Grain of SaltTest the claim before you believe it

Grain of Salt: a plain guide to thinking critically

Grain of Salt: how to take a claim apart

Grain of Salt is a working reference that walks you through the steps by which a claim is checked, from its structure to the evidence behind it.

Grain of Salt is a reference built around a single operation: taking a claim you have heard and working through the steps that decide whether it holds. The site is organised into seven sections, each of which names a distinct part of that work. You move from the shape of an argument, to the errors that make a false argument feel true, to the evidence and numbers that actually carry a claim, and finally to the method that puts an idea to the test.

The sections are Logical fallacies, Cognitive bias, Logical reasoning, Evidence and proof, Evaluating sources, Reading numbers, and The scientific method. Each opens on a hub page that states the plain rule, then holds a set of cards that take one pattern or one skill at a time. Nothing here adjudicates a live contested claim and no living person is named as an example. The whole site is one reference: how a claim is tested.

Loose archive documents in a storage box.

Test the claim before you believe it

Logical fallacies

Logical fallacies gathers the recurring argument patterns in which the conclusion does not follow from the reasons offered for it.

More in Logical fallacies

Cognitive bias

Cognitive bias covers the systematic errors in judgment that make an untested claim feel as though it has already been checked.

More in Cognitive bias

Logical reasoning

Logical reasoning sets out the rules that carry support from stated premises to a conclusion, from deduction to induction.

More in Logical reasoning

What counts as evidence

Evidence and proof states what counts as evidence, who carries the burden of proof, and when a claim can be falsified.

More in Evidence and proof

Evaluating sources

Evaluating sources is the work of tracing a claim back to where it came from and deciding how much weight it deserves.

More in Evaluating sources

Reading numbers

Reading names the patterns by which true numbers are arranged so that a reader draws a false conclusion.

More in Reading numbers

The scientific method

The scientific method is presented as a procedure that gives an idea a fair chance to fail before it is accepted.

More in Scientific method

Restored addresses

Grain of Salt publishes at skepticians.com since 2026. Under another owner this domain treated the same subject from 2008 to 2021.

Where to go next

Proudly powered by WordPress | Theme: Amber Blog by Crimson Themes.