Thinking books · Critical thinking · Schick & Vaughn, 1995
How to Think About Weird Things — the big ideas
A textbook on evaluating extraordinary claims, built around a set of explicit criteria.
Free — no account needed to read
The big ideas
It gives criteria for comparing explanations: testability, fruitfulness, scope, simplicity, and how well each fits what is already established.
Absence of a conventional explanation is not evidence for an unconventional one — "science cannot explain it" is a statement about current knowledge, not support for a rival claim.
Personal experience is real as experience and weak as evidence, because the conditions under which it was formed cannot be checked or repeated.
Practise it — no need to have read it
Take something surprising you believe happened for a particular reason. Write three rival explanations, and rank all four on testability and scope.
A hint: The point is comparison. A single explanation always looks convincing on its own.
Where it shows up in real life
- Diagnosing why something worked
- Evaluating unusual claims
- Deciding what caused a change in your metrics
Described in our own words with the source named — never quoted, and not a substitute for reading the book.
Thinking methods from this book
- State what would refute it — Testing whether a claim is the kind of thing evidence could ever settle.
The thinking it builds
- Critical Thinking — Evaluate claims and evidence
- Logical Thinking — Reason consistently