Walkabout - Critical Thinking

For a given value

A recent post over at Scientific American brings up an interesting question, especially to those who pursue critical thinking: what does rational actually mean? We use this word all of the time, perhaps without realizing how subjective it is; few people ever think they’re being irrational themselves, while others would be quick to disagree [...]

To the rescue! Or, not…

I think most people know that there are certain kinds of fires that you don’t throw water on to extinguish, primarily grease, oil, gasoline, and electrical. In such cases, water is simply going to make matters much worse, either by splashing and floating the burning substances to disperse in a wider range, or by [...]

National Day of Self-Congratulation

Today is a very special day in the US: The National Day of Prayer. That means today is the day that people are encouraged to feel good about doing nothing at all, like those bumper stickers that proclaim one’s child is special regardless of accomplishment. That’s good, I suppose, if you’re a child with [...]

Fallacy fallacies

Many a young, impetuous acolyte, on first learning the lore of the Thinking Fallacies, seeks to infuse their knowledge throughout both their lives and those around them, but lo! such a path is fraught with danger, because the Fallacies are not easily tamed. Within inexperienced hands, they can be poor weapons, even dangerous to [...]

It’s like a metaphor

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I realized I haven’t been trying hard enough to earn my Shrill and Strident merit badge, which is funny, because there are certainly enough subjects that reinforce my atheism which [...]

Call ‘em as they lie

Maurice Williamson, a member of New Zealand’s Parliament, addresses the floor yesterday on a bill that would amend the state of marriage to apply to same-sex couples as well:

Initially, I really liked his statements. There’s still (despite my efforts) a lot of emphasis in this country on not speaking sarcastically, especially in [...]

Unevidence

Some things get accepted into culture, maybe unintentionally, maybe in a casual way, but then become established enough that we get fooled into thinking they came from a reputable source, or from careful consideration; most of philosophy is this way, it seems. One that I’m going to address here is something that I’ve coined [...]

Book review: The Men Who Stare at Goats

There were two things that prompted me to read this book: an interest in the curious history of psychic research within the US military, and the reputation that the author seems to have in skeptical circles. I’ll skip the dramatic buildup by saying that the book failed to address either of these.

The Men [...]

You mad?

The Girlfriend pointed this out to me, since this one had slipped past my radar, but two recent pics illustrated a trait I had mentioned long ago, in the early days of the blog, back when my readers numbered, well, pretty much as they do now (we won’t talk about those numbers.) These [...]

I read this article that said…

When I was taking an online course on reasoning and constructing good arguments (which I never completed, but that’s another post,) there was one interesting tidbit that was covered: some conclusion might be perfectly correct, but the argument leading to the conclusion could be flawed or unsupportive. That’s the most applicable thing that can [...]

For a given value

To the rescue! Or, not…

National Day of Self-Congratulation

Fallacy fallacies

It’s like a metaphor

Call ‘em as they lie

Unevidence

Book review: The Men Who Stare at Goats

You mad?

I read this article that said…

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