Stephen Law recommends five books on pseudoscience

March 18, 2015 • 2:34 pm

Most of you have probably heard of Stephen Law, a philosopher at the University of London and provost of the Center for Inquiry UK (he’s also an atheist).  At the Five Books site, which I keep recommending as a great way to find what to read in an area you’re curious about, Nigel Warburton has just done an interview with Law , who recommends five books for learning about (and debunking) pseudoscience.  I’ll leave you to read what he says, but I’ll list the books here (and their US Amazon links) for your convenience. And I’ll append or or two statements from the interview.

Les livres:

God’s Perfect Child: Living and Dying in the Christian Science Church by Caroline Fraser (about the failure of Christian Science healing). I’ve read this book and it’s terrific.

UFOs: The Public Deceived by Philip J. Klass.

Trick or Treatment? Alternative Medicine on Trial by Simon Singh and Edzard Ernst. I want to read this book.

Intellectual Impostures by Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont. I’ve read this book, and also recommend it. It’s a great takedown of postmodern nonsense.

How to Think About Weird Things: Critical Thinking for a Critical Age by Theodore Schick. I haven’t read this book.

Weigh in below with your thoughts on any of these you’ve read. I’ll finish with a definition and an opinion by Law.

We’re going to be looking at your choice of books about pseudoscience, but before we go into the books themselves, could you explain what pseudoscience is?

Pseudoscience is a practice in which people convince themselves that what they’re doing is science – that it meets scientific standards – but, on closer examination, it turns out that they’re merely aping the methods of science. It’s a kind of fake science. I’m particularly interested in pseudoscience and other dodgy systems of belief. Our cultural landscape contains many belief systems which are intellectual black holes: as you approach them you find yourself getting drawn in. Eventually you pass the event horizon, and there is no escape, or at least it can be extremely difficult to think your way out again. The people that are trapped inside these belief systems are often intelligent, well-educated people. They really believe that what they believe is rational and reasonable and perhaps even scientifically credible. But the truth is that they are duping themselves. I’ve selected some books which illustrate this tendency of human beings to get sucked into these intellectual prisons, often never to escape.

And Law apparently lumps religion in which pseudoscience, which is fine so long as we’re talking about truth claims of religion that could, in principle, be tested empirically:

What I object to is the way in which some appeal to mystery in order to try and get themselves out of trouble, in order to deflect attention away from the fact that there’s no real evidence to suggest that what they’re saying is true (and perhaps even evidence contradicts what they claim). It’s important to me that if somebody claims that they have some kind of medicine that works for a particular illness, for example, that they can show that the medicine really works. I don’t think that anyone should be making those kind of claims, and in particular making money from those kind of claims, unless they can demonstrate that what they claim is, or is very probably, true. It’s particularly important that we all have some immunity to the kind of bullshit that surrounds us in our everyday lives. When I walk down the high street where I live, I find people promoting all sorts of strange and peculiar beliefs, religious beliefs, alternative medicines, and so on. Many of these people are fairly harmless, but not all of them. Some of them want to lure me and my children into belief systems that are potentially exploitative, and perhaps even dangerous. We all need some immunity to bullshit. We need to make sure that our critical faculties are engaged. We need to be sure that a little red light will come on in our heads as we begin to approach one of these intellectual black holes, so that we don’t fall victim.

53 thoughts on “Stephen Law recommends five books on pseudoscience”

  1. This looks like an excellent topic of inquiry for philomena . . . she could certainly shed some light on this subject (and possibly some d*g hair)

  2. Sokal $100!
    I clicked the let the publisher know you want to read this on Kindle. Enough clicks …

    1. Sokal’s ‘Beyond the Hoax’ is available on Kindle
      ‘ . . . Sokal takes on a new and more dangerous set of targets: pseudoscience, religion, and misinformation in public life’

      1. Both books by Sokal are very much worth the investment. He skewers a lot of postmodernist nonsense with style and acuity.

  3. I’ve read Trick or Treatment, Intellectual Imposters, and — a long time ago — How to Think About Weird Things.

    The thing I remember most about this book is that I lent it to my dad and he loved it so much he bought his own copy. This gratified me, since it is an excellent source on how-to-think-critically-and-avoid-fallacies and my father was a firm believer in more than one version of woo.

    And then we had a discussion and it turned out my dad had completely misunderstood the book. Somehow he had taken all the assertions that “science needs to be open-minded” and happily translated them into the idiom of the books he’d been reading till then, all of which regularly whinged on about how scientists were being “closed-minded” and dismissing great evidence for ESP and psychic powers and alien visitations.

    When I told him that Schick was not only a popular writer among skeptics, but both a self-admitted skeptic and an atheist himself, my dad was shocked. After thinking for a few moments, he then said Schick couldn’t have been following his own advice: the book’s philosophy supported the existence of the paranormal.

    No, it doesn’t. Not at all.

    I’ll also recommend another book: Stephen Law’s own Believing Bullshit.

    3. “I’ll also recommend another book: Stephen Law’s own Believing Bullshit.”
      Yeah, that one is great. More people should read it!

    4. Had a similar experience after loaning a friend the book The Bermuda Triangle Mystery – Solved. Author Larry Kusche used a format where each chapter begins by outlining a “mysterious” event via a few paragraphs (in italic IIRC), and then uses the rest of the chapter to debunk it. Naturally my friend just read the outlines and concluded that there was indeed a great mystery.

  4. It should not be forgotten that the seminal book on the subject was by the late Martin Gardner, Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science. Despite the fact that it is rather dated, having been written 60 years ago,it is astonishing that many of the items he describes are still around and, in some cases, going strong.

    1. Another classic: Flim-Flam! by James “The Amazing” Randi. He gets snarky at times, but the scorn is always well-deserved.

    1. The Code Book is excellent, I seem to recall. Also Fermat’s Last Theorem.

      Both a fascinating read, and you don’t need to be an expert to understand them.

  6. I have read God’s Perfect Child. It interested me because my mother sent my sister and me to Christian Science Sunday school for a year or two when I was in grade school. It’s been a while since I owned a copy, but I remember thinking it was excellent. I also recommend Martin Gardiner’s book about Mary Baker Eddy, as well as Mark Twain’s acerbic assessment of the religion.

  7. How to Think About Weird Things: Critical Thinking for a Critical Age by Theodore Schick.

    I’m sure that I own this book. I don’t think I have read it, at least not to completion.

    1. “How to Think About Weird Things: Critical Thinking for a Critical Age” by, Theodore Schick and Lewis Vaughn. One of the classics of skepticism and critical thinking.

      Sagan’s “Demon Haunted World” is another.

      If Sokal and Bricmont is $98 that means it’s O/P and unlikely to get a Kindle edition unless reprinted. Google “Sokal Hoax” to get the story on the series of events that preceded the book. It’s one of the classics of the skeptic movement.

      Ben Goldacre’s “Bad Science: Quacks, Hacks, and Big Pharma Flacks” is a classic on medical quackery.

      1. “If Sokal and Bricmont is $98 that means it’s O/P and unlikely to get a Kindle edition unless reprinted”

        You can buy it for around three bucks, plus shipping. Check ABE Books (now owned by Amazon) for independent used book store listings.

        http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?sts=t&tn=Intellectual+Impostures

        The prices on certain used books on Amazon often reflect the automatic, algorithmic pricing engines used by some of their resellers. Some of the re-sellers don’t actually own any of the books they advertise, instead automatically using their system to add a margin sufficient to order it from another vendor then sell it to you for a mark up.

        Check out the story $23 million dollar Amazon book:

        http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/web/04/25/amazon.price.algorithm/

      2. I got a copy of Sokal & Bricmont a few years back for a modest price (it must have been, I’m a cheapskate when it comes to books).

        I also love Dawkin’s review of it:
        http://www.physics.nyu.edu/sokal/dawkins.html
        in which he is most strident but also clear, concise and the polar opposite of the writers targeted by S&B.

        1. Thank you for that. I have read Intellectual Impostures but hadn’t come across Dawkins review. Interesting to be reminded that Cambridge placed at his feet the gift of an honorary degree.

    2. I bought this book (1st ed) over twenty years ago. I have re-read it several times since. It is excellent.

  9. What? Where’s The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark? A disservice was done this day.

  10. Now in its 7th edition, “How to Think About Weird Things: Critical Thinking for a Critical Age” by Theodore Schick and Lewis Vaughn is a great critical thinking book that uses real world examples, including UFOlogy and pseudo science, to teach how to separate what is true from what seems to be true. It is a great book. I’d love to recommend it to everyone, but, unfortunately, it is marketed as a college text book and the soft cover book sells new for $75. First published in 1995 it remains a much, much better book than Michael Shermer’s 1997, and somewhat copycat titled book, “Why People Believe Weird Things”

    I also like the classics, including “Demon Haunted Word” by Sagan, “Flim Flam!” by Randi, and the 1957 classic, “Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science” by Martin Gardner.

    1. Agreed re: Schick & Vaughn. I own two different editions of it, have read it several times, & cannot recommend it highly enough. It is an excellent, wonderfully accessible critical thinking primer.

      Although the current edition is expensive, the fact that it is widely assigned as a textbook means that reasonably priced secondhand copies are oft easy to come by in university towns. I wish everyone would read it.

  11. It would be an astounding day if all students were taught how to be alert too and skeptical of pseudoscience. It would not be enough to cure us of the foibles of the brain but for the most part, you could operate within the bounds of sanity.
    It is incredibly hard work until practiced at doing this, recognizing something smelly and it is constant. It would be nice to live in a society where you could, rest and do and talk about things that matter.

    1. Despite its primary importance skepticism and critical thinking are unlikely ever to be taught in any public school in the US as long as the curriculum is controlled by state and local school boards. Public schools are designed to produce workers, consumers and patriots.

  12. Looks like my question of what 5 books to read next is sorted. I’ve been wanting to read Intellectual Impostures for a while, so this is a good reminder.

  13. I’ve read Believing Bullshit a few years ago. Alas, part of the problem with people who believe in bullshit is that they regard genuine science, such as evolution, as the bullshit and think their particular religious & pseudo-science is the real deal. Of course, they also think that everyone else’s religion is bullshit, but they just happen to belong to the one true religion.

  14. ‘Intellectual Impostures’ is available in a generally much cheaper edition as ‘Fashionable Nonsense’.

    1. I believe ‘Fashionable Nonsense’ is the US title. Wish publishers wouldn’t do that (not that there’s anything wrong with it being cheaper).

      1. Yes, that is the US title. I purchased it (as Intellectual Impostures) in the UK, wiout realizing that I already owned it (as Fashionable Nonsense).
        (‘~’)

        Regardless, it is a must-read, & I push it upon my fellow humanities grad students, & upon undergrads, at every opportunity.

  15. I have not read these so I cannot say if any of the below are better but..
    1. Why People Believe Weird Things by M. Shermer.
    2. Many things by Dawkins. The God Delusion especially.
    3. Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why it Matters by D.R. Prothero.

  16. I read this: “Some of them want to lure me and my children into belief systems that are potentially exploitative, and perhaps even dangerous. We all need some immunity to bullshit. We need to make sure that our critical faculties are engaged. We need to be sure that a little red light will come on in our heads as we begin to approach one of these intellectual black holes, so that we don’t fall victim.”

    And I thought–exactly; what he’s describing is a bullshit meter. But the problem is that most people never had a bullshit meter. If they tried to grow one as children, their parents browbeat them and baptized them until it went away. And most of those that did manage to get one, it’s not just long-since parked out front with the battery disconnected, collecting parking tickets; no–it’s up on blocks on the front lawn, with the wheels long gone.

    Example: our local paper here, the Ventura County Star, has been running half-page ads for these pads that supposedly remove toxins through your feet while you sleep. Now granted, the Star is a hopelessly illiterate and especially innumerate rag–the editors can rarely add 2 + 2 and come up with something resembling a number between zero and infinity. Which probably puts them in the middle of the pack as far as U.S. snoozepapers go.

    But I googled “get rid of toxins through your feet as you sleep,” and the first eight hits are fawning infomercials, with almost all comments not just positive, but all gaga about what miracles these things are. (Not until hit no. 10 do you get to the first skeptical article, an ABC News piece by John Stossel.)

    And this is true in spite of all the blather about “meridians,” and statements like: “The science is said to come from Japan…” (Really? Said by whom?)

    This list of five books seems like a wonderful primer to try to get the old bullshit meter up and running. But as suggested by several commenters here, I think that the burning stupid may be far too stubborn, cunning, and resourceful to be much hindered by mere education.

  18. Although not as entertaining as some of the books on Stephen’s list, some serious philosophy on the demarcation of science from pseudoscience is collected in Massimo Pigliucci and Maarten Boudry’s (eds) recent “Philosophy of Pseudoscience”. Pigliucci’s “Nonsense on Stilts” is excellent as well.

    1. Agreed!

      Maarten Boudry’s work is first-rate. His doctoral thesis on pseudoscience and the demarcation problem, written when he was only 26, is excellent: “Here be dragons: exploring the hinterland of science”. It’s available for free as a PDF here:
      https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/1191286

  19. Well I’m glad to see Mr Law has become a bit more sceptical since his moderately disastrous video with Rupert Sheldrake (the purveyor of “morphic resonance”) the woomeister whom Law described at the time as a scientist. Well done!

  21. Another book I should have recommended is “The Skeptic’s Dictionary,” by Robert Carroll http://tinyurl.com/l3xqcxo
    a compendium of frauds, hoaxes and pseudo science organized alphabetically by topic. Dr Carroll has a web site of the same name that keeps the SD updated on the latest developments http://www.skepdic.com There’s much more up to date skeptical information online these days than in any of the books mentioned by Fry or anyone else.

  22. There are also some very patient takedowns of some other pomo nonsense in N. Koertge’s _A House Built on Sand_. (Other volumes exist, but this is my favourite.)

    On the pseudoscience theme – Sokal’s _Beyond the Hoax_, mentioned above, is one of the few ones which does the “all religion is effectively pseudoscience” approach.

    There are also textbooks devoted to “scientific reasoning” on the positive side; Giere’s book is interesting, but I fear it is too atheoretical. (Not surprising from someone from the “disunity of science” movement.) I have been investigating whether there is better for the local CFI on and off.

  23. Dear WEIT followers,

    If anyone can give me a good source, other that Klass’ book, of which I am already aware, ideally web based, to convince me that there is nothing worth an enquiry in UFOs, I am interested.

    I’ve heard and read a lot of things on the topic. Thare are still things (testimonies, reports) I do not know what to make of, unless people hallucinate or are lie a lot more than I would say, based on things non UFO related, they do.

    If anyone is willing to try to convince me, please try.

    Thank you in advance.

    PS: By the way, Sokal and Bricmont’s book costs $98? Nonsense. Is the English edition gold plated?

    1. Well, Sagan worked on this topic a lot; I don’t know of anything off hand more recent specifically on it. But one of the things to do is to investigate the (if I can be allowed the Bayesian idiom) priors …

      There, astronomy and (astro)physics texts are good. For example, I still profit from Stan Giblisco’s book on (largely) special relativity.

      1. Thank you Mr Douglas.

        The Bayesian Idiom is fine at least to me.

        I am not sure why you mention astronomy, physics, and astrophysics books: to my knowledge they (understandably) never deal with the topic of UFOs.

        In any case, thank you again.

        1. The point is – one can evaluate the hypothesis in two ways – both important. One way is to evaluate “experimental” evidence. The other way is to see how plausible it would be to begin with. That’s what the other texts are for.

    2. You might have more luck asking astronomer Phil Plait than biologist Jerry Coyne.

      Though I don’t think anyone thinks that “there’s nothing worth an enquiry in UFOs.” UFO = unidentified flying object and every explanation is going to be interesting, whatever it involves..

      1. Dear Sastra, thank you.

        I’ll look up what Mr Plait has to say on the topic.

        I have acttually met a fair amount of people who thought the topic was not even worth thinking about.

  24. John Sladek’s The New Apocrypha (1974) is another excellent oldie. People might remember him as the author of Roderick and Roderick at Random, just as amusing, but novels.

  25. These five I really liked

    1. Trick or Treatment: The Undeniable Facts about Alternative Medicine. Edzard Ernst and Simon Singh.
    2. Snake Oil Medicine: The Truth About Complementary and Alternative Medicine. R. Barker Bausell
    3. Do You Believe in Magic? Vitamins, Supplements, and All Things Natural: A Look Behind the Curtain. Paul A. Offit, MD

    Different but related to incorrect thinking (or how we think and what we believe)

    4. Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts. Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson.
    5. SuperSense: Why We Believe in the Unbelievable. Bruce M. Hood

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