Smart Stuff
"Sometimes it's better to light a flamethrower than curse the darkness."
Terry Prachett, "Men at Arms"
"SCIENCE: A way of finding things out and then making them work. Science explains what is happening around us the whole time. So does RELIGION,
but science is better because it comes up with more understandable excuses when it is wrong. There is a lot more Science than you think."
Terry Pratchett, "Wings"
Quotations on Intelligence, Ignorance, and Stupidity
Courtesy of Michael Paine
CARL SAGAN'S BALONEY DETECTION KIT
Based on the book "The Demon Haunted World"
The following are suggested as tools for testing arguments and detecting fallacious or fraudulent arguments:
Wherever possible there must be independent confirmation of the facts
Encourage substantive debate on the evidence by knowledgeable proponents of all points
of view.
Arguments from authority carry little weight (in science there are no "authorities").
Spin more than one hypothesis - don't simply run with the first idea that caught your fancy.
Try not to get overly attached to a hypothesis just because it's yours.
Quantify, wherever possible.
If there is a chain of argument every link in the chain must work.
"Occam's razor" - if there are two hypothesis that explain the data equally well choose the simpler.
Ask whether the hypothesis can, at least in principle, be falsified (shown to be false by some unambiguous test). In
other words, it is testable? Can others duplicate the experiment and get the same result?
Additional issues are
Conduct control experiments - especially "double blind" experiments where the person taking measurements is not
aware of the test and control subjects.
Check for confounding factors - separate the variables.
Common fallacies of logic and rhetoric
Ad hominem - attacking the arguer and not the argument.
Argument from "authority".
Argument from adverse consequences (putting pressure on the decision maker by pointing out dire consequences of an "unfavourable" decision).
Appeal to ignorance (absence of evidence is not evidence of absence).
Special pleading (typically referring to god's will).
Begging the question (assuming an answer in the way the question is phrased).
Observational selection (counting the hits and forgetting the misses).
Statistics of small numbers (such as drawing conclusions from inadequate sample sizes).
Misunderstanding the nature of statistics (President Eisenhower expressing astonishment and alarm ondiscovering that fully half of all Americans have below average intelligence!)
Inconsistency (e.g. military expenditures based on worst case scenarios but scientific projections on environmental
dangers thriftily ignored because they are not "proved").
Non sequitur - "it does not follow" - the logic falls down.
Post hoc, ergo propter hoc - "it happened after so it was caused by" - confusion of cause and effect.
Meaningless question ("what happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object?).
Excluded middle - considering only the two extremes in a range of possibilities (making the "other side" look worse than it really is).
Short-term v. long-term - a subset of excluded middle ("why pursue fundamental science when we have so huge a budget deficit?").
Slippery slope - a subset of excluded middle - unwarranted extrapolation of the effects (give an inch and they will take a mile).
Confusion of correlation and causation.
Straw man - caricaturing (or stereotyping) a position to make it easier to attack.
Suppressed evidence or half-truths.
Weasel words - for example, use of euphemisms for war such as "police action" to get around limitations on Presidential powers. "An important art of politicians is to find new names for institutions which under old
names have become odious to the public"
Above all - read the book!
General Informative Stuff:
The Straight Dope -Ask Unca "fighting ignorance since 1973" Cecil
Message Boards - Ask a question!
The Straight Dope Message Boards Helping Unca Cecil fight ignorance - ask the teeming millions a question
Guardian Unlimited's Notes and Queries
Snopes Urban Legends Reference Pages Message BoardThe San Fernando Valley Folklore Society's Urban Legends Reference Pages Message Board
Scientific Journals:
Nature International Weekly Jouranl of Science
Science Magazine
Science News
Science Daily
Popular Scientific Journals:
New Scientist
Scientific American
Popular Science
Discover Magazine
Popular Mechanics
Various Skeptic and Critical Thinking Sites:
Critical Thinking Community (www.CriticalThinking.org)
The Skeptic's Dictionary
Australian Skeptics
British Colombia Skeptic's Society
Skeptic.com
Paranormal Investigators:
The James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) "The Amazing Randi" - Stage magician, and paranormal/psychic buster
The Challenge JERF's One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge
CSICOP: The Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal
Urban Legends and Hoaxes:
San Fernando Valley Folklore Society's Urban Legends Reference Pages (AKA
Snopes) Is that story true or not? Find out here!
Korova Hoax du Jour
Alt.Folklore.Urban's Home Page
Hoax Kill Anti-Hoax reply Service
Anti Cult:
Operation Clambake - information on the cult of $cientology
FACTNet - Fight Against Coercive Tactics Network, Incorporated
FACTNet's List of Internet Resources
Cult Information Center (CIC)
Mathematics:
Innumeracy.com
STATS The StatisticalAssessment Service - examines scientific, quantitative, and social research
The Glossary of Mathematical Mistakes
Others:
Quackwatch
