Rating: 
Summary: What is left to believe in? Not an awful lot.
Review: The art of critical thinking has almost disappeared from the western world. Largely I think this is so because our society is constructed on the fact that most people are trained to not think for themselves. The last thing anyone wants is for the population to start asking questions about religion, economics, and our political system. If one starts asking questions one could find that the answers we have been fed may not have been entirely true.Rather than address specific paranormal or strange ideas the authors present a formula for the reader to assess the ideas for themselves. There are, of course, entire books devoted to assessing the value of pseudoscience, paranormal phenomena and similar things in which the basic principles of skeptical thought has been tossed out the window. What the author's have done that is most unusual is the way the concepts in this book are brought together. This is not to say this is a perfect book. I noted several times where the author's ignored their own rational system to arrive at conclusions. The conclusions arrived at are universally in the realm of hard science triumphing over anything remotely paranormal. The author's bias in favor of rationalism and against anything resembling spirituality is very evident. Read this book, but do so with a critical mind.
Rating: 
Summary: How to immunize your mind against irrationality.
Review: The best book in the world to help the layperson understand the trickery and stupidity which quacks, conmen, ideologues, pseudo-scientists and politicians use to help slide their hands into our pockets and their ideas into our minds. Study of this book will turn the ingenuous into the ingenious
Rating:
Summary: Among the best of the skeptic's canon
Review: The information is basic and the style sometimes dry, but this is the best guide to practical thinking on the market. This book seems to be continiously on back order. It's worth the extra wait.
Rating:
Summary: Among the best of the skeptic's canon
Review: The information is basic and the style sometimes dry, but this is the best guide to practical thinking on the market. This book seems to be continiously on back order. It's worth the extra wait.
Rating: 
Summary: Be Scared, folks; Be VERY Scared...
Review: Think? Think about the first three words of the book-title; we'll return to that in a moment... Do lots of people get lazy intellectually about such things as ESP, Aliens, Ghosts, etc, sure they do. The danger in this intellectual laziness is that it then leaves people vulnerable to whatver snake-oil salesman wanders into town. They might be selling "Alien Abductions", but they could also be selling Dogmatic Skepticism. For 2000 years, (more or less), Western Civilization has been told "how to think" about God, sexuality, The State, etc. Having grown tired of the Vatican approach, we now seem eager to hand our brains over to a new Magisterium: Orthodox Western Science; and the heretics of this new True Church are treated just as ruthlessly, (take Wilhelm Reich as an example). Had this book been titled "WAYS to think", I'd feel a little more comfortable and wouldn't have felt quite so "lectured down to" by the contents. LEARN to think rigorously, question EVERYTHING, and run like hell when anybody tries to sell you on HOW to think.
Rating: 
Summary: Relevant and Clear - THE Critical Thinking course text
Review: This book casts the light of critical reason upon some of the more shady intellectual fads of the late twentieth century. The book's aim is two-fold. On the one hand it aims to teach critical thinking skills by the use of examples which enliven certain methods of rational thought. Unlike some earlier texts it does not make the error of thinking that logic is rationality and puts forward a far richer notion of rationality - a clarification of the ways of rationality which is going to be directly useful to the students. On the other hand, the book examines and sharply criticises the arguments for various irrational claims and beliefs - such as astrology and social relativism - that have plagued our times. The authors are careful to differentiate between the truth of a claim, the rationality of accepting it, and its social desirability. As such the book is a timely antidote to the popular, convenient but irresponsible notion that imagining the world to be an equitable place is a fair substitute to actually doing the hard work necessary to create such a world. What is perhaps even more important, the book makes it clear that reasoned debate based upon the assumption of an objective reality is necessary for human interactions to reach beyond primal screams and applications of brute force. The only criticism I have of the book is that in a number of places it simplifies both view-points and debates. Still, this is necessary in an introductory text to avoid swamping with detail and the simplifications that are made do not misrepresent the essence of the issues. When I next teach a Critical Thinking course this will be the text I use.
Rating:
Summary: good advice-I wish they followed it
Review: This book explains how to analyize things rationally, without being swayed by emotional considerations. In that regard its very good. They explain how to judge the value of evidence in a logical way. In many places in the book, however, they dont appear to follow their own advice. The book is full of exemplary analyses of 'strange' topics such as near-death expeiences, UFOs, ESP and so on. In many of these analyses, they appeal to the readers sense that these things are 'riduculous' or 'silly'. Instead of arguing these points on-their-merits, the authors disregard their own good advice. For example, in a section devoted to near-death experiences, the authors describe the possible reality of these events as 'incomprehensible'. The authors then use this as a reason to dismiss NDE. Well, perhaps NDES are 'incomprehensible' simply for a lack of imagination. Also, the authors should be reminded that quantum mechanics (the most accurate physical theory ever created) is 'incomprehensible'-after 70 years physicists still cant figure out if its real or what. Also, Occams razor (a principle discussed and advocated in the book) suggests that taking NDEs on face-value is reasonable since it is much less complicated than the Rube-Goldberg explanations used to dismiss NDEs. A second failure of the book is its double-standard toward alternative medicine and orthomolecular medicine (e.g. using vitamins to treat disease) generally. In discussing some alternative medicine, the authors rightly make references to the financial conflicts of interest of those involved in selling dubious products. Why is this same analysis NOT applied to the pharmaceutical companies and allopathic doctors that bash alternative medicine? The authors apparently dont understand that giant pharmaceutical firms play just as dirty, and have a gigantic financial interest in undermining research into competing alternative therapies. So, While I appreciate the authors recommendations for analysis, I think they either fail to properly apply their own advice, or are unaware of (or ignore) facts pertaining to the unconventional topics they discuss.
Rating:
Summary: Good information-boring read
Review: This book has some good information. Unfortunately, it drags badly. There is too much academic blather. This is too bad, because the topic is fascinating and timely. The author is well informed, but seems to be writing to an academic audience, rather than to an interested public.
Rating: 
Summary: An exercise in hypocrisy
Review: This book is a thinly disguised misapplication of the principles the author would try to teach. Debunker Schick uses it as an anti-New Age soapbox. Instead of balance and reason, we see one-sided quotes from the Skeptical Inquirer. The author lacks the ears to hear and the compassion to honor the strange and the miraculous in life. To find academic honesty, try a book like The Gods have Landed. The cover is pretty, but..
Rating:
Summary: Worth it's weight in gold!!
Review: This book is absolutly outstanding! I consider it to be the most valuable book I have ever read. I have bought six copies so I can loan them to friends. Everyone who has read it bought copies for themselves, after they returned the one I loaned them. As others have mentioned, it should be a textbook in every high school and college. Anyone who teaches science or history should definetly read this book. I was amazed at how much more toned, coordinated, and stronger my muscles felt after spending some time working out in a gym. Well, this book does the same for your brain, as working out in a gym does for the rest of your muscles. : ) Can critical thinking be taught? If it can, this is the book that can do it. The authors have done an excellent job of compiling many techniques for critical thinking in a form that is both understandable and fun to read.
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