What is Effective Proper Criticism?

Dec. 29, 2011 7:06 am

Categories: Counterknowledge

Keywords: skeptic, effective way, Hammy Wheel, Crime Science, Routine Activities

What is the most effective way to challenge orthodoxy, knowledge consensus, pseudoscience, junk science and apparently simple claptrap?

Renowned scientist and skeptic, Michael Shermer is the founder and Editor in Chief of the Skeptic magazine. Shermer’s position has long been that the most effective way to challenge fallacies and myths is to publish from a position of seeking to understand rather than ridicule (Shermer 1997). The same conclusions have been put forward by Hyman (2001) and Loxton (2011). But how do they know?

Show me the evidence

This is a strangely unexplored area and it is arguably quite perverse and ironic that those who are acknowledged healthy skeptics, who demand that un-evidenced beliefs should not be confused with veracious knowledge, should accept and ask us to accept their own intuitive and appealing beliefs in this area. Moreover, they do not cite any evidence for what works to change beliefs and the most effective ways to disseminate truth. Instead, their best advice is supported by no more than anecdotal evidence, which is possibly gathered from an unintentional position of confirmation bias. For all we know these, and other professional skeptics – in their aim to be effective myth busters – have created a braced myth regarding how best to tackle myths and teach veracity.

More research is needed. And from that cause I have created Disology.com as a sibling site to Dysology.org (for the study of remarkable claptrap). The purpose of this site is to explore different ways of mocking claptrap.

A Lecture by the Reverend Hammy Wheel

Does my mocking video of a mechanical hamster in a wheel , placed on a mirror, giving a lecture on the Crime Science belief in the opportunity component of Routine Activities Theory (RAT) serve as a useful parody and heuristic device for explaining the unscientific logical fallacy that an easy to vary and irrefutable truism can be an explanation for crime. The video essentially mocks the widely believed Crime Science, Routine Activities and Situation Crime Prevention notions that a mere description of the components of crime is the most important cause of crime. Can the apparently insane Hammy Wheel set a mad world straight via YouTube?

An in-depth explanation for why it is a fallacy to claim that opportunity makes the thief can be found on the On Opportunity and Crime page of Dysology.org

References

Hyman, R. (2001) Proper Criticism. The Skeptical Inquirer. Volume 24. 4th July. Available free online from The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. http://www.csicop.org/si/show/proper_criticism/

Loxton, D. (2011) What Is the Most Effective Way To Be A Skeptic: The Great Debate Between Confrontational Activism v. Educational Outreach. Skeptic. Vol 16. No 4. pp 13-17.

Shermer, M. (1997) Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition and other confusions of our time. London. Souvenir Press.

Sunday, 10 December 2017