What Should I Believe?

Paul Gomberg is Professor of Philosophy at Chicago State University.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

PREFACE
To the Instructor:
Making Critical Thinking Classes More Philosophical

INTRODUCTION
The Philosophical Problems Raised by Critical Thinking

SECTION I
Two Defenses of Critical Belief

Introduction
From “The Fixation of Belief,” Charles S. Peirce
From “The Ethics of Belief,” William K. Clifford

SECTION II
Uncertainty and Scrutiny in Science

Introduction
Miracles and Scientific Research, Paul Gomberg
From “The Origin of Life on Earth,” Neil deGrasse Tyson and Donald Goldsmith
From “Sex, Drugs, Disasters, and the Extinction of Dinosaurs,”
Stephen Jay Gould
Are We Related to Other Life? Paul Gomberg
From “The Perplexing Case of the Female Orgasm,”
Elisabeth Lloyd with Natasha Mitchell
“The Health of Black Folk: Disease, Class, and Ideology in Science,”
Nancy Krieger and Mary Bassett
From Against Method, Paul Feyerabend

SECTION III
Why Do We Believe Others?

Introduction
From “Of Miracles,” David Hume
From “The Ethics of Belief,” William K. Clifford
From “The Epistemology of Testimony,” Nicholas Wolterstorff
From “What Is It to Believe Someone?” Elizabeth Anscombe
Trust and Modesty in Belief and Knowledge, Paul Gomberg

SECTION IV
Religious Beliefs and Critical Scrutiny

Introduction
From “A Scientist’s Case against God,” Richard Dawkins
From “The Will to Believe,” William James
“Clifford’s Principle and James’s Options,” Richard Feldman
Believing Can Be Right or Wrong, Allen Wood
From “Wittgenstein on Religious Belief,” Hilary Putnam

SECTION V: EPILOGUE
What Should I Believe?

Index