How to evaluate the book Strange Phenomenology?

Gallup poll in 2005 showed that 55% of the respondents in the United States believed in the healing power of psychics on the body, 32% agreed with ghosts, souls and resurrection, and 3 1% did not doubt telepathy, believing that aliens had visited the earth, and there were masters of prophecy in the world. Similar opinion polls conducted in European countries in recent years have also reached the same result.

The results of previous national scientific literacy surveys in China in recent years show that the scientific literacy of Chinese citizens is steadily improving, but the overall level is still lower than that of major developed countries and regions. Media, sociologists and scientists often warn urban and rural residents of their weak scientific awareness. Some stars in the entertainment circle will be cheated every time the "master" of divination. Pseudoscience books often exist in bestseller lists.

The World Book Publishing Company recently introduced and published the popular science masterpiece Weird Phenomenology: 2 1 Century Scientific Fraud Prevention Guide, which was highly praised by the American scientific community. The author of this book is Theodore Junior, a philosopher of science and a professor of philosophy at Mullenberg College. Hick, and best-selling author Lewis, such as the power of critical thinking? Co-authored by Vaughan. The book flaunts all kinds of popular strange phenomena and their supernatural explanations, and from the principles of knowledge, reasoning and evidence, falsifies and refutes those strange theories that are widely circulated. The author deliberately and patiently restored the process and mystery of misinterpretation and demagoguery caused by astrology, ghosts, psychic powers, UFO hijacking, channeling and prophecy. Therefore, this book can not only expose all kinds of popular lies and scams, but also help to improve the investigation efficiency of law enforcement departments, keep more people away from superstition, promote readers' independent thinking, and cultivate scientific literacy and spirit.

The two authors first discuss what some people call mysterious stories and "impossible things" from the logical principle. Impossible can be divided into logical impossibility, physical impossibility and prior art impossibility. If a thing cannot exist logically, it cannot exist in itself; Things that are physically impossible will not be realized, and many similar "impossible things" are actually artificial illusions, such as magic; Technical impossibility may become possible under another condition, but the basis needs to be submitted. Many deceptions and scams just confuse three completely different "impossible things".

Only by establishing and strengthening critical thinking can we avoid making mistakes in the interpretation of grotesque phenomena and falling into the deception created by others. The book introduces the relevant argumentation principles and methods.

Knowledge, belief and fact are relative, that is, they change with the evolution of science and human cognition. This relativity and variability are often used by some people as "supernatural". The two authors of this book point out that to affirm a proposition, it is not necessary to rule out all the reasons for the establishment of doubts at present, as long as there are enough reasons to rule out reasonable doubts. In fact, science and social common sense can stand such verification, but strange ideas can hardly stand the test.

The book emphasizes that perception, intuition, memory, and expert opinions outside the professional field are not sufficient basis for understanding a new proposition, but should be carefully compared with various background information. Many people believe in the zodiac, astrology, fortune telling, tarot cards and palm reading, and tend to believe that magicians accurately reveal their character descriptions and life fortunes. This is largely due to people's frequent selective memory, refusing to accept evidence to the contrary, and falling into the quagmire of usability errors.

The book also provides a search formula to help readers identify the reliability of the explanation of grotesque and abnormal phenomena. The formula is divided into four steps. The first step is to state the proposition and state the strange ideas summarized by yourself or put forward by others in clear and specific terms; The second step is to review the evidence supporting this claim, verify the true nature and limitations of the evidence, and judge the logical connection between the premise, the evidence and the conclusion; The third step is to consider all kinds of alternative explanations, especially to restrain one's preference for one explanation and list all kinds of explanation hypotheses comprehensively; The fourth step is to review the explanations obtained in the third step according to the principles of testability, richness, extensiveness, conciseness and conservatism. Therefore, this book demonstrates and analyzes the fallacies related to grotesque phenomena, such as intercession, UFO hijacking, channeling, near-death experience and ghosts.