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Author: Manfred Weidhorn Publisher: iUniverse ISBN: 0595409504 Category : Skepticism Languages : en Pages : 441
Book Description
Every thoughtful person must ask, "What do I know?" The two most explosive fields, religion and politics, are notably filled with strident and conflicting claims. Close analysis in clear language reveals that no one knows what he or she is talking about. Because of the challenge of unexamined assumptions, of unclear cause-and-effect relationships, and of the rarity of reliable sources, a person who wants to be open-minded cannot avoid adopting skepticism as the least embarrassing philosophy. Some discoveries made in this book: *Reason appears to prove nothing *Intuition is probably a delusion *Facts are slippery *Religious people yearn for suicide *Why socialism cannot work *Where conservatives screwed up badly (as they admit) *The equation STAR+2R+R3=GPS explains the cultural history of the world *Shakespeare was a skeptic *Dante's curious insight into love *Passing the Magic Johnson test *Tom De Lay does not realize that relativism is as American as apple pie *Hamlet, who never existed, is more real than you or I. Here is a sample observation: "People believe in God because the Bible tells all about him, and they believe in the Bible because God wrote or inspired it. This is a classic case of the Fallacy of Circular Reasoning."
Author: Manfred Weidhorn Publisher: iUniverse ISBN: 0595409504 Category : Skepticism Languages : en Pages : 441
Book Description
Every thoughtful person must ask, "What do I know?" The two most explosive fields, religion and politics, are notably filled with strident and conflicting claims. Close analysis in clear language reveals that no one knows what he or she is talking about. Because of the challenge of unexamined assumptions, of unclear cause-and-effect relationships, and of the rarity of reliable sources, a person who wants to be open-minded cannot avoid adopting skepticism as the least embarrassing philosophy. Some discoveries made in this book: *Reason appears to prove nothing *Intuition is probably a delusion *Facts are slippery *Religious people yearn for suicide *Why socialism cannot work *Where conservatives screwed up badly (as they admit) *The equation STAR+2R+R3=GPS explains the cultural history of the world *Shakespeare was a skeptic *Dante's curious insight into love *Passing the Magic Johnson test *Tom De Lay does not realize that relativism is as American as apple pie *Hamlet, who never existed, is more real than you or I. Here is a sample observation: "People believe in God because the Bible tells all about him, and they believe in the Bible because God wrote or inspired it. This is a classic case of the Fallacy of Circular Reasoning."
Author: Richard A. Fumerton Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers ISBN: 1461639271 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 247
Book Description
In this excellent treatment of the internalism-externalism debate in contemporary epistemology, Richard Fumerton explores its implications for traditional skeptical concerns. When one fully understands these implications, Fumerton argues, one will see philosophical usefulness of a foundationalism relying on acquaintance. Contending that the externalist response to skepticism is too quick and easy, Fumerton defends a version of internalism, but in doing so puts into stark relief the radically different alternatives for dealing with skepticism that our metaepistemological views force upon us.
Author: Jennifer Nagel Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA ISBN: 019966126X Category : Philosophy Languages : en Pages : 153
Book Description
What is knowledge? Is it the same as opinion or truth? Do you need to be able to justify a claim in order to count as knowing it? How can we know that the outer world is real and not a dream? Questions like these have existed since ancient times, and the branch of philosophy dedicated to answering them - epistemology - has been active for thousands of years. In this thought-provoking Very Short Introduction, Jennifer Nagel considers the central problems and paradoxes in the theory of knowledge and draws attention to the ways in which philosophers and theorists have responded to them. By exploring the relationship between knowledge and truth, and considering the problem of scepticism, Nagel introduces a series of influential historical and contemporary theories of knowledge, incorporating methods from logic, linguistics, and psychology, using a number of everyday examples to demonstrate the key issues and debates. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
Author: Nicholas Tiller Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 0429820879 Category : Health & Fitness Languages : en Pages : 362
Book Description
The global health and fitness industry is worth an estimated $4 trillion. We spend $90 billion each year on health club memberships and $100 billion each year on dietary supplements. In such an industrial climate, lax regulations on the products we are sold (supplements, fad-diets, training programs, gadgets, and garments) result in marketing campaigns underpinned by strong claims and weak evidence. Moreover, our critical faculties are ill-suited to a culture characterized by fake news, social media, misinformation, and bad science. We have become walking, talking prey to 21st-Century Snake Oil salesmen. In The Skeptic’s Guide to Sports Science, Nicholas B. Tiller confronts the claims behind the products and the evidence behind the claims. The author discusses what might be wrong with the sales pitch, the glossy magazine advert, and the celebrity endorsements that our heuristically-wired brains find so innately attractive. Tiller also explores the appeal of the one quick fix, the fallacious arguments that are a mainstay of product advertising, and the critical steps we must take in retraining our minds to navigate the pitfalls of the modern consumerist culture. This informative and accessible volume pulls no punches in scrutinizing the plausibility of, and evidence for, the most popular sports products and practices on the market. Readers are encouraged to confront their conceptualizations of the industry and, by the book’s end, they will have acquired the skills necessary to independently judge the effectiveness of sports-related products. This treatise on the commercialization of science in sport and exercise is a must-read for exercisers, athletes, students, and practitioners who hope to retain their intellectual integrity in a lucrative health and fitness industry that is spiraling out-of-control.
Author: Robert A. Burton, M.D. Publisher: St. Martin's Press ISBN: 125002840X Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 272
Book Description
What if our soundest, most reasonable judgments are beyond our control? Despite 2500 years of contemplation by the world's greatest minds and the more recent phenomenal advances in basic neuroscience, neither neuroscientists nor philosophers have a decent understanding of what the mind is or how it works. The gap between what the brain does and the mind experiences remains uncharted territory. Nevertheless, with powerful new tools such as the fMRI scan, neuroscience has become the de facto mode of explanation of behavior. Neuroscientists tell us why we prefer Coke to Pepsi, and the media trumpets headlines such as "Possible site of free will found in brain." Or: "Bad behavior down to genes, not poor parenting." Robert Burton believes that while some neuroscience observations are real advances, others are overreaching, unwarranted, wrong-headed, self-serving, or just plain ridiculous, and often with the potential for catastrophic personal and social consequences. In A Skeptic's Guide to the Mind, he brings together clinical observations, practical thought experiments, personal anecdotes, and cutting-edge neuroscience to decipher what neuroscience can tell us – and where it falls woefully short. At the same time, he offers a new vision of how to think about what the mind might be and how it works. A Skeptic's Guide to the Mind is a critical, startling, and expansive journey into the mysteries of the brain and what makes us human.
Author: Adrian Raine Publisher: Pantheon ISBN: 0307378845 Category : Law Languages : en Pages : 501
Book Description
Provocative and timely: a pioneering neurocriminologist introduces the latest biological research into the causes of--and potential cures for--criminal behavior. With an 8-page full-color insert, and black-and-white illustrations throughout.
Author: Stephen Holmes Publisher: ISBN: Category : Philosophy Languages : en Pages : 360
Book Description
Holmes challenges the philosophical arguments of the high communitarians ... and their intellectual forebears. By the time he is finished, the opposing camp has no survivors, ancient or modern. Anybody who feels drawn to the high communitarian cause owes it to himself (though not to society) to read Mr. Holmes's book; everybody else should read it for pleasure.
Author: Robert Whitaker Publisher: Crown ISBN: 0307452433 Category : Psychology Languages : en Pages : 418
Book Description
Updated with bonus material, including a new foreword and afterword with new research, this New York Times bestseller is essential reading for a time when mental health is constantly in the news. In this astonishing and startling book, award-winning science and history writer Robert Whitaker investigates a medical mystery: Why has the number of disabled mentally ill in the United States tripled over the past two decades? Interwoven with Whitaker’s groundbreaking analysis of the merits of psychiatric medications are the personal stories of children and adults swept up in this epidemic. As Anatomy of an Epidemic reveals, other societies have begun to alter their use of psychiatric medications and are now reporting much improved outcomes . . . so why can’t such change happen here in the United States? Why have the results from these long-term studies—all of which point to the same startling conclusion—been kept from the public? Our nation has been hit by an epidemic of disabling mental illness, and yet, as Anatomy of an Epidemic reveals, the medical blueprints for curbing that epidemic have already been drawn up. Praise for Anatomy of an Epidemic “The timing of Robert Whitaker’s Anatomy of an Epidemic, a comprehensive and highly readable history of psychiatry in the United States, couldn’t be better.”—Salon “Anatomy of an Epidemic offers some answers, charting controversial ground with mystery-novel pacing.”—TIME “Lucid, pointed and important, Anatomy of an Epidemic should be required reading for anyone considering extended use of psychiatric medicine. Whitaker is at the height of his powers.” —Greg Critser, author of Generation Rx
Author: Wayne Waxman Publisher: ISBN: 0199328315 Category : Philosophy Languages : en Pages : 603
Book Description
According to current philosophical lore, Kant rejected the notion that philosophy can progress by psychological means and endeavored to restrict it accordingly. This book reverses the frame from Kant the anti-psychological critic of psychological philosophy to Kant the preeminent psychological critic of non-psychological philosophy.
Author: Barry Stroud Publisher: Oxford University Press ISBN: 0198247613 Category : Philosophy Languages : en Pages : 294
Book Description
He author argues that the sceptical thesis is motivated by a persistent philosophical problem that calls the very possibility of knowledge about the external world into question, and that the sceptical thesis is the only acceptable answer to this problem as traditionally posed.
Author: Manfred Weidhorn
Author: Manfred Weidhorn
Author: Richard A. Fumerton
Author: Jennifer Nagel
Author: Nicholas Tiller
Author: Robert A. Burton, M.D.
Author: Adrian Raine
Author: Stephen Holmes
Author: Robert Whitaker
Author: Wayne Waxman
Author: Barry Stroud