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Nonsense on Stilts
- How to Tell Science from Bunk
- Narrated by: Jay Russell
- Length: 16 hrs and 51 mins
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Publisher's summary
Recent polls suggest that fewer than 40 per cent of Americans believe in Darwin's theory of evolution, despite it being one of science's best-established findings. More and more parents are refusing to vaccinate their children for fear it causes autism, though this link has been consistently disproved. And about 40 per cent of Americans believe that the threat of global warming is exaggerated, despite near consensus in the scientific community that manmade climate change is real.
Why do people believe bunk? And what causes them to embrace such pseudoscientific beliefs and practices? Noted skeptic Massimo Pigliucci sets out to separate the fact from the fantasy in this entertaining exploration of the nature of science, the borderlands of fringe science, and - borrowing a famous phrase from philosopher Jeremy Bentham - the nonsense on stilts.
Presenting case studies on a number of controversial topics, Pigliucci cuts through the ambiguity surrounding science to look more closely at how science is conducted, how it is disseminated, how it is interpreted, and what it means to our society. The result is in many ways a "taxonomy of bunk" that explores the intersection of science and culture at large.
No one - not the public intellectuals in the culture wars between defenders and detractors of science nor the believers of pseudoscience themselves - is spared Pigliucci's incisive analysis. In the end, Nonsense on Stilts is a timely reminder of the need to maintain a line between expertise and assumption. Broad in scope and implication, it is also ultimately a captivating guide for the intelligent citizen who wishes to make up her own mind while navigating the perilous debates that will affect the future of our planet.
NOTE: Some editorial changes to the original text have been made with the author’s approval.
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Good attempt, lackluster execution
- By R. MCRACKAN on 10-14-23
By: Athena Aktipis, and others
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Ranger Confidential
- Living, Working, and Dying in the National Parks
- By: Andrea Lankford
- Narrated by: Julia Motyka
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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The real stories behind the scenery of America’s national parks. For 12 years, Andrea Lankford lived in the biggest, most impressive national parks in the world, working a job she loved. She chaperoned baby sea turtles on their journey to sea. She pursued bad guys on her galloping patrol horse. She jumped into rescue helicopters bound for the heart of the Grand Canyon. She won arguments with bears. She slept with a few too many rattlesnakes. Hell yeah, it was the best job in the world! Fortunately, Andrea survived it.
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Depressing from Cover to Cover
- By Drew (@drewsant) on 04-13-15
By: Andrea Lankford
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Chemistry and Our Universe
- How It All Works
- By: Ron B. Davis, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Ron B. Davis
- Length: 30 hrs and 6 mins
- Original Recording
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Chemistry and Our Universe: How It All Works is your in-depth introduction to this vital field, taught through 60 engaging half-hour lectures that are suitable for any background or none at all. Covering a year’s worth of introductory general chemistry at the college level, plus intriguing topics that are rarely discussed in the classroom, this amazingly comprehensive course requires nothing more advanced than high-school math. Your guide is Professor Ron B. Davis, Jr., a research chemist and award-winning teacher at Georgetown University.
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Great Professor, Hard to Follow.
- By Jen on 05-14-19
By: Ron B. Davis, and others
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Thermodynamics: Four Laws That Move the Universe
- By: Jeffrey C. Grossman, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Jeffrey C. Grossman
- Length: 12 hrs and 34 mins
- Original Recording
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Nothing has had a more profound impact on the development of modern civilization than thermodynamics. Thermodynamic processes are at the heart of everything that involves heat, energy, and work, making an understanding of the subject indispensable for careers in engineering, physical science, biology, meteorology, and even nutrition and culinary arts. Get an in-depth tour of this vital and fascinating science in 24 enthralling lectures suitable for everyone from science novices to experts who wish to review elementary concepts and formulas.
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Excellent Course; Particularly as Review
- By Qoheleth on 01-12-19
By: Jeffrey C. Grossman, and others
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Storytelling with Data
- A Data Visualization Guide for Business Professionals
- By: Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic
- Narrated by: Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic
- Length: 5 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Storytelling with Data teaches you the fundamentals of data visualization and how to communicate effectively with data. You'll discover the power of storytelling and the way to make data a pivotal point in your story. The lessons in this illuminative text are grounded in theory but made accessible through numerous real-world examples - ready for immediate application to your next graph or presentation.
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Very insightful and actionable
- By Amazon Customer on 04-27-18
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Mother of God
- An Extraordinary Journey into the Uncharted Tributaries of the Western Amazon
- By: Paul Rosolie
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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For fans of The Lost City of Z, Walking the Amazon, and Turn Right at Machu Picchu comes naturalist and explorer Paul Rosolie’s extraordinary adventure in the uncharted tributaries of the Western Amazon - a tale of discovery that vividly captures the awe, beauty, and isolation of this endangered land and presents an impassioned call to save it.
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This whole book is B.S.
- By bob fields on 09-30-18
By: Paul Rosolie
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How the Earth Works
- By: Michael E. Wysession, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Michael E. Wysession
- Length: 24 hrs and 31 mins
- Original Recording
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How the Earth Works takes you on an astonishing journey through time and space. In 48 lectures, you will look at what went into making our planet - from the big bang, to the formation of the solar system, to the subsequent evolution of Earth.
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Excellent course
- By Doug B. on 05-23-19
By: Michael E. Wysession, and others
What listeners say about Nonsense on Stilts
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- thunder road
- 10-03-11
Thought provoking and relevant
The most interesting book I have read in a long time. Beginning as a standard de-bunking book, where Pigliucci uses clear-sighted logic to dissect pseudo-scientific ideas, like UFO's, Psi studies, and the Dover, PA Intelligent Design case, he thankfully moves into new territory, saving it from being another Michael Shermer book.
Instead, the author uses these cases studies as a spring-board to illustrate the power of science. Slowly, and with increasing resonance, he begins to unveil the unique contribution that philosophy could bring to the understanding and advancement of science. In the process, he takes solid aim at "Scientism," the near religious belief in Atheistic Science as the only thing that produces value--think Richard Dawkins.
What I really enjoyed was how Pigliucci moves beyond Popper-ian "experiemntal falsifiabilty" into a more nuanced, updated view of what contemporary philosophers of science tell us what it really means to be "scientific." Science means close observation, and adherence to the peer review process to even out our biases. It also means using and careful reasoning, both inductive and deductive. Ultimately, being truly scientific means realizing that our current theory is just a temporary understanding that further study will, likely, sweep away.
The book finishes with a wonderful meditation:"How can you tell an expert from a charlatan?" Healthy food for the grey cells. Of course, Pigliucci, or any relatively competent thinker can, with relative ease, debunk things coming from the Cato Institute. But what about us? Regular people. You know; "John Q. Public?" He looks at 1) The quality of the evidence provided. 2) The reputation of an "expert" among their peers. 3) The expert's biases.
Overall, a great book on skeptical thinking. Instead of an easy debunking of straw-men like Depak Chopra and ESP experts, his focus is on the philosophy of how science works in the real world. Indeed, it looks at science's role as perhaps the only surefire way to overcome our frail human biases when uncovering the truth about things the way they are--and not, for good or ill, the way we want them to be.
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18 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Yau-Man
- 03-26-11
Great Book - aweful narration.
This is a wonderful book - very timely. Good coverage of all the relevant areas except I think he went a bit too easy on Dr. Deepak Chopra and his quantum nonsense - I was expecting a real smack-down!
However, the reading was terrible - so many words, especially names were mispronounce - some very common ones found in science. Narrator mispronounces "eugenics," "heuristics," "cognito ergo sum" among them. Also how would anyone read "Apollo 11" as "Apollo Two" ? Ready! The reading pace is quite annoying - slowing down and then taking off and speeding up! I've purchased many Audio Book and this is the only one where the narration really ruin my enjoyment of the content.
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14 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Heather
- 02-04-11
Listen to the sample first!
I was desperately interested in the content of this book but the narration made me give up. Flat, with an awful buzzing quality to it, and the accent made it worse. Hopefully others don't have the same problem with this fantastic book.
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12 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Nick L
- 03-24-11
Not great
First off the narration is bad. Very boring, almost sounds like a computer voice.
The content is OK. You can definitely tell the writer has a real disdain for conservatives and anyone with religion. His points are good and I agree with many of them, but he cannot hide his obvious disgust with all things conservative. In fact, he spends an entire chapter on one conservative judge who shockingly sided with reason over religion. He kept pointing out that he was a conservative judge as if it is totally beyond the realm of possibility that he would be fair and impartial.
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10 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Ken Premo
- 12-04-10
Informative but not worth the effort
I wanted to enjoy this book, but it is like taking a an interesting course where the professor loves to talk - it is very heavy on data, examples, history, asides, tangents, and very light on conclusions, points or meaning. All I can say it is that there is a lot of information provided by Pigliucci, he overwhelms with detail.
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8 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Jill
- 11-23-10
Excellent and superb book
I enjoyed listening to this audio book. The narration is excellent! If you love science, you will love listening to this book. I highly recommend it. The author talks about things like philosophy and science, how come scientists can predict the outcome of an experiment but they can't predict the future, history - things you never knew about Galileo and other interesting figures, and much more behind the scenes of science. Pseudoscience just doesn't cut it, and you'll find out why. Funny. Factual. You'll love it.
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8 people found this helpful
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- Lauren
- 11-08-10
Excellent guide
This is a must read for anyone interested in science or philosophy of science. Pigliucci covers the topic of science vs pseudoscience thoroughly, and brings up many excellent points about the importance of skepticism.
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8 people found this helpful
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- Cynthia
- 12-21-14
Balderdash! Rubbish! Hooey! Identification Guide
Massimo Pigliucci's "Nonsense on Stilts: How to tell Science from Bunk" (2010) is a surprisingly in-depth history and analysis of critical thinking and scientific philosophy. It's surprising because a catchy title like "Nonsense on Stilts" implies a light, anecdotal read, perhaps with some pithy but shallow arguments to throw at earnest intelligent designers or creationists; or suggestions for explaining why, no matter what your friends say, you don't want to pick someone to date based on their "sign". I didn't expect a near screed about the difference between pseudoscience and actual science; a thorough but one-sided analysis of postmodernism criticism; or the history of philosophy and scientific philosophy. Those were all here, and more.
(Confession: until I read this book, I didn't know there was a difference between creationists and intelligent designerists. Or whatever the ID folks call themselves. And my understanding of postmodernism was limited to architecture I don't particularly appreciate.)
Listening to "Nonsense" was a little bit like overhearing half of a really impassioned debate on some issues. Pigliucci mentions some particular pseudoscientists he takes issue with, which actually lends those individuals and their arguments some credence. I'm very much a lay person when it comes to philosophy, and I had never even heard of the views those outsiders claim have merit.
One of Pigliucci's better known targets in general is Mayim Bialik, PhD, brilliant neuroscientist with a wide following. She is an example of someone who is an expert in one field who believes she's an expert in another field - but falls dangerously short. Having Bialik opine about autism and vaccines is like having Neil de Grasse Tyson, PhD, offer an opinion about trade patterns and location of economic activities. Sure, de Grasse Tyson is brilliant and admired, but he's not the economist Paul Krugman. Where Pigliucci falls very short is suggesting that theories deserve short shrift because the proponent is popular. Bialik's theories don't deserve more credence because she's got a fan base but as Hedy Lamarr's pioneering work in frequency skipping technology proved, a screen presence and scientific thought are not mutually exclusive. Bialik's theories about homeopathic medicine must be disregarded, though, because, when subjected to scientific proof, they fail utterly.
"Nonsense" did help me understand why some people refuse to 'believe' basic and widely accepted theories like evolution and global warming. It's a failure of logical reasoning, an inability to think scientifically. That problem can be fixed - if the problem is recognized.
The book was a bit of an unstructured slog and I had it several months before I was able to listen my way through the whole thing. But it's Audible, I had a choice to listen or return - and, you know what? I'm glad I listened.
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7 people found this helpful
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Overall
- RL
- 07-06-11
Uninformative and dogmatic, not wroth the time.
Every aspect of culture has is orthodoxies, religious, political, economic, artistic and even scientific. Inherent in each orthodoxy are their articles of faith, dogmas, adherents, defenders, evangelists and prophets. There is no fault with any of these, but they must be understood for what they are. Massimo Pigliucci is, without question, a minister of scientific orthodoxy, and as such uses the tools and methods of his avocation. He must be read with this understanding. The first line of defense for orthodoxy is consensus, which he sites repeatedly, ignoring the basic understanding that consensus has never established fact. Instead of discussing questions rationally on their merits, he falls back on insults and demeaning language while attacking the motives and personalities of those who disagree with him, questioning their right to speak outside of their credentialed areas of expertise while repeatedly doing so himself.
As an engineer and physics instructor of 40 years, I have accumulated many questions on the positions commonly held in the scientific community, none of which were addressed seriously in this book. If you are looking for an emotional pep talk to sustain you in your commonly held opinions, this is your book, but if you are looking for an objective, rational discussion, look elsewhere. This is least informative and least credible book I have ever read on these topics.
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6 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Christopher
- 06-23-11
Good and detailed content, tolerable narration
As for the book itself, I concur with what others have said: a very detailed, compelling, and for the most part well-written account of the boundaries of science (as opposed to pseudoscience and emerging knowledge) with excellent accounts of specific topics like evolution vs intelligent design, various pseudo-scientific claims, etc. The author can be a bit dry or overly-lengthy in places, but that is the exception rather than the rule. Pigliucci does not pull his punches in defence of the scientific consensus on evolution, climate change, etc., which may come off as closed-minded for those who disagree with his stances.
As for the narrator... I'm afraid that you'll find a lot better ones on Audible, but for me it wasn't a consistent distraction. Notable mistakes include once saying "physics" rather than "psychics" in Ch. 2, which was actually funny in the context, and mispronouncing the name of well-known figure Noam Chomsky as "Noah Chumsky". It seems like someone should have caught those, but then I don't know much about the editing process that goes into these audiobooks.
With that qualification, highly recommended.
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5 people found this helpful