Philosophy 322 – Critical Thinking about the Paranormal

For detailed examples of good and bad writing, see my booklet Student Success Guide: Writing Skills, available free online at http://www.skepdic.com/refuge/writingskills.pdf
You can also buy a copy in the bookstore.

For more resources to help with your writing, you might try the SCC online writing lab (OWL) or the Purdue University OWL.

Late papers will be downgraded one letter grade.

Topic: The second paper will describe how the common hindrances to critical thinking (cognitive and perceptual illusions and biases) that make evaluating experiences difficult also make it difficult to design and control scientific experiments in psi.  In addition to the biases already discussed there are problems with such things as sensory leakage, improper randomization, and misuse of statistics.

One particularly annoying problem in psi research has been the problem of cheating, but self-deception by investigators has also been a problem. Also, certain assumptions have been traditionally made by psi researchers, e.g., that performance in guessing experiments that exceeds chance odds according to some statistical formula for significance is taken as strong evidence for the paranormal. Radin believes the issue of replication has been solved by meta-analysis. How justified are these assumptions? Discuss some of the problems with psi experiments that have occurred during the past 150 years or so.

 Length: 1,500 words maximum (6 pages, typed and double-spaced)

 You may use other sources besides Radin and Carroll for this paper, but it is neither required nor expected.

In-text references should follow this example:

Blah blah … blah blah (Carroll 2003: 225).

Your list of sources should follow this example:

      Carroll, Robert T. (2003). The Skeptic’s Dictionary: A Collection of Strange Beliefs, Amusing Deceptions, and Dangerous Delusions. Wiley & Sons.

      Christopher, Milbourne. (1970). ESP, Seers & Psychics. Thomas Y. Crowell Co.

Format: Use page numbers. The first page of text should be numbered at the bottom center. Following pages should be in the upper right corner. Use a title page and try to center it on the page. It should include the paper title, your name, your teacher’s name, the title of the course, and the date. Follow the example below:

From Experience to Experiment
by

Maria Chavez

for

Dr. Robert T. Carroll

Philosophy 322 – Critical Thinking about the Paranormal

September 8, 2005