Kyle's review of How We Know What Isn't So: The Fallibility of Human Reason in Everyday Life
How We Know What Isn't So: The Fallibility of Human Reason in Everyday Life by Thomas Gilovich
Kyle's review
rating:
recommended for:
amateur psychologists, skeptics, critical thinkers
status:
Read in January, 2002
How We Know What Isn't So is an outstanding read for anybody who tends to be a skeptic or merely wants to be a critical thinker. While the author is an academic, the book is well-written and actually a fairly quick and easy read. The purpose is to explore how we come to understand things, and primarily it focuses on how we come to believe things that are not true. Whether it is ESP or alien abductions or more common myths like strange things happening during full moons, Gilovich documents a widespread belief in these phenomenon and then explores why these beliefs are so widely held when they are clearly false.
Gilovich doesn't bring up the subject of religion, but he doesn't really have to. The framework works well for any atheist or agnostic to figure out why a large percentage of human beings believe in a higher power.
Gilovich doesn't bring up the subject of religion, but he doesn't really have to. The framework works well for any atheist or agnostic to figure out why a large percentage of human beings believe in a higher power.
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