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Title: Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science by Martin Gardner ISBN: 0-486-20394-8 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 01 June, 1957 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (22 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: In The Name of Skepticism
Comment: I found Mr. Gardner's book quite entertaining in some ways; yet after reading "Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science," I must say that 'skepticism in the name of science' can appear just as questionable and 'unscientific' as any of the so-called fads. The basic problem seems to be that Gardner was a philosophy major, not a scientist. Here is just one example. In discussing Alfred Korzybski's discipline, general semantics, Gardner says that Korzybski's book, Science and Sanity, contains "highly dubious speculations about neurology and psychiatric therapy"; yet he gives no real evidence for his belief, and fails to report that Korzybski's book was well received by several prominent neurologists on its publication. Russell Meyers, the noted neurologist, once described Korzybski's tome as, "The most profound, insightful, and globally significant book I have ever read." It seems highly unlikely that Meyers, department chairman of neurology at a major medical university, would have held such an opinion if Korzybski's "speculations about neurology" appeared at all dubious. C. Judson Herrick, Professor of Neurology, University of Chicago, said, "Count Korzybski . . . presents a plan for radical revamping of our theory and practice that seems worthy of further trial in a wide variety of fields. . .Adjustments in terms of one dominant motive (or value) are replaced by a broader (many-valued) scheme of motivation which points the way toward personal and social sanity -- a way that I believe is fundamentally correct and practicable." Doctor W. Horsley Gantt, Phipps Psychiatric Institute, the Johns Hopkins Hospital (for five years, co-worker with Pavlov in Leningrad), said, "I have read with great interest Count Korzybski's Science and Sanity, and feel that it is very important for science as well as general education and progress of human thinking. It expresses a point of view and a truth that I have not seen stated previously. I was particularly interested in the chapters dealing with conditional reflexes. Korzybski discusses the matter with profound and accurate understanding."
Basically, as these examples illustrate, Gardner fails to adhere to one of the cardinal rules of science, which is to report on all relevant aspects of an issue, even those that might bring one's own position into question. As a further example, he mentioned nothing about the extensive use of general semantics in World War Two by psychiatrists in the European theatre of operations, and its reported success by Dr. Douglas M. Kelley, Chief Consultant in Clinical Psychology and Assistant Consultant in Psychiatry to the European Theater of Operations (and Chief Psychiatrist in charge of the prisoners at Nuremberg). Mr. Gardner gets a D in science.
Rating: 5
Summary: Timless essays a must-read for all
Comment: Although written in the 1950s, Martin Gardner's Fads and Fallacies is one of the masterpieces of science. Gardner tackles both seriously and humorously the pseudoscience of his day, including flying saucers, flat-earthers, dianetics, medical cults, dowsers, orogonomy, Atlantis historians, and many more. From Trofim Lysenko's efforts to overthrow Darwin's theory of evolution for Lamarck's theory of acquired characteristics in Russia, to the hilarious chapter on Charles Fort's philosophy of "accept everything but believe nothing" in our own country, Gardner paints a marvelous portrait that will make the reader roll their eyes and smile at some people's credulity as well as be shocked at how far some will go to search for and believe in what isn't there. What strikes me as the most prominent thing about this book is that he almost seems to be addresing the pseudoscience/antiscience of our day instead of decades past. In summary, his essays will bring the reader's mind to a more a skeptical level of thinking when faced with current claims that resemble those of yester-year. Gardner's book is a fitting prequel to Carl Sagan's The Demon-Haunted World as it not only debunks the false claims of pseudoscience, but also educates the reader's mind about what real science is while maintaining an apt for wonder.
Rating: 5
Summary: A lasting influence!
Comment: I first read "Fads & Fallacies", oh, about 40 years ago, not long after it was first published. The healthy scepticism which imbues the book has been with me ever since. This has got me into numerous scrapes, but I would not have it any other way!
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Title: The Skeptic's Dictionary: A Collection of Strange Beliefs, Amusing Deceptions, and Dangerous Delusions by Robert Todd Carroll, Robert T. Carroll ISBN: 0471272426 Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Pub. Date: 15 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time by Michael Shermer ISBN: 0805070893 Publisher: Owl Books Pub. Date: 01 September, 2002 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: Flim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and Other Delusions by James Randi, Isaac Asimov ISBN: 0879751983 Publisher: Prometheus Books Pub. Date: October, 1988 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
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Title: Voodoo Science: The Road from Foolishness to Fraud by Robert L. Park ISBN: 0195147103 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: October, 2001 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: Did Adam and Eve Have Navels?: Debunking Pseudoscience by Martin Gardner ISBN: 0393322386 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: October, 2001 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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