Believing Bullshit: How Not to Get Sucked into an Intellectual Black Hole
This book identifies eight key mechanisms that can transform a set of ideas into a psychological flytrap. The author suggests that, like the black holes of outer space, from which nothing, not even light, can escape, our contemporary cultural landscape contains numerous intellectual black-holes-belief systems constructed in such a way that unwary passers-by can similarly find themselves drawn in. While such self-sealing bubbles of belief will most easily trap the gullible or poorly educated, even the most intelligent and educated of us are potentially vulnerable. Some of the world's greatest thinkers have fallen in, never to escape. This witty, insightful critique will help immunize readers against the wiles of cultists, religious and political zealots, conspiracy theorists, promoters of flaky alternative medicines, and others by clearly setting out the tricks of the trade by which such insidious belief systems are created and maintained.
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Believing Bullshit: How Not to Get Sucked into an Intellectual Black Hole
This book identifies eight key mechanisms that can transform a set of ideas into a psychological flytrap. The author suggests that, like the black holes of outer space, from which nothing, not even light, can escape, our contemporary cultural landscape contains numerous intellectual black-holes-belief systems constructed in such a way that unwary passers-by can similarly find themselves drawn in. While such self-sealing bubbles of belief will most easily trap the gullible or poorly educated, even the most intelligent and educated of us are potentially vulnerable. Some of the world's greatest thinkers have fallen in, never to escape. This witty, insightful critique will help immunize readers against the wiles of cultists, religious and political zealots, conspiracy theorists, promoters of flaky alternative medicines, and others by clearly setting out the tricks of the trade by which such insidious belief systems are created and maintained.
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Believing Bullshit: How Not to Get Sucked into an Intellectual Black Hole

Believing Bullshit: How Not to Get Sucked into an Intellectual Black Hole

by Stephen Law editor of Think; honorary research fellow in philosophy at Roehampton
Believing Bullshit: How Not to Get Sucked into an Intellectual Black Hole

Believing Bullshit: How Not to Get Sucked into an Intellectual Black Hole

by Stephen Law editor of Think; honorary research fellow in philosophy at Roehampton

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Overview

This book identifies eight key mechanisms that can transform a set of ideas into a psychological flytrap. The author suggests that, like the black holes of outer space, from which nothing, not even light, can escape, our contemporary cultural landscape contains numerous intellectual black-holes-belief systems constructed in such a way that unwary passers-by can similarly find themselves drawn in. While such self-sealing bubbles of belief will most easily trap the gullible or poorly educated, even the most intelligent and educated of us are potentially vulnerable. Some of the world's greatest thinkers have fallen in, never to escape. This witty, insightful critique will help immunize readers against the wiles of cultists, religious and political zealots, conspiracy theorists, promoters of flaky alternative medicines, and others by clearly setting out the tricks of the trade by which such insidious belief systems are created and maintained.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781616144111
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date: 04/26/2011
Pages: 272
Product dimensions: 5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Stephen Law (Oxford, England) is a senior lecturer in philosophy at Heythrop College, University of London; provost for the Centre for Inquiry UK; and the editor of Think: Philosophy for Everyone (a journal of the Royal Institute of Philosophy). He is the author of numerous books for adults as well as children, including The Greatest Philosophers, Companion Guide to Philosophy, The War for Children's Minds, and Really, Really Big Questions, among other works.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments 7

Introduction 9

1 Playing the Mystery Card 33

2 "But It Fits!" and The Blunderbuss 65

3 Going Nuclear 97

4 Moving the Semantic Goalposts 113

5 "I Just Know!" 135

6 Pseudoprofundity 159

7 Piling Up the Anecdotes 171

8 Pressing Your Buttons 195

Conclusion 209

The Tapescrew Letters 225

Notes 257

Index 267

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