26 October 2010 by Erik Davis
This is the second installment of a five-part series on Magical Thinking, running Monday – Friday this week, that fleshes out my brief talk at Skepticamp Toronto last weekend. Part 1 is available here. On Dualism In the first article in this series, I explored how we might create an ontology for Magical Thinking. Rather [...]
Posted in Cognition, Critical Thinking, Skepticism1 Comment
25 October 2010 by Erik Davis
Just in time for Halloween, I’ll be presenting a five-part series on Magical Thinking that will run from Monday – Friday of this week, picking up on the theme of my talk at Skepticamp Toronto last weekend. The first instalment is below: Toward an Ontology of Magical Thinking A few months ago, I wrote an [...]
Posted in Cognition, Critical Thinking, Skepticism8 Comments
24 October 2010 by Steve Thoms
Since moving to my adopted city of Kitchener, Ontario last month, I’ve come to love the park lands, downtown market, and rich German culture. I love this city a great deal, but I’ve not had a lot of time to learn the political culture, and what level of pseudo-science is prevalent around here. So I [...]
Posted in Cognition, Conspiracy Theories, Critical Thinking, Economics, Health, Health Policy, Ontario, Skepticism38 Comments
15 October 2010 by Steve Thoms
I’ve always had a deep appreciation for the way in which music is somehow different. This is not something I’m claiming to be a unique trait that only I have, because I think we all, in our own ways, set our love of music apart from everything else in our lives. We don’t always try [...]
Posted in Cognition, Critical Thinking, Culture, Evolution, Reviews, Science5 Comments
10 September 2010 by Erik Davis
When Jeff said of On Being Certain that it shook his epistemological world, I knew exactly what he meant. For me that moment came a few chapters into Dan Gardner’s excellent book Risk. While I like to think that my disposition to skepticism is innate, Risk was the book that opened my eyes to the [...]
Posted in Canada, Cognition, Critical Thinking, Reviews, Skepticism5 Comments
20 August 2010 by Jeff Orchard
Note from the Skeptic North Team: Beginning today, and continuing for the next several weeks, Skeptic North contributors will be writing about the skeptical books that are important to them. Look for a new book review every Friday. Jeff Orchard kicks off the series: The book: “On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When [...]
17 August 2010 by Steve Thoms
*update: 08/26, 20:15 EST* Unbeknownst to me when I wrote this, a part 2 to this post would later need to be made. The linkages in this story go pretty deep. Click here for the new post. Despite my old stomping grounds AND my old University being directly involved, I was going to steer clear [...]
Posted in Cognition, Health, Health Policy, Logic and Fallacies, Ontario, Skepticism23 Comments
16 August 2010 by Erik Davis
Ethan’s recent article on the best way for skeptics to dialogue with non-skeptics definitely hit home, and is something I’ve struggled with. Being confrontational is tempting — after all, who doesn’t love to prove how right they are? I am certainly sympathetic to the view presented in the comments by some readers that good manners [...]
Posted in Alternative Medicine, Cognition, Critical Thinking, Pseudoscience, Skepticism7 Comments
22 July 2010 by Erik Davis
“Conrad Black at Florida mansion” last night, after serving only 2 years of his 6 ½ year sentence, writes the CBC today. Black, of course, was the man who founded the National Post from the throne of Hollinger International, which in its heyday also controlled the UK’s Daily Telegraph, the Chicago Sun Times, the Jerusalem [...]
Posted in Canada, Cognition, Critical Thinking, Skepticism0 Comments
24 June 2010 by Erik Davis
Recently, I filed a post about food allergies in the schoolyard, which was driven by catching myself in several common logical fallacies. You see, before writing the article, I had a general sense that school policies designed to protect allergic kids from peanut exposure were getting out of hand. After all, back when I was [...]
Posted in Cognition, Critical Thinking, History, Logic and Fallacies, Probability and Statistics, Science, Skepticism12 Comments
