Philosophers Steven Nadler and Lawrence Shapiro consider how large masses of people can embrace crazy, even dangerous ideas and how this bad thinking drives bad acting, inspiring exceptionally bad behavior. Nadler and Shapiro offer a way forward: the best antidote for bad thinking and acting is the wisdom, insights, and practical skills of philosophy.
They provide an engaging tour through the basic principles of logic, argument, evidence, and probability; demonstrating how we can more readily spot and avoid flawed arguments and unreliable information; determine whether evidence supports or contradicts an idea; distinguish between merely believing something and knowing it; and much more. In doing so, the book reveals how epistemology, which addresses the nature of belief and knowledge, and ethics, the study of moral principles that should govern our behavior, can reduce bad thinking and bad action and make us all better people and citizens. When Bad Thinking Happens to Good People explores why philosophy’s millennia-old advice about how to lead a good, rational, and examined life is essential for escaping our current predicament.
Nonfiction
When Bad Thinking Happens to Good People: How Philosophy Can Save Us from Ourselves
- From the Publisher
September 1, 2020
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