Robert Carroll (1) (1945–)
Author of The Critical Thinker's Dictionary: Biases, Fallacies, and Illusions and What You Can Do About Them
For other authors named Robert Carroll, see the disambiguation page.
Robert Carroll (1) has been aliased into Robert Todd Carroll.
Works by Robert Carroll
Works have been aliased into Robert Todd Carroll.
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Robert Todd Carroll
- Birthdate
- 1945
- Gender
- male
- Education
- PhD in philosophy at the University of California, San Diego (1974)
- Occupations
- professor of philosophy, Sacramento City College (-2007)
- Short biography
- A longtime advocate of scientific skepticism and critical thinking, in 1994 Carroll set up the Skeptic's Dictionary website online. It initially consisted of fewer than fifty articles, mostly on informal fallacies and pseudoscience. The site has now grown to several hundred articles, including many on the paranormal and the supernatural. It attracts more than a million visitors per month. Entries from the dictionary have been translated into more than a dozen languages.
Carroll's views have attracted numerous interviews for him from mainstream media and local newspapers, such as the Davis Enterprise. In addition, he has been interviewed by representatives of groups promoting scientific skepticism, such as the New England Skeptical Society and Media Man Australia.
In January 2010 Carroll was elected as a Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.
On May 29, 2011, Carroll led a discussion concerning the "Five Myths About Skeptics" at the 2nd annual SkeptiCalCon event held in Berkeley, CA.
On March 27, 2012, Carroll began a regular segment on the podcast Skepticality entitled Unnatural Virtue.
Members
Reviews
The Critical Thinker's Dictionary: Biases, F… by Robert Todd Carroll
Good primer on an important subject, especially in these post-truth times - it feels at times like a list of reasons why Trump and Brexit were voted in. Everyone should know about that stuff; not only to point out the failures in others arguments but more importantly to make yourself realise you own flaws and biases.
This book examines some of the common fallacies in thinking, and how we fool ourselves even when we think we're following the evidence. The author, who has taught critical thinking for years, examines pseudoscience, politics, and religion to discover ways in which we don't always think about things in a rational way. The very weakest part of the book was the conclusion, where the author just sort of seems to throw up his hands and say "oh, well, nothing to be done, and it doesn't really hurt anyone that much" - in spite of the fact that he has just worked his way through a myriad of ways in which it DOES hurt. Then he says he's going to give 59 ways to overcome your biases, but he really doesn't. He just lists 59 particular types of biases. Overall, a good book, but it could have been better.… (more)
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 2
- Members
- 40
- Popularity
- #370,100
- Rating
- 3.7
- Reviews
- 2
- ISBNs
- 22
- Languages
- 2