Contraduction

By: Dan Barker

Narrated by: Dan Barker

Sound interesting? The author thinks so too! Listen to Contraduction and learn a new way to think about the world.

©2024 Dan Barker (P)2024 Dan Barker

Critic reviews

"In a quiet and unassuming way, Contraduction is utterly brilliant. Every page has a thought so deep and unexpected that it stops you in your tracks, as you not only realize, 'That’s a different, really interesting way to think about the world, exactly the opposite of how I normally view things” but also, “And it is absolutely equally valid (and enriching) to adopt this opposite way of thinking.' I loved this book." — Robert Sapolsky, author of The Blank Slate and Determined.

"An ingenious word for an invaluable concept. Sharp, clear, and timely." — Steven Pinker, Johnstone Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and the author of Rationality

"Both a delightful read and a penetrating argument: Barker has invented an invaluable new concept, and puts it to work with clarity, wit, and above all conclusiveness. A must-have book!" — A. C. Grayling, author of The History of Philosophy and The God Argument

"I am completely down with the concept of contraduction. It fills a need. False pattern recognitions pose a real danger to our survival. Well done!" — Ann Druyan, author (with Carl Sagan) of Cosmos, Contact, and Demon Haunted World

"I love it when brilliant ideas are conveyed clearly and soundly. That’s why I love this book. Dan Barker has provided a much-needed explication of a common fallacy that needs to be understood and rebutted. It is an engaging, enlightening, and insightful book."—Phil Zuckerman, author of Society Without God and What it Means to be Moral

Interesting concepts

First of all, I had to listen to this on 1.5 X speed. Dan Barker’s pace is much slower than my own! I enjoyed his examples and the concept of conduction. It seems there are quite a few of these conductions in every single aspect of life. No one group or political party has a monopoly on them for sure.

An essay pretending to be a book

I must admit that I did not get to the end of the audiobook. Both the rambling content and slow pace of reading was too much.

The author describes in the introduction the origin of the work, a paper to propose the term "contraduction" as a type of logical error. In particular, this error applies to arguments for god as the first cause for existence. I would have liked to read that paper, focused on this issue. Instead it has been padded to book length; not with more substance but with "examples" which do not clarify, pointless asides, and children's songs.

My expectations for works on the topic of secular humanism have been shaped by Dawkins, Dennett, Harris and Hitchens; scholarship of the highest order. This book is an embarrassment by comparison.