Carl Sagan's Baloney Detector

Factual Questions
1

First of, don’t correct me by telling me it’s bologna. I know.

Anyway, I think it was in “A Demon Haunted World” that Sagan developed a system that sifted through all heresay and garbage and was supposed to discern help discern truth. I read an essay on it where it was described in several bullet points. Does anyone know what the system was?

I believe the first step is to remove prejudice entirely. I’m not sure however.

2

If it’s in a sandwich, it’s bologna. Otherwise, it’s baloney. :smiley:

I put “Sagan baloney” into Google and was swamped with hits. Here’s the first one. It’s known as “Carl Sagan’s Baloney Detection Kit”.
http://www1.tpgi.com.au/users/tps-seti/baloney.html

3

If you really want to learn about baloney detection, read the book Logic and Contemporary Rhetoric by Howard Kahane and Nancy Cavender. It’s a standard textbook in the subject, and it goes into much greater detail than Carl Sagan does. (To be fair, Sagan never meant his list to be anything more than a single chapter in a book.) Kahane and Cavender are particularly brilliant on the subjects where it’s hardest to separate the baloney from the truth: advertising, journalism, and politics.

4

The Duck’s link should be placed in the upper right corner of the SD page, along with Profile, Register, Members, etc., so it can be consulted at any time.

Peace

5

or even better, in your signature, along with the words “I have obviously not taken anything useful from this link”.

jb

6

jb, please try to keep your disagreements either on-topic or in the pit.

Thanks.

7

will do.

jb