Carl Sagan's Baloney Detection Kit

[Stryder50]

I've come across this a few times over the years and it has some value for everyone's use. Sagan wasn't perfect and some may quibble about a few of the tools/methods he presents. However, it makes a starting point on what is essential to every one's education.

The Baloney Detection Kit​

Carl Sagan’s rules for critical thinking offer cognitive fortification against propaganda, pseudoscience, and general falsehood.​

....
Carl Sagan (November 9, 1934–December 20, 1996) was many things — a cosmic sage, voracious reader, hopeless romantic, and brilliant philosopher. But above all, he endures as our era’s greatest patron saint of reason and critical thinking, a master of the vital balance between skepticism and openness. In The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark (public library) — the same indispensable volume that gave us Sagan’s timeless meditation on science and spirituality, published mere months before his death in 1996 — Sagan shares his secret to upholding the rites of reason, even in the face of society’s most shameless untruths and outrageous propaganda.
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In a chapter titled “The Fine Art of Baloney Detection,” Sagan reflects on the many types of deception to which we’re susceptible — from psychics to religious zealotry to paid product endorsements by scientists, which he held in especially low regard, noting that they “betray contempt for the intelligence of their customers” and “introduce an insidious corruption of popular attitudes about scientific objectivity.” (Cue in PBS’s Joe Hanson on how to read science news.) But rather than preaching from the ivory tower of self-righteousness, Sagan approaches the subject from the most vulnerable of places — having just lost both of his parents, he reflects on the all too human allure of promises of supernatural reunions in the afterlife, reminding us that falling for such fictions doesn’t make us stupid or bad people, but simply means that we need to equip ourselves with the right tools against them.
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But the kit, Sagan argues, isn’t merely a tool of science — rather, it contains invaluable tools of healthy skepticism that apply just as elegantly, and just as necessarily, to everyday life. By adopting the kit, we can all shield ourselves against clueless guile and deliberate manipulation. Sagan shares nine of these tools:
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The Baloney Detection Kit

Carl Sagan’s rules for critical thinking offer cognitive fortification against propaganda, pseudoscience, and general falsehood.

getpocket.com

 

[Cassandro]

Carl Sagan and Paul Krugman were like two bogus flies in our economic ointment.

 

[1srelluc]

Carl Sagan? Really?

 

[lg325]

Something not proven by the facts of the times doen't mean it dosen't exist. The facts of the times once was proof that the sun revolved around the earth and the opposite was just speculation and lunacy. Following Sagans advice a person could still be wrong.

 

[Stryder50]

Another excerpt;

Just as important as learning these helpful tools, however, is unlearning and avoiding the most common pitfalls of common sense. Reminding us of where society is most vulnerable to those, Sagan writes:

In addition to teaching us what to do when evaluating a claim to knowledge, any good baloney detection kit must also teach us what not to do. It helps us recognize the most common and perilous fallacies of logic and rhetoric. Many good examples can be found in religion and politics, because their practitioners are so often obliged to justify two contradictory propositions.

 

[Stryder50]

Something not proven by the facts of the times doen't mean it dosen't exist. The facts of the times once was proof that the sun revolved around the earth and the opposite was just speculation and lunacy. Following Sagans advice a person could still be wrong.

IIRC, Sagan also is claimed to have said;

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

 

[Woodznutz]

IIRC, Sagan also is claimed to have said;

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

That would shoot holes in his views on religion.


The phrase "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence" is often attributed to Carl Sagan. However, it is also noted that the saying has been associated with Dugald Bell in the late 19th century. This phrase is commonly used in discussions about the nature of evidence and the implications of its absence in various contexts.
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