{"title":"David Stove","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDavid Stove\u003c\/strong\u003e challenges prevailing ideas with sharp, provocative critique, blending philosophy, science, and reasoned argument. His works explore the foundations of scientific thought and examine the pitfalls of popular intellectual trends, inviting readers to reconsider accepted truths.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eReaders will find insightful analyses that bridge \u003cem\u003eEducation \u0026amp; Reference\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eScience \u0026amp; Nature\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003ePhilosophy \u0026amp; Psychology\u003c\/em\u003e, delivered with clarity and wit. Stove’s writings encourage thoughtful reflection on human beliefs and values from a distinctive and contrarian perspective.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"scientific-irrationalism-by-david-stove-9781641773874","title":"Scientific Irrationalism","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn fewer than two hundred pages, David Stove leaves the well-established and widely regarded edifice of the academic philosophy of science in smouldering ruins.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis book provides a modern history of scientific reasoning, from David Hume's inductive scepticism to Karl Popper's outright denial of induction, to the increasingly irrational and absurd scientific views that followed. When Popper untethered science from induction, Stove argues, he triggered a postmodernist nightmare of utter nonsense culminating in Paul Feyerabend's summation that \"anything goes\" when it comes to defining or describing science.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWith undeniable logic, a deft analysis of the linguistic sleight-of-hand that makes absurd arguments seem reasonable, and regular displays of wit, Stove gives the reader a front-row seat to one of the greatest unforced errors in the history of modern thought.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eStove's views are entirely consistent with the origins of scientific inference and logic, as well as modern advances in probability theory, and yet he remains largely unnoticed by most of the academic world. From Stove's insider-outsider perspective, the train wreck that is the academically accepted philosophy of science and \"science studies\" is a fascinating and thoroughly entertaining subject of study.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eScientific Irrationalism\u003c\/i\u003e and what it is not.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Hachette Aotearoa New Zealand","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46854822068460,"sku":"9781641773874","price":64.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9781641773874.jpg?v=1759256314"},{"product_id":"whats-wrong-with-benevolence-by-david-stove-9781594035234","title":"What's Wrong with Benevolence","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIs benevolence a virtue? In many cases, it appears to be so. But when it comes to the \u003cem\u003eenlarged benevolence\u003c\/em\u003e of the Enlightenment, David Stove argues that the answer is clearly no.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn this insightful, provocative essay, Stove builds a case for the claim that when benevolence is universal, disinterested, and external, it regularly leads to the forced redistribution of wealth. This, in turn, leads to decreased economic incentives, lower rates of productivity, and increased poverty.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAs Stove points out, there is an air of paradox in saying that benevolence may be a cause of poverty. But there shouldn't be. Good intentions alone are never sufficient to guarantee the success of one's endeavours. Utopian schemes to reorganise the world have regularly ended in failure.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eEasily the most important example of this phenomenon is twentieth-century communism. As Stove reminds us, the attractiveness of communism—the \"emotional fuel\" of communist revolutionaries for over a hundred years—has always been exactly the same as the emotional fuel of every other utopianism: the passionate desire to alleviate or abolish misery. Yet communism was such a monumental failure that millions of people today are still suffering its consequences.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn this most prescient of essays, Stove warns contemporary readers just how seductive universal political benevolence can be. He also shows how the failure to understand the connection between benevolence and communism has led to many of the greatest social miseries of our age.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Hachette Aotearoa New Zealand","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47000841715948,"sku":"9781594035234","price":54.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9781594035234.jpg?v=1763309474"},{"product_id":"darwinian-fairytales-by-david-stove-9781594031403","title":"Darwinian Fairytales","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhatever your opinion of \u003cem\u003eIntelligent Design\u003c\/em\u003e, you'll find Stove's criticism of what he calls 'Darwinism' difficult to stop reading. Stove's blistering attack on Richard Dawkins' 'selfish genes' and 'memes' is unparalleled and unrelenting.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA discussion of spiders who mimic bird droppings is alone worth the price of the book. \u003cem\u003eDarwinian Fairytales\u003c\/em\u003e should be read and pondered by anyone interested in sociobiology, the origin of altruism, and the awesome process of evolution.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e--Martin Gardner, author of \u003cem\u003eDid Adam and Eve Have Navels?: Debunking Pseudoscience\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Hachette Aotearoa New Zealand","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47596101304556,"sku":"9781594031403","price":59.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/bf261101ea776210cc42ed2e468bdd39.jpg?v=1777931254"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.co.nz\/collections\/david-stove.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}