Richard Wilson (3) (1975–)

I like books where examples illustrate principles rather than principles being secondary to examples. Thus, this was not the type of book that I tend to enjoy. If I had known how example-centric it would be, I probably would have skipped over this book.

That said, this book does have some good points. The examples used are not the mainstream American controversies. This is not surprising given that the author is British. This could be seen as a weakness, but I see it as a strength. By using examples that are more neutral to an American audience in 2013, the book might get its points about scepticism across to those who would reject the book outright if the controversies were more emotionally charged.

I also thought Wilson did a good job of differentiating scepticism from various flavors of pseudo-scepticism, denialism and relativism in particular.

Thus, if books that focus on examples over principles are your style, you may like it even though I was not particularly fond of the book.… (meer)