Book It
A glance at what’s in my library at the moment
Currently Reading
Gary Drescher - Good and Real: Demystifying Paradoxes from Physics to Ethics - The AI researcher attempts to eliminate many of the seeming paradoxes in everything from quantum mechanics to consciousness that arise from living in a deterministic material world in which we also make choices and care about ethics.
Next Up
TBD
Recently Finished
Richard Carrier - Proving History: Bayes’s Theorem and the Quest for the Historical Jesus - In this first of two volumes on the historicity of Jesus, Carrier argues for the normative nature of Bayes’ theorem in historical research while discussing the numerous flaws with the typical methods of confirmation in Jesus studies. Despite some disagreements I have with his beliefs about what probability is this is a useful book for those interested in Bayesianism and likely a necessary one for those interested in the historicity of Jesus.
Jonathan Baron - Thinking and Deciding - In a truly impressive effort to cover human cognition and rationality, Baron thoroughly explores how we think, how we ought to think and offers well-researched answers on how we can bridge the gap between the two. Rare is the book that is so expansive with coverage spanning the basics of rationality and logic, to probability theory, including Bayes’ theorem, and concluding with wonderful exploration of decision theory all while exploring the heuristics and biases that shape our thoughts in these areas. Simply put, this is the first book I will recommend to anyone interested in learning how to think or decide better.
Highly Recommended
Jonathan Baron - Thinking and Deciding - In a truly impressive effort to cover human cognition and rationality, Baron thoroughly explores how we think, how we ought to think and offers well-researched answers on how we can bridge the gap between the two. Rare is the book that is so expansive with coverage spanning the basics of rationality and logic, to probability theory, including Bayes’ theorem, and concluding with wonderful exploration of decision theory all while exploring the heuristics and biases that shape our thoughts in these areas. Simply put, this is the first book I will recommend to anyone interested in learning how to think or decide better.
Daniel Kahneman - Thinking, Fast and Slow - If you intend to try to be objective in evaluating evidence you need to know how you think and this work does just that. The difference in our intuitive and effortful modes of thinking, the way cognitive biases and heuristics effect our choices, our failure to comprehend randomness and the difference between our experiencing self and remembering self may all seem like abstract concepts but Kahneman shows that these all have a significant impact on everything from our daily lives to our most broad philosophical assumptions.
Michael and Ellen Kaplan - Bozo Sapiens: Why to Err is Human - Everyone knows humans make mistakes but the Kaplans help show why and just how pervasive these errors are in all aspects of our lives with this expose on heuristics, cognitive biases and reasoning quirks.
Nate Silver - The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail-but Some Don’t - In a profoundly ambitious pop work the renowned statistician and blogger examines what makes predictions successful and what errors we encounter trying to forecast reality. In addition to being very well written, I think this is the best book which communicates the ideas of Bayesian reasoning while still being accessible to the general public and as a result it deserves to be read.
Massimo Pigliucci - Nonsense on Stilts: How to Tell Science from Bunk - It’s harder than most realize to establish what constitutes science, as opposed to pseudoscience, and this book does that very well while also illuminating how the layperson should go about judging legitimate scientific debates and manufactured controversies in science.
Carl Sagan - The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark - There’s a reason this book is usually the first cited by skeptics when asked what book they would recommend to a lay person. Sagan clearly and thoroughly explains the scientific method and critical thinking in an easily comprehensible way while enticing the reader with many useful anecdotes and clear examples.
Michael Sandel - Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? - Using real world examples the political philosopher engages the reader with one challenging moral dilemma after another while examining all prominent moral philosophies and challenging the reader to come to their own conclusions. It’s by a wide margin my favorite book for the general public on ethics.
Theodore Schick & Lewis Vaughn - How to Think About Weird Things: Critical Thinking for a New Age - A very clear book on applied epistemology which both shows how to examine evidence for theories about the world and why you need to take precautions. This is a book you can give to a child but which can be equally valuable to an adult explaining the basics of critical thinking through examples of the paranormal, new age and just plain weird claims.
