About the author
Jonathan C. Smith's listed books are university-level texts aimed at teaching critical thinking through the lens of pseudoscience and paranormal claims. Critical Thinking: Pseudoscience and the Paranormal, published by Wiley-Blackwell, is written for students and instructors and works through different categories of evidence and argument using paranormal and pseudoscientific examples as case studies. The companion volume, Pseudoscience and Extraordinary Claims of the Paranormal: A Critical Thinker's Toolkit, sets out evaluative tools for assessing extraordinary claims, drawing on methods used by both believers and skeptics to weigh evidence. Both books are structured as classroom texts, with exercises and frameworks rather than narrative argument, treating the paranormal as a subject for analysis rather than endorsement. They suit instructors building courses in critical thinking or psychology, as well as general readers who want a structured method for evaluating unusual claims rather than a survey of paranormal phenomena themselves.
📖 Where to start with Jonathan C Smith
💬 What our editors say about Jonathan C Smith's books
“Jonathan C. Smith provides a compelling and systematic guide to evaluating pseudoscience, using paranormal phenomena as its primary classroom. The text excels in teaching readers how to assess efficacy and interpret scientific…”
Esoterica Books editorial team, Occult literature desk · on Critical Thinking: Pseudoscience and the Paranormal
“Smith delivers a potent sieve for the curious mind, meticulously dissecting claims from astrology to life after death with logical precision. The integration of a severity continuum and alternative hypotheses provides a robust…”
Esoterica Books editorial team, Occult literature desk · on Pseudoscience and Extraordinary Claims of the Paranormal: A Critical Thinker's Toolkit
