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Respecting truth : willful ignorance and standards of evidence in the Internet age / Lee McIntyre.

Van Pelt Library B824.2 .M34 2015
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Format:
Book
Author/Creator:
McIntyre, Lee C.
Contributor:
Phi Beta Kappa Library Trust Fund.
Language:
English
Subjects (All):
Irrationalism (Philosophy).
Truthfulness and falsehood--Philosophy.
Truthfulness and falsehood.
Self-deception--Philosophy.
Self-deception.
Mass media--Objectivity.
Mass media.
Internet--Psychological aspects.
Internet.
Philosophy.
Physical Description:
xi, 150 pages ; 24 cm
Place of Publication:
New York : Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2015.
Summary:
Throughout history, humans have always indulged in certain irrationalities and held some fairly wrong-headed beliefs. But in his newest book, philosopher Lee McIntyre shows how we've now reached a watershed moment for ignorance in the modern era, due to the volume of misinformation, the speed with which it can be digitally disseminated, and the savvy exploitation of our cognitive weaknesses by those who wish to advance their ideological agendas. In Respecting Truth: Willful Ignorance in the Internet Age, McIntyre issues a call to fight back against this slide into the witless abyss. In the tradition of Galileo, the author champions the importance of using tested scientific methods for arriving at true beliefs, and shows how our future survival is dependent on a more widespread, reasonable world. Book jacket.
Contents:
1 Attitudes Toward Truth: Willful Ignorance and the Last Glimpse of Shoreline 1
2 The Value of Truth: Should My Genes Care Whether I Can Justify My Belief That a Tiger is Corning Toward Me? 8
3 The Roots of Human Irrationality: Behavioral Economics, Self-Deception, and Lawn Chair Larry 29
4 The Assault on Truth and the Triumph of Ideology; The Flying Spaghetti Monster, Climate Change, and the "Myth" of Race 56
5 Sources of (Mis)information: Why the Media Worship Objectivity but the Ivory Tower Rejects Truth 95
6 Sources of Hope: The Wisdom of Crowds, Group Benefits, and Why Wikipedia is More Reliable than You Think 113
7 A More/Reasonable World: Better Living Through Empirical Social Science 132.
Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 142-144) and index.
Local Notes:
Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Phi Beta Kappa Library Trust Fund.
ISBN:
1138888818
9781138888807
113888880X
9781138888814
OCLC:
896601738
Publisher Number:
99965682809

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