Sgt Scholar

Below are 25 Halloween-themed critical-thinking questions, plus 3 bonus questions.

OVERVIEW Quick Description This fallacy is often used to “fix” an argument once it is questioned or shown to be weak.

This article explores quotes about science, knowledge, discovery, and reason from various people, including scientists, astronauts, engineers, mathematicians, leaders, philosophers, doctors, and more.

Overview General description This is where one asserts or implies that something is true/false, good/bad (etc.) not because they provided evidence or sound reasoning, but because it is allegedly undeniable, common sense, or common knowledge when, in fact,…

Isaac Asimov (c. 1920 – 1992) was a prolific writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University.

OVERVIEW Quick Definition This is when an argument is rejected, criticized, discredited, or even accepted, not because of its merits, but because of the (dis)likability of the source or messenger.

Science is patriotic, and pseudoscience and other forms of mis/disinformation threaten our nation.

OVERVIEW Quick definition This is assuming that “natural” is inherently good, or automatically safer, better, healthier, etc. than “artificial.”

OVERVIEW Quick definition: This fallacy involves presenting a small subset of information that paints a substantially different picture from the total evidence.

A diagnostic to identify fallacies

If you don’t know who Bertrand Russell is, but don’t want a long biography, I’ve got your six.

In 1996, I was a freshman in high school, and my science teacher introduced my class and me to the 1980 television series Cosmos, hosted by the astronomer and renowned science communicator Carl Sagan.

My main man, Alfred Russel Wallace, independently formulated the famous theory of natural selection and disproved claims of dying Martian civilizations, but his legacy is nearly… extinct.

AKA: The Nirvana Fallacy, The Perfectionist Fallacy GENERAL OVERVIEW General description This is dismissing realistic solutions that offer real progress and benefits (etc.) merely because they are not perfect (or near-perfect), when such high criteria are…

We recently passed the fifth anniversary of the departure of the iconic Ruth Bader Ginsburg from this Earth.

I know you don’t have to read whatever I post, especially if it’s long.

>>Overview<< General description Ad hoc is Latin for “for this,” but in English, the phrase is used for instances that offer “solutions” to problems that were not foreseen.

Yes, civility and asking questions are good.

Because anecdotes are useful yet so often misused as evidence, this fallacy article dives deeper into the nuances than many other fallacy articles.

I was wrong several times, including on things I was deeply convinced were true.

FYI, This blog article is part of my series, A Patriot’s Look at Climate Change, and is about a 14-minute read (excluding this FYI, the extra material, and text describing the images).

FYI, This blog article is part of my series, A Patriot’s Look at Climate Change, and is about an 8-minute read (excluding this FYI, footnotes, and text describing the images).

FYI, This blog article is part of my series, A Patriot’s Look at Climate Change, and is about a 9-minute read (excluding this FYI and text describing the images).