What is Critical thinking?

1. What is Critical thinking? • Thinking actively and not passively • Being an independent thinker • Refusing to be blinded by prejudice • Only accepting something as true when we have good evidence for it • Withholding judgment if we can't be sure what the evidence leads do (reasonable doubt)

2. 12 angry men • Two themes: 1) Telling good from bad arguments 2) avoiding prejudice

3. Key Terms • Argument – a set of statements one of which is a conclusion, the rest of which are premises which support that conclusion • Bias/Prejudice – An irrational belief that is clung to by the believer without good evidence, and often believed even when there is good evidence against it!

4. What an Argument is not Not simply a disagreement Not a shouting match Not a quarrel

5. Arguments? Monty Python: Argument Clinic Monty Python: She's a witch

6. P1: P2: P3: P4: P5: P6: P7: P8: ---------------------------------------- C: There is reasonable doubt Arguments in 12 angry men P1: The Knife P2: The Old Man P3: The weak alibi P4: Criminal record P5: Conflict with Father P6: Woman across the street P7: He's one of “them” P8: Nobody proved he did'nt do it -------------------------------------- C: He is guilty

7. Problems with eyewitness testimony The Case of Ronald Cotton Part 1

8. Bias in 12 angry men

9. Socrates Founder of Philosophy Taught that the “unexamined life is not worth living.” Thought we should stop thinking the way society tells us to and start thinking for ourselves.

10. Socrates and Socratic Method

11. The Socratic Method Step 1: Ask a question regarding some “common sense belief” Step 2: Find an exception to this belief Step 3: Realize that the exception proves that the belief is false or at least incomplete Step 4: Try to nuance the initial belief to take the exception into account Step 5: Do this for as long as possible