Sponsor |  emortis9 | Apr 2, 4:16am | * Wherever possible there must be independent confirmation of the facts
* Encourage substantive debate on the evidence by knowledgeable proponents of all points of view.
* Arguments from authority carry little weight (in science there are no "authorities").
* Spin more than one hypothesis - don't simply run with the first idea that caught your fancy.
* Try not to get overly attached to a hypothesis just because it's yours.
* Quantify, wherever possible.
* If there is a chain of argument every link in the chain must work.
* "Occam's razor" - if there are two hypothesis that explain the data equally well choose the simpler.
* Ask whether the hypothesis can, at least in principle, be falsified (shown to be false by some unambiguous test). In other words, it is testable? Can others duplicate the experiment and get the same result?
Additional issues are
* Conduct control experiments - especially "double blind" experiments where the person taking measurements is not aware of the test and control subjects.
* Check for confounding factors - separate the variables.
Common fallacies of logic and rhetoric
* Ad hominem - attacking the arguer and not the argument.
* Argument from "authority".
* Argument from adverse consequences (putting pressure on the decision maker by pointing out dire consequences of an "unfavourable" decision).
* Appeal to ignorance (absence of evidence is not evidence of absence).
* Special pleading (typically referring to god's will).
* Begging the question (assuming an answer in the way the question is phrased).
* Observational selection (counting the hits and forgetting the misses).
* Statistics of small numbers (such as drawing conclusions from inadequate sample sizes).
* Misunderstanding the nature of statistics (President Eisenhower expressing astonishment and alarm on discovering that fully half of all Americans have below average intelligence!)
* Inconsistency (e.g. military expenditures based on worst case scenarios but scientific projections on environmental dangers thriftily ignored because they are not "proved").
* Non sequitur - "it does not follow" - the logic falls down.
* Post hoc, ergo propter hoc - "it happened after so it was caused by" - confusion of cause and effect.
* Meaningless question ("what happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object?).
* Excluded middle - considering only the two extremes in a range of possibilities (making the "other side" look worse than it really is).
* Short-term v. long-term - a subset of excluded middle ("why pursue fundamental science when we have so huge a budget deficit?").
* Slippery slope - a subset of excluded middle - unwarranted extrapolation of the effects (give an inch and they will take a mile).
* Confusion of correlation and causation.
* Straw man - caricaturing (or stereotyping) a position to make it easier to attack..
* Suppressed evidence or half-truths.
* Weasel words - for example, use of euphemisms for war such as "police action" to get around limitations on Presidential powers. "An important art of politicians is to find new names for institutions which under old names have become odious to the public"
get the book :) tinyurl.com/38lqv6 [tinyurl.com/38lqv6] |
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Sponsor | | Vortexfugue | Apr 2, 10:33am | | Thanks for the post! The book should be required reading by all. |
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Sponsor | | emortis9 | Apr 14, 12:28am | A little news...I just found out that My wife and I are going to have a baby boy in September.
The name you ask?
Sagan.
Thats right! I actually was able to talk my wife into naming our first born son after the late great Carl Sagan! |
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Sponsor | | dragonhead | Apr 14, 1:40am | Hooray! Congratulations!
Glad you didn't decide to call him Randi! |
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|  chetmo | Apr 15, 6:30pm | | Calling him "Carl" might be better for his self-esteem as he grows up. "Sagan" as a first name is sorta trekkie-ish, n'est ce pas? Though I like the idea of "Sage" as a nick name. It's an herb, and it's a title of wisdom... |
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Sponsor | | northpaw | Apr 15, 7:07pm | | Congratulations! :) |
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Sponsor | | emortis9 | Apr 16, 1:46am | 4) 7) Thanks :) We are pretty excited!
5) lol...I already told my wife that we could call him Sage for short...
His middle name will be Jude, so if Sagan is too geeky for him he can go by that...but I kind of hope he's a geek anyways :)
But I always wanted to name my kid a unique name...and I have never met anyone with the first name Sagan. |
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Sponsor | | Vortexfugue | Apr 16, 5:34am | | Congrats, Emortis, and I think Sagan is a very cool name. :) |
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| CARL SAGAN'S BALONEY DETECTION KIT | | |
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