Intuition: Its Powers and Perils
by David G. Myers
Yale University Press, £17.95 (hb), ISBN 0-300-09531-7

I had a good feeling about this book from the moment I read about it. Vast claims are routinely made for the powers of intuition, and those pleased by its results insist that it constitutes a mode of knowing equalling if not excelling that of science, with its tedious observations and bewildering calculations, and usually preferable. Hence an upto- date account of experiments showing the pitfalls of human judgment is more than welcome.
Of course, as Myers spells out, we’d be lost without intuition. Natural selection has favoured the quick-witted during all those millennia when articulation and numeracy were not available to us.
However, with the wisdom of hindsight, a faculty welldiagnosed in this book, I can now see a troubling pattern emerging. There seemed to be rather a lot of biblical quotations, and C. S. Lewis popped up a bit too often.
My conscious mind discounted these signs in the race for the final (13th) chapter on Psychic Intuition. There we find a decent summary of the failure of parapsychology to come up with any evidence for psychic claims after thousands of tests. Then, right at the end, comes a really disappointing straw-man argument that we should credit people who make a leap of faith, betting their lives “on a humble spirituality, on an alternative to purposeless scientism, gullible spiritualism, and dogmatic fundamentalism.” These are people who, according to psychologist Robert Emmons, “perceive a reality that transcends the material and physical”. They seem to include, for Myers, that vile obscurantist, Mother Teresa (exposed in Christopher Hitchens’ The Missionary Position, 1995).
If only the author had pondered the intuitionist sins of belief perseverance, availability and illusory correlation in respect of spiritual world-views, and made more of the counter-intuitive insights of Darwinism, we could have ended on a more constructive note.

Fundamentalist World: The New Dark Age of Dogma
by Stuart Sim
Icon Books Ltd., £12.99 (hb), ISBN 1 84046 532 8

This fascinating book discusses many fundamentalist groups which it had not occurred to me to consider as such. The author analyses not just Islamic and Jewish fundamentalism but also the Hindu and various Christian forms, post-Marxism, anti-globalisation, the British National Party, eco-terrorism, “gundamentalism” (the American militia movement), and imperialist fundamentalism with special reference to the US. The concepts of agonism and apostasy were new to me, as was market fundamentalism and the thought that the World Bank is a fundamentalist organisation.
The fundamentalist creed, whatever the variety, is (my words) that “The truth has been revealed to us and those who do not believe it are to be vilified, converted or, if necessary, killed.” “Liberal” is a dirty word and so is “sceptic”.
“What fundamentalism involves above all else is a desire for certainty and for the power to enforce that certainty over others”, says the author, and he proceeds to show at length how important the power aspect is. He brings forth arguments from other sources to show that an Enlightenment such as Christian civilisation experienced during the 18th century is what is now needed in the Islamic world. My response to that is “Lots of luck!” For the record, I see the third world war currently shaping up rapidly to be a conflict between “Islamic” and “Christian” forces and reaching full potential in the next few years. “Tens of thousands of children born to Muslim parents world-wide have been named Osama” is quoted from Rohan Gunaratna. I wonder how many have been named “Dubya”?
Fundamentalism and sexuality, male supremacy and the “compulsory heterosexuality” demanded by the Christian Right in the US are discussed. I can’t agree that “When you have to resort to terrorism to make your points, the political battle is half lost already”, but I firmly support “… we find it hard to regard religion as anything other than an excuse to exercise control over others; a method of trading on human vulnerability in order to gain power.”
No doubt other readers will find different things to agree and disagree on, but that’s what makes us sceptics, not fundamentalists, I hope. 225 pages of text, 9 of bibliography, 13 of notes, and a five-page index make this a useful working reference for further study. Highly recommended.

Defending Science, Within Reason: Between Scientism and Cynicism
by Susan Haack
Prometheus Books, $28.00, ISBN 1-59102-117-0

Susan Haack, professor of philosophy and of law at the University of Miami, discusses the many different views on science and deals with the illusion of a “scientific community” or “the” scientific method. To demarcate the borders between science and non-science is not as easy as some claim.
Scientific inquiry can best be compared to solving a crossword puzzle, using bits and pieces gathered from the works of fellow scientists, standing on the shoulders of those before, and avoiding standing on the shoulders of crackpots.
The social sciences have their merits and pitfalls: the differences between understanding and explaining, between honesty and bias are not always obvious. This seems like kicking-in open doors. The science critics are dealt with, the debunkers who claim that knowledge and rationality are relative to social context and political influences. Haack discusses the differences between scientific and literary texts, the sometimes dubious competence of scientific experts in legal trials, and the relations between science and religion. She elaborates on the pros and cons, and illustrates well, but do not expect clear answers. But then she strongly deals with the anti-science movements.
Science is not a religion, white, male dominant and Western, a mere construct of its time and place. The results endure and are valid also in other societies, although science is not the only way of acquiring knowledge.
One also has to see the difference between inquiry and advocacy, and the dangers of mixing them, well-illustrated by the negative influence of dictatorships and theocracy on science. She cites Hitler: “We stand at the end of the age of reason, a new era of magical explanation of the world is rising”.
She ends by discussing whether there will ever be an end to science, and whether the ultimate laws of physics will ever be discovered. Those who are already very well acquainted with the philosophy of science literature should enjoy this book.

Why Smart People Can be So Stupid
by Robert J Sternberg (Editor)
Yale University Press, £12.50, ISBN 0300101708

The title alone triggers a cascade of questions. Is smart the same as intelligent? Does that mean that stupid is a synonym for unintelligent? What kind of behaviours are stupid anyway? These are tricky questions to answer, even though we all have an intuitive idea of what smart and stupid are, just as we all know smart people who behave in ways that are irrational (does that mean that rational and smart are the same thing?).
The contributors to this interesting and eclectic collection of papers attempt to unravel the ins and outs of the topic and to cast some light on an issue that is rarely addressed in anything but colloquial terms. The tone of the pieces here, in contrast, are decidedly on the academic side, though not to the extent that they are inaccessible to all but the expert. A couple of papers stand out in particular.
One case of a smart person acting dumb that is analysed in some detail is that of Bill Clinton. Diane Halpern does a good job of deconstructing the Monica Lewinsky scandal. This is, most people would agree, a case where someone nominally quite smart engaged in a behaviour that was incredibly dumb. Rather than adopt a moralistic tone, the author analyses Clinton’s behaviour in terms of his previous history. He had been getting away with similar activities for years and had survived. One of his errors, according to Halpern, is that he had not adapted to the changed circumstance of being in the Whitehouse. In this respect stupid behaviour is related to a failure to adapt to the environment.
In contrast David Perkins, in Engines of Folly, analyses the problem using the tools of complexity theory. In this fascinating paper he uses the ideas of self-organised criticality and emergent properties of complex systems to propose a theory of behaviour that encompasses various forms of folly. In identifying changes in patterns of activity as of prime importance, Perkins suggests that it may be possible to address folly. Perhaps, he suggests, people do not necessarily have to be so stupid so often.
In any case, this book makes for an intriguing read.

Has Science Found God?: The Latest Results in the Search for Purpose in the Universe
by Victor J Stenger
Prometheus Books, £16.30, ISBN 1591020182

In recent decades authors with scientific training have asserted that science is compatible with the existence of God. Some have asserted that science has proved the actuality of the Divine. The Templeton Foundation devotes millions to showing the compatibility of science and religion and awards an annual prize larger than the Nobel. Stenger examines these claims for the god of science, and more generically for any transcendent, non-material element in the universe. “If God or any other transcendent entity affects physical events and human affairs as significantly as most of their believers think they do, then these effects should be empirically detectable and confirmable by established scientific methods.” (p. 339) Stenger is an emeritus Professor of Physics who has contributed to cosmology, and specifically to understanding of the neutrino. He is thus well qualified to deal with the origin and nature of the universe and its laws. He also considers the beginning and nature of life, and other direct empirical claims for God or the supernatural. He finds all of these claims “not proven” at best, and unproven in most specific instances. The book is very much limited to factual religious claims labelled “scientific” by their authors.
Stenger gives an introduction to present understanding of Big Bang cosmology, and why this does not allow positing a creator-god. Although he keeps it simple, Stenger does require some understanding of mathematics, and without this his argument is not always easy to follow. He can also be quite funny when considering the use of the word “quantum”, which appears in virtually everything written on quack medicine, by authors who have no idea of its precise meaning.
Stenger finds no evidence for God or other supernatural forces. This very much rules out the god of Christians, Jews, and Muslims who intervenes directly in human affairs. His evidence questions the need for any god.

How Mumbo-jumbo Conquered the World: A Short History of Modern Delusions
by Francis Wheen
Fourth Estate, £16.99, ISBN 0007140967

This is a book full of tales of the irrational. Throughout three hundred-odd pages you feel the weight of far more material and erudition than can possibly be squeezed into one volume.
You won’t forget the image of the Blairs rebirthing within a ‘Mayan’ pyramid while smearing each other with mud to the rhythm of ancient chants. Thinking of Edward de Bono using ‘water logic’ to shave (moving his head instead of the razor) conjures up one bloody mess that should raise a smile.
In amongst the great yarns however is a serious purpose. Wheen believes that the achievements of the Enlightenment have been overthrown by a mess of economic fundamentalists, holy warriors, mystics, and sensationalist historians.
The real and devastating consequences he illustrates in the contrast between America’s presidential elections of 1800 and of 2000. The former was contested by Adams and Jefferson, two major Enlightenment thinkers. In 2000, Al Gore identified Francis Bacon as “the greatest villain who ever lived because he assumed that human intellect could safely analyse the world without reference to … God”. George Bush proclaimed his dependence on Jesus at every possible turn. Wheen quotes Jefferson approvingly “Truth will prevail unless by human interposition disarmed … Errors cease to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them”. Yet, in 2000, free peoples enthusiastically elect Mumbo Jumbo. Wheen seems unsure whether Jefferson was plain wrong and the attractions of simple nonsense are too great, or if some political and economic form of Jefferson’s “tyranny and kings” is at work in society holding reason at bay. He has made the case that nonsense is a great force in the world and that it has awful consequences. How and why he has left to another book.

The Scientific Study of Society
by Max Steuer
Kluwer, ISBN 1402073216

There has been much noise from postmodernist quarters and other niches claiming that social science is an impossible quest. Steuer aims to show the error of this view, not by engaging in philosophical dispute, but by systematically displaying a wealth of research in the five social sciences: anthropology, economics, sociology, social psychology and political science.

In exactly the same way that a proper scientific approach to natural phenomena can rescue us from the delusions and fancies of mere speculation and figmentalism (my word for “belief in figments”), a strong case can be made – and Steuer makes it – for the value of real social science.
Sceptics who may be suspicious of the goings-on in sociology and the other disciplines should be reassured by the huge amount of serious empirical investigation into the workings of society. Steuer writes that “the book could have been called Social Science: What It Is, How It Works, and How to Spot the Impostor.”

The main part of the book comprises chapters on crime, migration, the family, money, housing and religion, and each chapter shows how each science has thrown light on these areas, covering research carried out during the 1990s.

In the chapter on religion, Steuer reports on a study by economists that makes “a persuasive case that the introduction of the doctrine of purgatory by the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages can be reasonably understood as a profitable product innovation to take to the market.” One of the researchers in political science argues that the phenomenon of churches beginning to champion the poor rather than propping up hierarchical regimes is best explained in terms of competition from other religions.

This book is a substantial undertaking, and the author, an economist at the LSE, has done an unusually good job of summarizing a vast range of material in clear jargon-free English.

Paul Taylor

Fifty Key Thinkers in Psychology (Routledge Key Guides)
by Noel Sheehy
Routledge, ISBN 0 415 16774 4 (hbk), 0 415 16775 2

Psychologists will recognize the usual suspects, and a few less expected ones, among these ‘key thinkers’. Each gets a page or so of biography, and four or five of exposition. These will be useful to students who have already done say a year of psychology, and want summaries, and to teachers who want a few personal details. The problem is that, first, the thinkers are presented alphabetically rather than chronologically, and second, too little is said as to why they tackled the problems they did, and how, and what it all meant – at least in terms understandable by the lay person. What, in fact, are they the key to?
Psychology, like all science, is cumulative, but more than most, it is reflexive, part of its own subject matter. Understanding needs some grasp of its social, cultural and scientific setting, and of the progression of enquiry. These I did not find here. The reader may be left with an impression of unrelated bits and pieces.

John Radford