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How Do You Know It's True?

  • ISBN-13: 9780879756574
  • Publisher: ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS
    Imprint: PROMETHEUS
  • By Hy Ruchlis
  • Price: AUD $44.99
  • Stock: 0 in stock
  • Availability: This book is temporarily out of stock, order will be despatched as soon as fresh stock is received.
  • Local release date: 30/10/1991
  • Format: Paperback 112 pages Weight: 0g
  • Categories: Educational: History [YQH]
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Preview
Superstition still requires that many buildings have no floor numbered thirteen. Over 25 percent of Americans say they believe in astrology. Knocking on wood is an almost universal habit. Are these harmless notions - or dangerous delusions? Unfortunately, "fairy-tale thinking" is still the greatest enemy of progress, and education often bypasses the teaching of cognitive skills young readers can use to think independently. "How Do You Know It's True?" will provide young readers with an understanding of the basic nature of science, not just as a body of knowledge, but as a way of thinking. Hy Ruchlis addresses the main theme by contrasting the Cinderella fable with the way scientists establish facts; he describes the scientific method and how it has been applied to increase human knowledge. In subsequent chapters, Ruchlis demonstrates the unobservable nature of superstition, illustrates the dangers of magical thinking using the example of the Salem witch trials, explores the contradictions of such elaborate superstitions as astrology, and shows how astonishing events can be analysed and explained using rational methods.
Hy Ruchlis (1913-1992) was a physicist, teacher, and writer known for his scientific books aimed at younger readers. Ruchlis was a graduate of Brooklyn College and Columbia University, and went on to teach both at the secondary and college levels. He is the author of Clear Thinking, How Do You Know It's True? and How A Rock Came To Be In A Fence On A Road Near A Town.
"... should be required reading for all junior high school students. That would go a long way towards helping each new young adult be able to reason his or her way out of the traps that slick promoters of the irrational are always trying to pass off as truth." -- The America Rationalist "... a clearly written, level-headed, down-to-earth, no-nonsense introduction to the scientific method and scientific thought." -- San Diego Tribune
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