Download or read book The Matter of Facts written by Gareth Leng and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2020-03-18 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How biases, the desire for a good narrative, reliance on citation metrics, and other problems undermine confidence in modern science. Modern science is built on experimental evidence, yet scientists are often very selective in deciding what evidence to use and tend to disagree about how to interpret it. In The Matter of Facts, Gareth and Rhodri Leng explore how scientists produce and use evidence. They do so to contextualize an array of problems confronting modern science that have raised concerns about its reliability: the widespread use of inappropriate statistical tests, a shortage of replication studies, and a bias in both publishing and citing “positive” results. Before these problems can be addressed meaningfully, the authors argue, we must understand what makes science work and what leads it astray. The myth of science is that scientists constantly challenge their own thinking. But in reality, all scientists are in the business of persuading other scientists of the importance of their own ideas, and they do so by combining reason with rhetoric. Often, they look for evidence that will support their ideas, not for evidence that might contradict them; often, they present evidence in a way that makes it appear to be supportive; and often, they ignore inconvenient evidence. In a series of essays focusing on controversies, disputes, and discoveries, the authors vividly portray science as a human activity, driven by passion as well as by reason. By analyzing the fluidity of scientific concepts and the dynamic and unpredictable development of scientific fields, the authors paint a picture of modern science and the pressures it faces.

Download or read book A Matter of Facts written by Laura A. Millar and published by American Library Association. This book was released on 2021-03-04 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The safeguarding of authentic facts is essential, especially in this disruptive Orwellian age, where digital technologies have opened the door to a post-truth world in which "alternative facts" can be so easily accepted as valid. And because facts matter, evidence matters. In this urgent manifesto, archives luminary Millar makes the case that authentic and accurate records, archives, data, and other sources of documentary proof are crucial in supporting and fostering a society that is respectful, democratic, and self-aware. An eye-opening treatise for the general public, an invaluable resource for archives students, and a provocative call-to-arms for information and records professionals, Millar's book explains the concept of evidence and discusses the ways in which records, archives, and data are not just useful tools for our daily existence but also essential sources of evidence both today and in the future; includes plentiful examples that illustrate the critical role evidence plays in upholding rights, enforcing responsibilities, tracing family or community stories, and capturing and sharing memories; and examines the impact of digital technologies on how records and information are created and used. With documentary examples ranging from Mesopotamian clay tablets to World War II photographs to today’s Twitter messages and Facebook posts, Millar’s stirring book will encourage readers to understand more fully the importance of their own records and archives, for themselves and for future generations.

Download or read book A Matter of Fact written by Jess Berentson-Shaw and published by Bridget Williams Books. This book was released on 2018-08-10 with total page 103 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Today it seems that conspiracy and rumour spread faster than ever and are increasingly hard to debunk. How do we convincingly explain the difference between good information and misinformation? A matter of fact explores the science of communicating and presents innovative ways to talk effectively (and empathetically) about contentious information"--Publisher information.

Download or read book The Half Life of Facts written by Samuel Arbesman and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2013-08-27 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New insights from the science of science Facts change all the time. Smoking has gone from doctor recommended to deadly. We used to think the Earth was the center of the universe and that the brontosaurus was a real dinosaur. In short, what we know about the world is constantly changing. Samuel Arbesman shows us how knowledge in most fields evolves systematically and predictably, and how this evolution unfolds in a fascinating way that can have a powerful impact on our lives. He takes us through a wide variety of fields, including those that change quickly, over the course of a few years, or over the span of centuries.

Download or read book The Facts of the Matter written by David Parish and published by Greenleaf Book Group. This book was released on 2018-08-31 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Too Green to Be True? Does all the positive press about hybrid cars, alternative fuels, and the next ''green'' must-have product sound too good to be true? Well, maybe it is. In The Facts of the Matter, Alaskan author David Parish provides a clear explanation of the environmental, technology, energy, and resources issues we face and shows how readers can move politicians, regulators, environmental groups, media, and businesses to truly take the action society needs to prosper. ​Parish helps readers cut through the noise and focus on an optimistic approach to green issues. He argues that the best way to conserve the planet and ourselves is the natural convergence of smart natural resource development with improving the lives of the growing population. The Facts of the Matter is the basis for a conversation, based on solutions rather than rhetoric, and will cause a rethinking of our biases—to the benefit of the greater good.

Download or read book How Climate Change Comes to Matter written by Candis Callison and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2015-02-15 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the past decade, skepticism about climate change has frustrated those seeking to engage broad publics and motivate them to take action on the issue. In this innovative ethnography, Candis Callison examines the initiatives of social and professional groups as they encourage diverse American publics to care about climate change. She explores the efforts of science journalists, scientists who have become expert voices for and about climate change, American evangelicals, Indigenous leaders, and advocates for corporate social responsibility. The disparate efforts of these groups illuminate the challenge of maintaining fidelity to scientific facts while transforming them into ethical and moral calls to action. Callison investigates the different vernaculars through which we understand and articulate our worlds, as well as the nuanced and pluralistic understandings of climate change evident in different forms of advocacy. As she demonstrates, climate change offers an opportunity to look deeply at how issues and problems that begin in a scientific context come to matter to wide publics, and to rethink emerging interactions among different kinds of knowledge and experience, evolving media landscapes, and claims to authority and expertise.

Download or read book Win Bigly written by Scott Adams and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2017-10-31 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The New York Times bestseller that explains one of the most important perceptual shifts in the history of humankind Scott Adams was one of the earliest public figures to predict Donald Trump’s election. The mainstream media regarded Trump as a lucky clown, but Adams – best known as “the guy who created Dilbert” -- recognized a level of persuasion you only see once in a generation. We’re hardwired to respond to emotion, not reason, and Trump knew exactly which emotional buttons to push. The point isn’t whether Trump was right or wrong, good or bad. Adams goes beyond politics to look at persuasion tools that can work in any setting—the same ones Adams saw in Steve Jobs when he invested in Apple decades ago. Win Bigly is a field guide for persuading others in any situation—or resisting the tactics of emotional persuasion when they’re used on you. This revised edition features a bonus chapter that assesses just how well Adams foresaw the outcomes of Trump’s tactics with North Korea, the NFL protesters, Congress, and more.

Download or read book Against Facts written by Arianna Betti and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2015-07-10 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An argument that the major metaphysical theories of facts give us no good reason to accept facts in our catalog of the world. In this book Arianna Betti argues that we have no good reason to accept facts in our catalog of the world, at least as they are described by the two major metaphysical theories of facts. She claims that neither of these theories is tenable—neither the theory according to which facts are special structured building blocks of reality nor the theory according to which facts are whatever is named by certain expressions of the form “the fact that such and such.” There is reality, and there are entities in reality that we are able to name, but, Betti contends, among these entities there are no facts. Drawing on metaphysics, the philosophy of language, and linguistics, Betti examines the main arguments in favor of and against facts of the two major sorts, which she distinguishes as compositional and propositional, giving special attention to methodological presuppositions. She criticizes compositional facts (facts as special structured building blocks of reality) and the central argument for them, Armstrong's truthmaker argument. She then criticizes propositional facts (facts as whatever is named in “the fact that” statements) and what she calls the argument from nominal reference, which draws on Quine's criterion of ontological commitment. Betti argues that metaphysicians should stop worrying about facts, and philosophers in general should stop arguing for or against entities on the basis of how we use language.

Download or read book Do Facts Matter written by Jennifer L. Hochschild and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2015-01-20 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A democracy falters when most of its citizens are uninformed or misinformed, when misinformation affects political decisions and actions, or when political actors foment misinformation—the state of affairs the United States faces today, as this timely book makes painfully clear. In Do Facts Matter? Jennifer L. Hochschild and Katherine Levine Einstein start with Thomas Jefferson’s ideal citizen, who knows and uses correct information to make policy or political choices. What, then, the authors ask, are the consequences if citizens are informed but do not act on their knowledge? More serious, what if they do act, but on incorrect information? Analyzing the use, nonuse, and misuse of facts in various cases—such as the call to impeach Bill Clinton, the response to global warming, Clarence Thomas’s appointment to the Supreme Court, the case for invading Iraq, beliefs about Barack Obama’s birthplace and religion, and the Affordable Care Act—Hochschild and Einstein argue persuasively that errors of commission (that is, acting on falsehoods) are even more troublesome than errors of omission. While citizens’ inability or unwillingness to use the facts they know in their political decision making may be frustrating, their acquisition and use of incorrect “knowledge” pose a far greater threat to a democratic political system. Do Facts Matter? looks beyond individual citizens to the role that political elites play in informing, misinforming, and encouraging or discouraging the use of accurate or mistaken information or beliefs. Hochschild and Einstein show that if a well-informed electorate remains a crucial component of a successful democracy, the deliberate concealment of political facts poses its greatest threat.

Download or read book The Truth Matters written by Bruce Bartlett and published by Ten Speed Press. This book was released on 2017-10-24 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Distinguish fake news from reliable journalism with this clear and concise handbook by New York Times best-selling author Bruce Bartlett. Today’s media and political landscapes are littered with untrustworthy sources and the dangerous concept of “fake news.” This accessible guide helps you fight this deeply troubling trend and ensure that truth is not a permanent casualty. Written by Capitol Hill veteran and author Bruce Bartlett, The Truth Matters presents actionable tips and tricks for reading critically, judging sources, using fact-checking sites, avoiding confirmation bias, identifying trustworthy experts, and more.

Download or read book The Trouble with Reality written by Brooke Gladstone and published by Workman Publishing. This book was released on 2017-05-16 with total page 97 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Every week on the public radio show On the Media, the award-winning journalist Brooke Gladstone analyzes the media and how it shapes our perceptions of the world. Now, from her front-row perch on the day’s events, Gladstone brings her genius for making insightful, unexpected connections to help us understand what she calls—and what so many of us can acknowledge having—“trouble with reality.” Reality, as she shows us, was never what we thought it was—there is always a bubble, people are always subjective and prey to stereotypes. And that makes reality actually more vulnerable than we ever thought. Enter Donald J. Trump and his team of advisors. For them, as she writes, lying is the point. The more blatant the lie, the easier it is to hijack reality and assert power over the truth. Drawing on writers as diverse as Hannah Arendt, Walter Lippmann, Philip K. Dick, and Jonathan Swift, she dissects this strategy, straight out of the authoritarian playbook, and shows how the Trump team mastered it, down to the five types of tweets that Trump uses to distort our notions of what’s real and what’s not. And she offers hope. There is meaningful action, a time-tested treatment for moral panic. And there is also the inevitable reckoning. History tells us we can count on it. Brief and bracing, The Trouble with Reality shows exactly why so many of us didn’t see it coming, and how we can recover both our belief in reality—and our sanity.

Download or read book The Heart of the Brain written by Gareth Leng and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2018-07-31 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How hormonal signals in one small structure of the brain—the hypothalamus—govern our physiology and behavior. As human beings, we prefer to think of ourselves as reasonable. But how much of what we do is really governed by reason? In this book, Gareth Leng considers the extent to which one small structure of the neuroendocrine brain—the hypothalamus—influences what we do, how we love, and who we are. The hypothalamus contains a large variety of neurons. These communicate not only through neurotransmitters, but also through peptide signals that act as hormones within the brain. While neurotransmitter signals tend to be ephemeral and confined by anatomical connectivity, the hormone signals that hypothalamic neurons generate are potent, wide-reaching, and long-lasting. Leng explores the evolutionary origins of these remarkable neurons, and where the receptors for their hormone signals are found in the brain. By asking how the hypothalamic neurons and their receptors are regulated, he explores how the hypothalamus links our passions with our reason. The Heart of the Brain shows in an accessible way how this very small structure is very much at the heart of what makes us human.

Download or read book Laboratory Life written by Bruno Latour and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2013-04-04 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This highly original work presents laboratory science in a deliberately skeptical way: as an anthropological approach to the culture of the scientist. Drawing on recent work in literary criticism, the authors study how the social world of the laboratory produces papers and other "texts,"' and how the scientific vision of reality becomes that set of statements considered, for the time being, too expensive to change. The book is based on field work done by Bruno Latour in Roger Guillemin's laboratory at the Salk Institute and provides an important link between the sociology of modern sciences and laboratory studies in the history of science.

Download or read book The Matter of the Facts written by Miguel Tamen and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The author is not taken by the universalizing claims of hermeneutics that everything is reducible to interpretation, but he is not interested in quarreling directly with those claims either. And with respect to the notion of invention - that things don't simply exist but are produced, made up - he likewise is interested neither in the objections usually brought against it nor in the strength of that notion in resisting them.

Download or read book The Truth about Leadership written by James M. Kouzes and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2010-07-23 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fresh look at what it means to lead from two of the biggest names in leadership In these turbulent times, when the very foundations of organizations and societies are shaken, leaders need to move beyond pessimistic predictions, trendy fads, and simplistic solutions. They need to turn to what's real and what's proven. In their engaging, personal, and bold new book, bestselling authors James Kouzes and Barry Posner reveal ten time-tested truths that discuss what every leader must know, the questions they must be prepared to answer, and the real-world issues they will likely face. In the book, you’ll find: Material based on thirty years of research, more than one million responses to Kouzes and Posner's leadership assessment, and the questions people most want leaders to answer Explorations of the fundamental, enduring truths of leadership that hold constant regardless of context or circumstance-leaders make a difference, credibility, values, trust, leading by example, heart, and more Demonstrations of emerging leaders and what they need to know to be effective Fans of The Leadership Challenge will find a dynamic new look at the real challenges leaders face today. The book draws from cases spanning three generations of leaders from around the world. It’s an indispensable resource leaders can use to do their real and necessary work-bringing about the essential changes that will renew organizations and communities.

Download or read book The Realm of Facts written by Nicholas Rescher and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2020-01-20 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Knowledge of facts is essential for the management of life. Most studies of the subject examine how we go about trying to obtain it; they describe the processes and proceedings of rational inquiry. The present work steps back from this to inquire into the limits and limitations of such processes and to identify the assets and the limitabilities of what they are able to supply for us. It examines how knowledge of facts is secured and consolidated as such, and what the resulting information can and cannot provide. It argues that the unavoidable incompleteness of our factual information also endows it with an element of incorrectness. By looking also at the negative side of human inquiry the book’s perspective clarifies the nature of our grip on the facts that constitute our view of the reality of things.

Download or read book A Matter of Facts written by Shaun Williamson and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2020-10-01 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A journey into the obsessive world of quizzing. Includes stories from Shaun's past such as tales from his time playing Barry in Eastenders; the discovery of a long-lost son; hiding from an angry Mike Reid in a broom cupboard; acting with Ricky Gervais and David Bowie, and the loss of his boyhood friend in 9/11. Actor and celebrity quizzer Shaun Williamson lifts the lid on a National drug that everyone hooked on: quizzing. A Matter of Facts is a personal journey into the world of quizzes. At the start Shaun enters the World Quiz Grand Prix, pitching his knowledge against the Nation's finest minds, including Eggheads and Chasers... he fails. Unperturbed, he sets out to improve his skills through memory training, practice and even hypnosis in an attempt to move himself up the rankings of the quizzing elite. Shaun's adventure sees him get his old quizzing 'band' back together to see if he can triumph in the leagues. As he does so, he meets many characters and experiences the wonderful vagaries of the pub quiz - discovering its place, not just in communities, but in people's lives. He also reminisces about his life before acting as an alcoholic postman, a stalled naval career,a Pontins blue coat and his journey to becoming Barry in EastEnders. Over the course of year Shaun aims to end his journey at a victorious return to the Grand Prix... can his experiences and new-found knowledge end in victory? A Matter of Facts is a fun, fascinating and heart-warming read that will be adored by those who enjoy a regular meeting of alcohol and trivia.