[Virtual] Steven Nadler and Lawrence Shapiro – “When Bad Thinking Happens to Good People”

Tuesday, September 28, 2021
6:00PM-7:00PM
Online

Tuesday, September 28, 2021

6:00PM-7:00PM

Online

In partnership with Seminary Co-op Bookstores, join the International House Global Voices Lecture Series for a conversation with Steven Nadler and Lawrence Shapiro on their newest work, When Bad Thinking Happens to Good People: How Philosophy Can Save Us from Ourselves. They will be joined in discussion by Sandy Goldberg.

Webinar ID: 959 6929 4011
Passcode: IHouse
Click to join via Zoom.

You can purchase When Bad Thinking Happens to Good People: How Philosophy Can Save Us from Ourselves now from Seminary Co-op Bookstores for $24.95.

This program is free and open to the public.


About the Book

Why the Tools of Philosophy Offer a Powerful Antidote to Today’s Epidemic of Irrationality

There is an epidemic of bad thinking in the world today. An alarming number of people are embracing crazy, even dangerous ideas. They believe that vaccinations cause autism. They reject the scientific consensus on climate change as a “hoax.” And they blame the spread of COVID-19 on the 5G network or a Chinese cabal. Worse, bad thinking drives bad acting–it even inspired a mob to storm the U.S. Capitol. In this book, Steven Nadler and Lawrence Shapiro argue that the best antidote for bad thinking is the wisdom, insights, and practical skills of philosophy. When Bad Thinking Happens to Good People provides an engaging tour through the basic principles of logic, argument, evidence, and probability that can make all of us more reasonable and responsible citizens.

When Bad Thinking Happens to Good People shows how we can more readily spot and avoid flawed arguments and unreliable information; determine whether evidence supports or contradicts an idea; distinguish between merely believing something and knowing it; and much more. In doing so, the book reveals how epistemology, which addresses the nature of belief and knowledge, and ethics, the study of moral principles that should govern our behavior, can reduce bad thinking. Moreover, the book shows why philosophy’s millennia-old advice about how to lead a good, rational, and examined life is essential for escaping our current predicament. In a world in which irrationality has exploded to deadly effect, When Bad Thinking Happens to Good People is a timely and essential guide for a return to reason.

About the Authors

Steven Nadler is the William H. Hay II Professor of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin–Madison where he is the Director of the Institute for Research in the Humanities Division. His books include Think Least of Death: Spinoza on How to Live and How to Die and, with Ben Nadler, Heretics!: The Wondrous and Dangerous Beginnings of Modern Philosophy.

 

 

Lawrence Shapiro is the Berent Enç Professor of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His books include The Miracle Myth and Embodied Cognition.

 

 

About the Moderator

Sandy Goldberg is Chester D. Tripp Professor in the Humanities Division and Professor of Philosophy at Northwestern University, as well as Professorial Fellow at the Arché Research Center at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland. His research focuses on topics in the theory of knowledge and in the philosophy of language. Recent work includes Foundations and Applications of Social EpistemologyConversational PressureTo the Best of Our Knowledge, and Assertion.


Presented by the International House Global Voices Lecture Series and Seminary Co-op Bookstores. 

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