Thinking for Ourselves: How Scientists and Detectives think - Paperback

by Michael Disney (Author)

WHY NOT LEARN TO THINK LIKE EINSTEIN? He attributed his success entirely to common sense. But what is common Sense Thinking? They don't tell us in class because scholars don't know how it works; it's buried too deep inside us. So the author, who is a Space astronomer, has spent a lifetime unearthing it. Common Sense turns out to have nothing whatever to do with IQ, or with passing exams; it has to do with Curiosity, with the deliberate gathering of evidence, with a willingness to change one's mind, and with the patience to wait until the Odds look decisive. But these COMMON SENSE THINKING SKILLS ARE THE VERY SKILLS OF THE DETECTIVE AS WELL AS THE SCIENTIST; WE CAN ALL LEARN THEM IF WE WANT TO, WHATEVER OUR EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENTS. To think efficiently for ourselves we require the right information and the right tools. At last the Internet is bringing an increasing flood of the kind of information we need to make crucial decisions for ourselves, and not have to rely any longer on expensive and often unreliable experts. But do we have the right mental tools? We do and we don't. We do because Nature has embedded deep within us the sophisticated mental mechanisms needed to survive in the perilous Stone-age out of which we evolved. We don't, in the sense that we don't know how those tools work, and so we cannot adapt them for best use in a modern world full of culture and technology. The author has unearthed those ingenious and previously unrecognised tools which Nature evolved for dealing with conflicting evidence, for discounting bad clues, and for weighing up all the pros and cons.THE AIM OF THIS BOOK IS TO OPEN NATURE'S TOOL-BAG AND DEMONSTRATE HER MENTAL TOOLS WORKING ONE BY ONE. THE READER WILL END UP EQUIPPED WITH AN INDISPENSABLE BOY-SCOUT'S PENKNIFE FOR THE THINKING MIND.THE BOOK IS AIMED AT TWO KINDS OF READERS: THOSE WHO FEEL THEY ARE EDUCATED - AND THOSE WHO FEEL THEY ARE NOT. The educated ones will discover that they have not learned Common Sense Thinking at school or university, and badly need to - while the uneducated ones will find that dropping out of education is no handicap if they now decide that they do want to think seriously and well. Anyone aged 14 or over could master it.The approach is to work through numerous stories and examples, some serious, some light-hearted, all hopefully interesting and relevant. THE BOOK IS REALLY A SERIES OF DETECTIVE STORIES IN WHICH WE LEARN TO WORK OUT ROUGH ODDS ON THE VARIOUS SUSPECTS (IDEAS) BEING GUILTY.There are plenty of exercises for those who want to practice, with worked answers available free on the Internet.Topics covered include: -Different kinds of Thinking-How scientists think and decide-How to weight clues-How to reckon the Odds-Woolly thinking-The Elephants in the room (Systematic Errors)-Animal Intelligence-Numbers and Errors in Thinking-Why we don't need Statistics any more.-Common mistakes in Thinking and Deciding-The extraordinary history of Thinking-What is Science, and what is not?-The meteoric ascent of mankind. What on Earth happened?There are 16 chapters. Two hours devoted to each should equip the reader with the tools needed to go about tackling the hardest mental problems in life.