Return to Reason: An Antidote to Lies, Attacks, and Alternative Facts

by Anthony Falikowski

Return to An Antidote to Lies, Attacks, and Alternative Facts constitutes a timely and much needed response to the cynicism and acrimony caused by the divisive rhetoric prevalent in today’s extremely polarized social climate. This book offers you the reader a rational self-defense against the destructive forces of unreason, while at the same time promoting greater civility in public discourse – something sadly lacking, whether person-to-person, on social media, or in the chambers of government.This book presents a strong case for reason and evidence-based thinking. Such thinking is especially important in a post-truth era of political partisanship, disinformation, and anti-intellectual sentiments. In terms of style and content, Return to Reason is marked by its accessibility and interdisciplinary nature. Technical and sometimes difficult materials from diverse fields are integrated and made easy. Logic, psychology, and the socio-political dimensions of public discourse are seamlessly woven together in an articulate, well organized, and compelling presentation. For instance, there is a discussion of the psychology of rational thinking, often ignored, that is directly addressed in the book. It’s demonstrated how cognitive and emotional variables must be factored into the process of argumentation. One’s values, assumptions, and beliefs can impact on arguments produced; they can skew one’s perceptions of any situation, and they can often bias the evidence selected to support one’s position on any controversial topic.An underlying premise of the book is that reasoning does not occur in a vacuum. As noted, there are personal and attitudinal influences that impact on the process of argument. In this light, it could be said that Logic without psychology is empty; psychology without logic is blind. It’s not that valid logic depends on psychology, it doesn’t; but if you wish to become an objective critical-analytical thinker able to engage in productive debate, then egocentric tendencies must be overcome, while certain constructive attitudes must be developed. Achieving both ends are goals of this book. Those who overcome cognitive impediments to rationality and adopt the proper attitudes needed for rational debate are better prepared to cultivate important intellectual virtues such as impartial judgment, honesty, integrity, and fair mindedness.This book will inform you as to what constitutes a reasonable argument and how different types of argumentative claims require alternative forms of justification. You’ll learn to discern between different types of good and bad arguments, and how to choose what standards you should use when evaluating them.The development of proper reasoning in this book will be useful to you in your future endeavors. Awareness of what constitutes sound reasoning will enable you to understand and defend against things like propaganda and disinformation, clearly things that are antithetical to rational thinking. Not all distortions of the truth come from purely psychological influences. These and other socio-political contaminating factors that negatively impact intelligent thinking are identified and dealt with in the book. Becoming aware of both the social and psychological impediments to rational thought can go a long way when it comes to developing a logical self-defense and personal confidence in one’s own thinking abilities. Anybody doing a careful reading of this work can expect to become a much better critical-analytical thinker.

143 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 15, 2023