Science in an Age of Unreason
Science is undergoing an identity crisis! A renown psychologist and biologist diagnoses our age of wishful, magical thinking and blasts out a clarion call for a return to reason and the search for objective knowledge and truth. Fans of Matt Ridley and Nicholas Wade will adore this trenchant meditation and call to action.

Science is in trouble. Real questions in desperate need of answers—especially those surrounding ethnicity, gender, climate change, and almost anything related to ‘health and safety’—are swiftly buckling to the fiery societal demands of what ought to be rather than what is. These foregone conclusions may be comforting, but each capitulation to modernity’s whims threatens the integrity of scientific inquiry. Can true, fact-based discovery be redeemed?

In Science in an Age of Unreason, legendary professor of psychology and biology, John Staddon, unveils the identity crisis afflicting today’s scientific community, and provides an actionable path to recovery. With intellectual depth and literary flair, Staddon answers pressing questions, including:
  • Is science, especially the science of evolution, a religion?
  • Can ethics be derived from science at all?
  • How sound is social science, particularly surrounding today’s most controversial topics?
  • How can passions be separated from facts?


Informed by decades of expertise, Science in an Age of Unreason is a clarion call to rebirth academia as a beacon of reason and truth in a society demanding its unconditional submission.
1141053784
Science in an Age of Unreason
Science is undergoing an identity crisis! A renown psychologist and biologist diagnoses our age of wishful, magical thinking and blasts out a clarion call for a return to reason and the search for objective knowledge and truth. Fans of Matt Ridley and Nicholas Wade will adore this trenchant meditation and call to action.

Science is in trouble. Real questions in desperate need of answers—especially those surrounding ethnicity, gender, climate change, and almost anything related to ‘health and safety’—are swiftly buckling to the fiery societal demands of what ought to be rather than what is. These foregone conclusions may be comforting, but each capitulation to modernity’s whims threatens the integrity of scientific inquiry. Can true, fact-based discovery be redeemed?

In Science in an Age of Unreason, legendary professor of psychology and biology, John Staddon, unveils the identity crisis afflicting today’s scientific community, and provides an actionable path to recovery. With intellectual depth and literary flair, Staddon answers pressing questions, including:
  • Is science, especially the science of evolution, a religion?
  • Can ethics be derived from science at all?
  • How sound is social science, particularly surrounding today’s most controversial topics?
  • How can passions be separated from facts?


Informed by decades of expertise, Science in an Age of Unreason is a clarion call to rebirth academia as a beacon of reason and truth in a society demanding its unconditional submission.
14.99 In Stock
Science in an Age of Unreason

Science in an Age of Unreason

by John Staddon
Science in an Age of Unreason

Science in an Age of Unreason

by John Staddon

eBook

$14.99 

Available on Compatible NOOK devices, the free NOOK App and in My Digital Library.
WANT A NOOK?  Explore Now

Related collections and offers


Overview

Science is undergoing an identity crisis! A renown psychologist and biologist diagnoses our age of wishful, magical thinking and blasts out a clarion call for a return to reason and the search for objective knowledge and truth. Fans of Matt Ridley and Nicholas Wade will adore this trenchant meditation and call to action.

Science is in trouble. Real questions in desperate need of answers—especially those surrounding ethnicity, gender, climate change, and almost anything related to ‘health and safety’—are swiftly buckling to the fiery societal demands of what ought to be rather than what is. These foregone conclusions may be comforting, but each capitulation to modernity’s whims threatens the integrity of scientific inquiry. Can true, fact-based discovery be redeemed?

In Science in an Age of Unreason, legendary professor of psychology and biology, John Staddon, unveils the identity crisis afflicting today’s scientific community, and provides an actionable path to recovery. With intellectual depth and literary flair, Staddon answers pressing questions, including:
  • Is science, especially the science of evolution, a religion?
  • Can ethics be derived from science at all?
  • How sound is social science, particularly surrounding today’s most controversial topics?
  • How can passions be separated from facts?


Informed by decades of expertise, Science in an Age of Unreason is a clarion call to rebirth academia as a beacon of reason and truth in a society demanding its unconditional submission.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781684513239
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Publication date: 06/07/2022
Sold by: SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format: eBook
Pages: 256
File size: 4 MB

About the Author

John Staddon is James B. Duke Professor of Psychology, and Professor of Biology Emeritus at Duke University. A prolific researcher and writer of international fame, he has authored more than 200 research papers, nine books, and is a past editor of the journals Behavioural Processes and Behavior & Philosophy. Staddon was profiled in the Wall Street Journal in January 2021 for his views on the current problems of science.

Table of Contents

Preface xi

Part 1 Evolution xvii

Chapter 1 Has Secular Humanism Made Science a Religion? 1

What Is Religion? 1

The Elements of Religion 2

Neo-Christian 3

Secular Morals: Three Examples 4

Chapter 2 Science and Faith: Can Morality Be Deduced from the Facts of Science? 7

Scientific Imperialism 8

Feelings 9

"Science-Based" Ethics: Human Flourishing 11

Chapter 3 Science and Faith: Darwin to the Rescue? 15

The Naturalistic Fallacy 15

The Survival Criterion: What Should We Believe? 17

Faith Returns 20

Chapter 4 Was Darwin Wrong or Just Misunderstood? 23

The Logic of Evolution 24

The Direction of Evolution 26

The Structure of Variation 27

Nonrandom Variation 29

Is There Structure to Variation? 31

Part 2 The Profession 35

Chapter 5 Are We Losing Our Way? 37

Is the Frontier Really Endless? 39

Too Few Soluble Problems? 40

Anti-Science at the National Science Foundation 42

Chapter 6 Scientific Publishing 49

Incoherent, Expensive, and Slow 49

Access 50

Chapter 7 Peer Review and "the Natural Selection of Bad Science" 57

Positive Feedbacks: "To Him That Hath Shall Be Given…" 59

Pop-Up Journals 61

Peer Review Problems 63

"The Natural Selection of Bad Science" 64

What Next? 69

Part 3 Climate Change 71

Chapter 8 Is the Climate Warming? Is There More Extreme Weather? 73

Climate Alarm 74

Hurricanes, Tornadoes, and Droughts: Have They Increased? 77

Temperature 80

Chapter 9 Carbon Dioxide and the AGW Hypothesis 85

The Keeling Curve 87

Models 89

Weather and Hurricane Models 90

Correlations 92

How Bad Can It Be? 94

Part 4 Social Science 97

Chapter 10 Killing the Messenger 99

Racial Differences? 100

Censoring Science 104

Chapter 11 The Devolution of Social Science: How the Fragmentation of Sociology Has Led to Absurdity 107

Some Science History 107

Sociology as a Science 110

Causes and Social Facts 112

Why the Error? 113

Chapter 12 Contemporary Sociology: Race and Ethnic Studies 117

Race and Ethnic Studies 118

Social Facts-RES Style 121

Chapter 13 Systemic Racism: What Do Racial Disparities Really Mean? 137

Disparities = Systemic Racism? 138

Endogenous Causes of Racial Disparities 140

Genes and IQ: Trans-Science, Again 141

The Equality Imperative 144

Exogenous Causes of Racial Disparities 149

Individual and Systemic Racism Defined 150

More Disparities: That Elusive Systemic Racism 152

Chapter 14 Lysenko Redivivus 159

Social Pressure 160

A New Norm 163

Instability 166

Rationalizing Censorship 168

Part 5 History of Science 171

Chapter 15 Neutral-Or Not? 173

Science and Ideology-Overt 174

Science and Ideology-Covert: Darwin and (Political) History of Science 178

Chapter 16 Historians of Science or Political Journalists? 183

Secondhand Smoke 184

Ad Hominem? 186

No Threshold? 189

Precautionary Principle 191

What to Do When the Science Is Uncertain? 192

First, Understand 194

Epilogue 201

Postscript 207

Appendix: The Replication Crisis and its Offspring 209

Nonstatistical Science 209

Group-Averaging and the NHST Method 210

p-Hacking 212

Correlation versus Causation 214

The Fisherian Method Is Inappropriate for Basic Science 215

The Object of Inquiry: Individual versus the Group 218

Prospect Theory 219

Acknowledgements 223

Notes 225

Index 279

From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews