : 9781405181235
Buy New from $80.16
(8 reviews)Author: Jonathan C. Smith
ISBN : 9781405181235
Buy New from $80.16
Pseudoscience and Extraordinary Claims of the Paranormal: A Critical Thinker's Toolkit provides readers with a variety of "reality-checking" tools to analyze extraordinary claims and to determine their validity.
- Integrates simple yet powerful evaluative tools used by both paranormal believers and skeptics alike
- Introduces innovations such as a continuum for ranking paranormal claims and evaluating their implications
- Includes an innovative "Critical Thinker’s Toolkit," a systematic approach for performing reality checks on paranormal claims related to astrology, psychics, spiritualism, parapsychology, dream telepathy, mind-over-matter, prayer, life after death, creationism, and more
- Explores the five alternative hypotheses to consider when confronting a paranormal claim
- Reality Check boxes, integrated into the text, invite students to engage in further discussion and examination of claims
- Written in a lively, engaging style for students and general readers alike
Ancillaries: Testbank and PowerPoint slides available at www.wiley.com/go/pseudoscience
- Hardcover: 432 pages
- Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell; 1 edition (September 15, 2009)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1405181230
- ISBN-13: 978-1405181235
- Product Dimensions: 0.9 x 9.1 x 6.1 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Pseudoscience and Extraordinary Claims of the Paranormal: A Critical Thinker's Toolkit
PART 1: INTRODUCTION
Chapter 1: The Continuum Mysteriosum
Making Sense out of Mysteries: The Continuum Mysteriosum Extraordinary, Nonparanormal Mysteries An Invitation
Chapter 2: Why Study These Things?
The Dangers of Unexamined Paranormal Claims The Risk of Paranormal Passion and the Critical Thinker s Toolkit Eight Reality-Checks: The Critical Thinker s Toolkit
PART II: THE CRITICAL THINKER S TOOLKIT EVALUATE SUPPORT FOR A CLAIM
Chapter 3: Reality Check: Are the Sources Credible?
Astrology
Questionable Sources
The Question of Authority
When Experts Get It Wrong
An Invitation to Question
Chapter 4: Reality Check: Is the Logic Valid and Sound?
Basic Logic
Informal Logical Fallacies
Premises, Logic, and Hypothesis Testing
Chapter 5: Reality Check: Are Claims Based on Science: (Observations, Tests, and Theories)?
Observations
Tests
Theories
Sagan s Balance and the FEDS Standard
Science and Alternative Hypotheses
CONSIDER ALTERNATIVE EXPLANATIONS
Chapter 6: Reality Checking for Oddities of Nature and the World of Numbers Probability Estimates and Bias Math Ignorance Coincidences The Clumpiness of Randomness The Law of Very Large Numbers Science and Chance
Summary: Psychic Bias
Chapter 7: Reality Checking for Perceptual Error and Trickery Top-Down Processes and Perception Manipulations of Magicians and Psychics: The Cold Reading Toolkit Hypnotic Suggestion Enhancers
Chapter 8: Reality Checking for Memory Errors Memory Myths What is Memory?
Memory Errors
Déª vu
The Déª vu Reality Check
Chapter 9: Reality Checking for the Placebo Effect What are Placebos?
Weak and Strong Placebos
Is the Placebo Effect Real? Underlying Placebogenic Mechanisms Placebos and Superstitious Beliefs Placebo Controversies Placebos and Performance
Chapter 10: Reality Checking for Sensory Anomalies and Hallucinations Sensory Phenomena Migraines Tunnel Experiences Hallucinations Hallucinations and the Critical Thinker s Toolkit PART 3: THE PARANORMAL FILES
Chapter 11: Spiritualism and the Survival Hypothesis History of the Spiritualist Movement Impact of Spiritualism Spiritualism Today Research on Life after Death Research on Channeling and Mediums Conclusion
Chapter 12: Parapsychology The Language of Parapsychology Research on PSI
Conclusion: The State of PSI Research
Chapter 13: Energy Treatments and Complementary and Alternative Medicine
(CAM)
Contemporary Views of Energy: The Scientific Perspective Concepts of Energy in Children and Western History: Vitalism Chinese History and Energy: The Yin-Yang School Chinese Energy Treatments Western Energy Treatments Conclusion
Chapter 14: Supernatural Cures and Faith Healing The Varieties of Healing Experience The Evidence
Chapter 15: Creationism, Intelligent Design, and God Great Debate Things Great and Small
Chapter 16: The Reality Checkup: Using your Toolkit The Reality Checkup How to Carry on a Civilized Discussion about the Paranormal Parting Words: The Paranormal Challenge
APPENDIX A: Complementary and Alternative Medicine
APPENDIX B: Critical Thinking and Paranormal Resources
APPENDIX C: Susan Blackmore on Paranormal Research
Chapter 1: The Continuum Mysteriosum
Making Sense out of Mysteries: The Continuum Mysteriosum Extraordinary, Nonparanormal Mysteries An Invitation
Chapter 2: Why Study These Things?
The Dangers of Unexamined Paranormal Claims The Risk of Paranormal Passion and the Critical Thinker s Toolkit Eight Reality-Checks: The Critical Thinker s Toolkit
PART II: THE CRITICAL THINKER S TOOLKIT EVALUATE SUPPORT FOR A CLAIM
Chapter 3: Reality Check: Are the Sources Credible?
Astrology
Questionable Sources
The Question of Authority
When Experts Get It Wrong
An Invitation to Question
Chapter 4: Reality Check: Is the Logic Valid and Sound?
Basic Logic
Informal Logical Fallacies
Premises, Logic, and Hypothesis Testing
Chapter 5: Reality Check: Are Claims Based on Science: (Observations, Tests, and Theories)?
Observations
Tests
Theories
Sagan s Balance and the FEDS Standard
Science and Alternative Hypotheses
CONSIDER ALTERNATIVE EXPLANATIONS
Chapter 6: Reality Checking for Oddities of Nature and the World of Numbers Probability Estimates and Bias Math Ignorance Coincidences The Clumpiness of Randomness The Law of Very Large Numbers Science and Chance
Summary: Psychic Bias
Chapter 7: Reality Checking for Perceptual Error and Trickery Top-Down Processes and Perception Manipulations of Magicians and Psychics: The Cold Reading Toolkit Hypnotic Suggestion Enhancers
Chapter 8: Reality Checking for Memory Errors Memory Myths What is Memory?
Memory Errors
Déª vu
The Déª vu Reality Check
Chapter 9: Reality Checking for the Placebo Effect What are Placebos?
Weak and Strong Placebos
Is the Placebo Effect Real? Underlying Placebogenic Mechanisms Placebos and Superstitious Beliefs Placebo Controversies Placebos and Performance
Chapter 10: Reality Checking for Sensory Anomalies and Hallucinations Sensory Phenomena Migraines Tunnel Experiences Hallucinations Hallucinations and the Critical Thinker s Toolkit PART 3: THE PARANORMAL FILES
Chapter 11: Spiritualism and the Survival Hypothesis History of the Spiritualist Movement Impact of Spiritualism Spiritualism Today Research on Life after Death Research on Channeling and Mediums Conclusion
Chapter 12: Parapsychology The Language of Parapsychology Research on PSI
Conclusion: The State of PSI Research
Chapter 13: Energy Treatments and Complementary and Alternative Medicine
(CAM)
Contemporary Views of Energy: The Scientific Perspective Concepts of Energy in Children and Western History: Vitalism Chinese History and Energy: The Yin-Yang School Chinese Energy Treatments Western Energy Treatments Conclusion
Chapter 14: Supernatural Cures and Faith Healing The Varieties of Healing Experience The Evidence
Chapter 15: Creationism, Intelligent Design, and God Great Debate Things Great and Small
Chapter 16: The Reality Checkup: Using your Toolkit The Reality Checkup How to Carry on a Civilized Discussion about the Paranormal Parting Words: The Paranormal Challenge
APPENDIX A: Complementary and Alternative Medicine
APPENDIX B: Critical Thinking and Paranormal Resources
APPENDIX C: Susan Blackmore on Paranormal Research
Dr. Smith's book is on "good common sense, everyday thinking at its best." (P.41) Wouldn't this world be a much better place if we all had a dose of good common sense? Indeed! Critical thinking on any subject should be mandatory for all students starting in high school. Just as they are required to take four years of math and science, students should be required to take a course in Critical Thinking. I mean who really uses geometry or chemistry anyway? We need critical thinking skills EVERYDAY.
Pseudoscience and the Paranormal is much more than a novel concept. Offering a course on Pseudoscience and the Paranormal is an ideal means for students to develop their critical thinking skills. There are hundreds of topics, thousands of articles, and countless videos that are ripe for the proverbial picking! Plus, it is more interesting and engaging to discuss topics that are more popular than say, Critical Thinking on the Environment or on Politics, not that those are unimportant, but discussing spoon-bending, exorcisms, and watching Penn and Teller videos is much more fun!
You don't realize how pervasive pseudoscience and the paranormal is until you look at it with a critical eye. Anyone can turn on the TV and find a show about ghost chasers, "How to Feng Shui Your House", or the healing power of yoga. Before this course, I might have been able to watch that and feel like I was learning something new and wondrous about our world. I used to enjoy the idea of arranging furniture to free up the energies in my house and relished my adjustments at the chiropractor but now I am no longer looking through rose-colored glasses. I find myself (often to the annoyance of my husband) putting on my critical thinking cap and really examining what claims are being made.
I doubt that this book will find wide readership among the general public, and more's the pity. It is designed as a university-level textbook, and indeed I use it as such in my course Physics 341, Pseudoscience... to be taught again in Spring 2011. I can't think of another book like this one, and I have searched, believe me.
Dr. Smith has created a kind of critical-thinker's toolkit, and the majority of tools therein are quite sharp and serviceable. Since Americans are bombarded by a vomiting flood of utter nonsense masquerading as fact, through all media outlets, the ability to process this information at least slightly, and to sift the few percent of possibly factual claims out of the near 100% of totally bogus crap, is a very valuable ability to possess. In fact, democracy is unlikely to survive in the US unless a significant fraction of the voting public becomes able to distinguish between fact and fantasy.
Books like this one must of necessity cover a very wide range of examples and topics, many of which would fall outside of any one author's range of expertise, no matter how broad. Compounding the problem, I think the author has relied a bit too much on the Internet in doing his research. For example, I was surprised on p. 311 to read of "close parallels" between the mythology of Egyptian God Horus and the mythology of another famous son, Yeshua ben Yosef. The challenge would be to find well-known Egyptologists who have found any such very detailed parallels.
Because the author is a psychologist and I am a physicist, I also found myself unable to go along with him in various areas, particularly his comments on "hypnosis" and suggestion, scattered throughout the text.
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