BEL 313: INTRODUCTION TO CRITICAL THINKING

1. BEL 313: INTRODUCTION TO CRITICAL THINKING

2. Critical thinking is the general term given to a wide range of cognitive skills and intellectual dispositions needed to effectively identify, analyze, and evaluate arguments and truth claims; to discover and overcome personal prejudices and biases; to formulate and present convincing reasons in support of conclusions; and to make reasonable, intelligent decisions about what to believe and what to do. WHAT IS CRITICAL THINKING??

3. BASIC PRINCIPLES OF CRITICAL THINKING • Critical thinking is disciplined thinking governed by clear intellectual standards. ACCURACY CLARITY PRECISION RELEVANCE FAIRNESS CONSISTENCY COMPLETENESS LOGICAL CORRECTNESS

4. THE BENEFITS OF CRITICAL THINKING

5. BARRIERS TO CRITICAL THINKING SOCIOCENTRISM EGOCENTRISM UNWARRANTED ASSUMPTIONS & STEREOTYPES OVERPOWERING EMOTIONS WISHFUL THINKING PREJUDICE SELF-DECEPTION

6. It is a claim defended by reasons. Arguments are composed of one or more premises and a conclusion An argument, accordingly, is a group of statements, one or more of which (called the premises) are intended to prove or support another statement (called the conclusion). WHAT IS AN ARGUMENT?? CONCLUSION is the statement in An argument that the premises are Intended to prove or support. PREMISES are statements in an argument offered as evidence or reasons why we should accept another statement, the conclusion. STATEMENT is a sentence that can be viewed as either true or false!Examples: Red is a colour. Canada is in South America. Abortion is morally wrong.

7. Four (4) things should be noted about statements. Can be used to express more than one statement. i.e: Roses are red and violets are blue. Can sometimes be expressed as a phrase or an incomplete clause, rather than as a complete declarative sentence. i.e: With mortgage interest rates at thirty-year lows, you owe it to yourself to consider refinancing your home. (radio ad) Not all sentences are statements. None of these asserts or denies that anything is the case. None says “This is a fact. Accept this, it is true.” i.e: What time is it? (question) Close the window! (command) Let's go to Paris for our anniversary. (proposal) Cont'd

8. Statements can be about subjective matters or personal experience as well as objectively verifiable matters of fact. i.e: I feel a slight twinge in my left knee. (This is a statement because it is either true or false) Cont'd

9. Some sentences that look like non-statements are actually statements and can be used in arguments. Here are two examples: (1) Alyssa, you should quit smoking. Don't you realize how bad that is for your health. This sentence contains rhetorical question. A rhetorical question is a sentence that has the grammatical form o a question but is meant to be understood as a statement. The person asking the question isn't really looking for information. She's making an assertion that smoking is very bad for one's health. This assertion is offered as a reason (premise) to support the conclusion that Alyssa should quit smoking. Cont'd

10. (2)Commencement address: Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly. (Mary Schmich) This example includes and ought imperative, a sentence that has the form of a command (imperative) but is intended to assert a value or ought judgment about what is good or bad or right or wrong. “Do not read beauty magazines” looks like a command or suggestion. In this context however, the speaker is clearly making an assertion: that you shouldn't read beauty magazines. Her statement that reading such magazines will only make you feel ugly is offered as a reason to support this value judgment. Cont'd

11. Which one of these two sentences is a statement? (1) Close that window, soldier! It's freezing in here! (2) Don't blow dry your hair in the tub, Jane. You could electrocute yourself! Cont'd

12. Are often helped by indicator words. Indicator words are words or phrases that provide clues that premises or conclusions are being put forward. IDENTIFYING PREMISES (REASONS) & CONCLUSIONS

13. Cont'd

14. However, there are times when no indicators are mentioned in the arguments/expressions such as these examples: Cats are smarter than dogs. You can't get eight cats to pull a sled through snow. (Jeff Valdez) There is no indicator to help us identify the premises and conclusions. However, we can see that the point of the passage is to support the claim “Cats are smarter than dogs”. Cont'd

15. Tips on Finding the Conclusion of an Argument. Cont'd

16. Reports Unsupported Assertions Conditional Statements Illustrations Explanations WHAT IS NOT AN ARGUMENT?

17. THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CONTENTIONS AND OBJECTIONS

18. Contentions A claim supported by a reason is called a "contention".

19. Objections An objection is like a reason, but is evidence against a contention.

20. Consider the following passage from Apollo Moon Landings: There are no stars in the background of the Apollo pictures.Therefore, Apollo astronauts did not land on the Moon. (3.0-1) Here, we are given evidence against the idea that Apollo astronauts landed on the Moon. The contention is that Apollo astronauts landed on the Moon; the evidence (which goes against it) is that there are no stars in the background of the Apollo pictures. Here is a map of the reasoning, showing the objection in red:

21. Here is another example: It is not true that there should be lots of stars in the Apollo pictures, because stars can be very faint. The contention (the thing being objected to) is that there should be lots of stars in the Apollo pictures; the evidence is that stars can be very faint.

22. Simple Arguments A simple argument is just a contention with a single reason for it, OR a contention with a single objection to it. Here are two simple arguments: Examples The simple argument is the whole structure (reason AND contention).

23. This is another simple argument, made up of an objection to a contention. Notice that the contention happens to be the same as in the first example.

24. Vegueness: The meaning is fuzzy, blurry or inexact. Overgenerality: Information the yprovide is too broad and unspecific in a given context. Ambiguity: Doubtful sense of a word or phrase because many words have more than one meaning. FINDING THE RIGHT WORDS: THE NEED FOR PRECISION

25. Ambiguities that result from uncertainty about the meaning of an individual word or phrase are called semantic ambiguities. Joe went to the bank. [ “Bank” in the sense of a financial institution or “bank” in the sense of a slope bordering on a river?Or could it be a sperm bank?] John called. [John Smith or John Brown?] Margie sold out. [Did Margie sell her inventory or did she surrender her ideals?] Ambiguity

26. Other expressions are ambiguous because of a faulty sentence structure: As a young girl, her grandfather often told her stories about the Wild West. [Her grandfather was never a young girl] One morning he shot an elephant in his pajamas. (Groucho Marx) [Those must have been big pajamas1] On Monday, Professor Kraus will give a lecture on safer-sex in the college auditorium. [Students are having sex in the auditorium?!] Cont'd

27. Ambiguities that result from faulty grammar or word order are called syntactical ambiguities. Newspaper ad: Dog for sale. Eats anything and is expeciall fond of children. Billboard for Planned Parenthood: Come to us for unwanted pregnancies. Newspaper headline: Prostitutes Appeal to Pope. Cont'd

28. Reasons for writing and speaking persuasively: to promote a product or idea to get someone to do something for us to persuade someone to agree with us on an issue to demonstrate our knowledge of a topic to review or interpret a text, artwork or performance, or to challenge and critique ideas. LANGUAGE FEATURES USED IN PERSUASIVE TEXT

29. Persuasive text might use: Repeated words Text in capital letters Exclamation marks Rhetorical questions (Questions where no answer is needed) An emotional one-sided argument Humour Cont'd

30. Example of persuasive text: SPECIAL OFFER!Buy today!Would you want to miss this special offer?Phone NOW.. “I really think that you need this holiday. You have been working very hard lately and are so worn out. Just think of how nice it will be to lie on the beach in the sunshine.” Cont'd

31. Facts are statements that can be verified or proven to be true or false. Factual statements from reliable sources can be accepted and used in drawing conclusions, building arguments, and supporting ideas. Opinions are statements that express feelings, attitudes, or beliefs and are neither true nor false. Opinions must be considered as one person's point of view that you are free to accept or reject. With the exception of informed ones, opinions have little use as supporting evidence, but they are useful in shaping and evaluating your own thinking. * Informed opinion or testimony - the opinion of an expert or authority FACTS AND OPINIONS IN AN ARGUMENT

32. Cont'd

33. A fallacy of relevance occurs when an arguer offers reasons that are logically irrelevant to his or her conclusion. Fallacies of relevance often seem to be good arguments but aren't. Here are eleven fallacies of relevance: 1) Personal Attack (Ad Hominem) 2) Attacking the Motive 3) Look Who's Talking (Tu Quoque) 4)Two Wrongs Make a Right 5) Scare Tactics 6) Appeal to Pity 7)Bandwagon Argument 8) Straw Man 9) Red Herring 10) Equivocation 11) Begging the Question ELEMENTS OF FALLACIOUS ARGUMENT

34. To be continued... INDUCTIVE & DEDUCTIVE REASONING