Critical Thinking: Pseudoscience and the Paranormal [Paperback]

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 and a study guide for each chapter.
• Provides clear and open-minded discussions of the paranormal spectrum, belief justification surveys, the placebo effect, and the relationship between religion and critical thinking

Acknowledgments ix

Part I Introduction 1

1 Critical Thinking: Your Survival Kit 3

2 The Paranormal Spectrum 13

3 What’s the Harm? Why Study These Things? 25

Part II The Critical Thinker’s Toolkit 47

4 Sources 49

5 Logic (Bonus: The Big Four Informal Logical Fallacies) 61

6 Logic and Language: Fallacies of Ambiguity 79

7 Science 93

Part III Alternative Explanations 115

8 Oddities of Nature and the World of Numbers 117

9 Perceptual Error and Trickery 135

10 Memory Errors 155

11 The Placl£N