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R E A S O N I N G

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Overview


With every passing day I come closer to accepting C.P. Snow's argument that our world is splitting into two cultures: one technical, which accomplishes marvels because it deals with reality as it is and must use reason to succeed; and one explicitly atechnical, which rejects objective reason in order to pretend that reality is more comfortable than it actually is.

This can't be healthy for a society or a civilization. Over time, either the first class will become an arrogant elite or else it will be exploited by the other, larger class. And this other, non-objective class will mindlessly follow any demagogue who promises them goodies, because they don't use the reasoning skills necessary to examine claims.

In a desperate attempt to fend off this conclusion, here are some essays to suggest new ways of thinking about our world.


My Views


Six Thinking Hats

A discussion of Edward de Bono's concept of six different styles of thinking.


Systems-thinking

Wisdom culled from years of looking at the world as a collection of interoperating (or not) systems, and refined primarily by the work of John Gall, with help from C. Northcote Parkinson, Lawrence J. Peter, and others.


Resources


WWW


Quackwatch Home Page a page dedicated to examining medical claims, but it's also a good resource for basic scientific skepticism.

Global Warming Skeptics page a skeptical examination of claims of "global warming."

The Skeptic's Dictionary various essays on skepticism.

The AFU & Urban Legends Archive from the alt.folklore.urban archive; a collection of essays on the many and varied hoaxes and modern myths of our time.

The European IQ Test Are your powers of reasoning good? Are they really good? Find out!



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