This list of books are ONLY the books that have been ranked on the lists that are aggregated on this site. This is not a comprehensive list of all books by this author.

1. 1. The Fixation Of Belief

   

   An analysis of how people settle what they believe, contrasting four approaches—tenacity (stubbornly clinging to belief), authority (enforced or handed-down belief), the a priori or common-sense method (relying on intuition or taste), and the scientific method—and arguing that only the scientific method reliably fixes belief because it subjects ideas to external tests, communal criticism, and experimental consequences. It explains how genuine doubt motivates inquiry, how beliefs function as habits that guide action, and why fallibilism and public verification make scientific inquiry superior to methods that produce merely comforting or socially enforced certainty. The essay highlights the psychological and social effects of each method and defends the scientific ideal of corrigible, objective belief grounded in observable consequences.