When Bad Thinking Happens to Good People
How Philosophy Can Save Us from Ourselves
-
- $25.99
Publisher Description
Why the tools of philosophy offer a powerful antidote to today’s epidemic of irrationality
There is an epidemic of bad thinking in the world today. An alarming number of people are embracing crazy, even dangerous ideas. They believe that vaccinations cause autism. They reject the scientific consensus on climate change as a “hoax.” And they blame the spread of COVID-19 on the 5G network or a Chinese cabal. Worse, bad thinking drives bad acting—it even inspired a mob to storm the U.S. Capitol. In this book, Steven Nadler and Lawrence Shapiro argue that the best antidote for bad thinking is the wisdom, insights, and practical skills of philosophy. When Bad Thinking Happens to Good People provides an engaging tour through the basic principles of logic, argument, evidence, and probability that can make all of us more reasonable and responsible citizens.
When Bad Thinking Happens to Good People shows how we can more readily spot and avoid flawed arguments and unreliable information; determine whether evidence supports or contradicts an idea; distinguish between merely believing something and knowing it; and much more. In doing so, the book reveals how epistemology, which addresses the nature of belief and knowledge, and ethics, the study of moral principles that should govern our behavior, can reduce bad thinking. Moreover, the book shows why philosophy’s millennia-old advice about how to lead a good, rational, and examined life is essential for escaping our current predicament.
In a world in which irrationality has exploded to deadly effect, When Bad Thinking Happens to Good People is a timely and essential guide for a return to reason.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"A significant portion of population are not thinking reasonably and responsibly," warn philosophy professors Nadler (Think Least of Death) and Shapiro (Embodied Cognition) in this well-meaning but flawed call for reason. The authors take aim at conspiracy theories and the "bad thinking" behind them (here, that's thinking defined as holding beliefs that are both unjustified and provably wrong), and write that the best way for such thinking to be "recognized and treated" is with history and philosophy. To that end, they provide intellectually sound ways for the average person to discern the difference between knowledge and belief, highlight how much collective "bad thinking" comes down to the clash of oppositional concepts such as "epistemic stubbornness" and "evidentialism," and break down the importance of living an "examined life" of reflection. It all boils down to the idea that in order to avoid bad thinking, it's necessary to weigh the evidence for the truth in equal measure with evidence against the veracity of one's beliefs. It's a reasonable enough proposition, though it's tough to imagine that those who would benefit from this book the most will be the ones to pick it up. While readers looking for vindication that conspiracy thinking runs rampant in America will find it, this seems unlikely to change minds.
