Plagues of the Mind: The New Epidemic of False Knowledge

by Bruce S. Thornton

Book Overview

Book annotation not available for this title.Title: Plagues of the MindAuthor: Thornton, Bruce S.Publisher: Isi BooksPublication Date: 2004/04/01Number of Pages: 303Binding Type: PAPERBACKLibrary of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 188292634X
• ISBN13: 9781882926343
• Release Date: November 1999
• Publisher: Intercollegiate Studies Institute
• Length: 303 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.3" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

"new" sciences peddlers and their naive customers...

Now that we are full with "information" that far from helping to clarify the things, it spreads to confuse them. Now that the anxiety produced by the lack of sense of our lives, it makes us inclined to the gratifying therapy of hugging a new tendency, a book as this helps us as a vaccine against that whole false knowledge that is plentiful.Thousands of people live off by spreading false or not scientifically sustained theories. New Age, Orientalism, Deep Ecology, Echo-Feminism, and so on. And other millions have surrendered to these movements, feeling that the membership to these groups gives to their lives a sense (that is not real).Bruce Thornton, with a lot of preparation and an impressive documentation, shows us the methods that these salespersons of false hopes use to deceive us (and to make of this his form of life - of very good life). He exhibits them, it humiliates them in occasions, and with their own words they are delivered to the opinion of the reason.For that reason, it is natural that these so called "scientists" (salespersons in fact), or those that have surrendered to these false doctrines with their heart (not their mind), feel highly offended when seeing Thornton questioning their preachers. Then, we don't find strange the epithets "conservative", "insensitive", "capitalist", etc., with which these offended ones call him. Neither conservative, neither insensitive. He only applies to these fallacies the due scientific skepticism. He demands evidences, logic, empiricism, facts. And almost none of these new doctrines can support such filter.If we cannot still determine clearly what we are, or the sense of our existence, at least we will be able to identify what we are not and what is false.This book is a vaccine against the false knowledge, which, even it is gratifying, far from coming closer to answers, it takes us away from reality.

Contagion of the Mind in the 21st Century

Any book which explores "the new epidemic of false knowledge" reminds us that the human race has been afflicted with intellectual pestilence throughout its history. From my own perspective, there are at least three major reasons for false knowledge such as misinformation, half-truths, gratifying superstitions, and pleasant myths as well as outright lies: insufficient and/or incorrect information; man's inability and/or unwillingness to accept a reality which is redundantly verifiable; and third, it serves the self-interests of those who affirm it. In this volume, Thornton examines an "epidemic of false knowledge" which is potentially more destructive than any predecessors because of technology which makes it now possible to exchange more false knowledge faster and to a much greater extent than ever before. In the Preface, Thornton explains that his aim "is not so much to assert a positive, true doctrine that should replace the false one, but rather to incite the reader's own critical eye to examine more carefully the many received truths and elements of public wisdom circulating in our collective mind. If this means that my own ideas are subjected to the same scrutiny, then this book has achieved its aim."Following a brilliant Introduction, Thornton carefully organizes his material within Two Parts: Of the Causes of Error and Of Three Popular and Received Ideas. He then provides a Conclusion in which he correctly suggests that the threat of other plagues in years to come requires of all thoughtful persons that "with that ability to "detect and expose error and cant and [what Sir Thomas Browne once characterized as] `Prejudice and Prescription,' we will possess the most important freedom of all -- the freedom of our minds, out intellectual autonomy that allows us to confront the hard choices and make the hard decisions that are the responsibility of every citizen in a democracy."Thornton briefly examines many of the usual suspects (e.g. logical fallacies first identified by Aristotle, such as begging the question ) and then shifts his attention, in Part II, to what he calls "three versions of history as therapeutic drama."Romantic Environmentalism: Thornton asserts that "Humans, in sum, are not natural; nature is a necessary, but not sufficient, part of human identity. Nor is the natural world with which we are most intimate completely `natural." Thousands of years of human culture and agricultural technology have altered nature's raw material into an artificial `nature' more conducive to human survival."The White Man's Golden Age Red Man: Thornton observes that "The tragic view of history...with all its contradictions and failed good intentions and messy complexity, is anathema to the idealizer, who finds it easier (and more profitable) to pander to the gratifying preconceptions and cheap guilt and smug compassion of contemporary whites."The False Goddess and Her Lost Paradise: According to Thornton, "Goddess history offers a gratifying myth in t

Antibiotics for the Mind

Having addressed hundreds of Philosophy, History, and Literature classes over the last 20 years, I am often frustrated by the students' typical lack of critical thinking ability. They mostly don't want to think for themselves or test what they're told, they just want to know what they have to memorize for the test. This book not only exposes some of the most pernicious historical myths of our contemporary culture, it also teaches the reader to think critically and care more about truth than conformity. I highly recommend it!

There is nothing new under the sun and it sill shows

Dr. Thorton does an excellent job at examining the prevalance of false knowledge that we are constantly exposed to on a continual basis. He examines the role that both media and education play in reinforcing the falsities of todays world. With the abundance of information that is available at our fingertips it seems that our culture has become complacent and gulliable and believe most of what we hear and see without reservation. He holds nothing back and looks at some of the more popular ideas of our time such as the Mother Goddess, the romantic envrionmental movement, and the Noble Savage myth. This is an excellent book as it looks at what we believe and why we believe it and in an age of gulliablity this is a much needed resource. It is an extremely well written book and is very easy to read. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to take a look at todays culture and information society.

Stinkin' Thinkin' (This would have been a funnier title)

This is a great book. I haven't enjoyed a book as much since Bloom's 'The Closing of the American Mind'.