Hunting Humbug 101

In this “on the road” edition of the show we travelled to Embiggen Books on the Sunshine Coast to see a talk by the 2008 winner of the Australian Skeptics Prize for Critical Thinking - Peter Ellerton. See his site: Philosophers and Critical Thinkers in Senior Schools.

We discuss “The Art of Humbug Detection”. I.e. how to get better at spotting the flaws in arguments (your own, and the arguments of others).

I also used a clip from RIchard Dawkins‘ The Eneimies of Reason (Part 1). And here’s the Peter Ellerton clip I used:

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In this podcast we look at the fallacy Argument to Consequences – in the specific form of Wishful Thinking. Also: WIN! WIN! WIN! a copy of the paperback edition of Humbug! Be one of the first 3 reviews for the podcast on iTunes and you have a 1/3^rd chance of receiving an autographed copy of our book! You can’t get much better odds than that! Send me the text of your review before you post it (so no dodgy person flogs your work…) theo dot clark at skepticsfieldguide.net

Show notes:

Here’s the queen of egoism, Opera Winfrey, on “The Secret”

The Chaser’s satirical take on it – nut job of the week

The Derren Brown show I mentioned is called “The System” – youtube part 1 here:

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Head to the website for full show notes: www.skepticsfieldguide.net. In this episode I interview a practicing psychic. I ask her to answer questions about paranormal phenomena and what the basis of her belief is. I am joined by good friend Ben Retschlag, who I discuss this with – in terms of Thomas Gilovich’s book How We Know What Isn’t So – The Fallibility of Human Reason in Everyday Life.

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In this podcast we look at the fallacy Sanctimony - The advocate makes an unwarranted claim that his or her position is morally superior to the opponent’s position. Head to the website for full show notes. (Note, there is a bit of beeped out swearing in this podcast. Sorry if that’s a problem…)

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