Weaponized Lies: How to Think Critically in the Post-Truth Era - Softcover

Levitin, Daniel J.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0143196294 ISBN 13: 9780143196297

Publisher: Penguin Canada, 2017

Synopsis

Winner of the National Business Book Award 

Winner of the Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction

Previously Published as A Field Guide to Lies

We’re surrounded by fringe theories, fake news, and pseudo-facts. These lies are getting repeated. New York Times bestselling author Daniel Levitin shows how to disarm these socially devastating inventions and get our minds back on track. Here are the fundamental lessons in critical thinking that we need to know and share now. 

Investigating numerical misinformation, Daniel Levitin shows how mishandled statistics and graphs can give a grossly distorted perspective and lead us to terrible decisions. Wordy arguments on the other hand can easily be persuasive as they drift away from the facts in an appealing yet misguided way. The steps we can take to better evaluate news, advertisements, and reports are clearly detailed. Ultimately, Levitin turns to what underlies our ability to determine if something is true or false: the scientific method. He grapples with the limits of what we can and cannot know. Case studies are offered to demonstrate the applications of logical thinking to quite varied settings, spanning courtroom testimony, medical decision making, magic, modern physics, and conspiracy theories.

This urgently needed book enables us to avoid the extremes of passive gullibility and cynical rejection. As Levitin attests: Truth matters. A post-truth era is an era of willful irrationality, reversing all the great advances humankind has made. Euphemisms like "fringe theories," "extreme views," "alt truth," and even "fake news" can literally be dangerous. Let's call lies what they are and catch those making them in the act.

About this title

About the Author

Daniel J. Levitin, PhD is the James McGill Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at McGill University in Montreal and is dean of the College of Arts and Humanities at the Minerva Schools at KGI. He is the author of This Is Your Brain on Music, The World in Six Songs, and The Organized Mind. He divides his time between Montreal, Quebec, and the San Francisco Bay area.


From the Hardcover edition.

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin Canada
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 0143196294
• ISBN 13: 9780143196297
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 320