1 / 31

Philosophy 1100

jacob
Download Presentation

Philosophy 1100

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. If I listened long enough to youI’d find a way to believe that it’s all trueKnowing that you lied straight-faced while I criedStill I look to find a reason to believeSomeone like you makes it hard to live withoutSomebody elseSomeone like you makes it easy to giveNever think about myselfIf I gave you time to change my mindI’d try to leave all the past behindKnowing that you lied straight-faced while I criedStill I look to find a reason to believe. Someone like you makes it hard to live withoutSomebody elseSomeone like you makes it easy to giveNever think about myself Rod Stewart, Reason to Believe http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrjePH49Aq0

  2. Philosophy 1100 Title: Critical Reasoning Instructor: Paul Dickey E-mail Address: pdickey2@mccneb.edu Website: http://mockingbird.creighton.edu/NCW/dickey.htm Class Website: www.quia.com Reading Assignment for Next Week Chapters One & Two of your text. Complete Syllabus Quiz

  3. Introductions State a theoretical claim about your instructor, yourself, or the class. Support your claim with a reason why your classmates should believe it to be true. • Syllabus • Discussion

  4. Class Discussion: Your Claims & Premises: What is the Issue? Did you give a relevant Reason to Believe for your claim?

  5. · In your portfolio, you will include briefly written stories/narratives of “what happened,” judgments and choices you or others made and your reasons for the choice, appropriate you-tube videos, cartoons, and song-lyrics, or whatever relevant “artifacts” you wish. Include all of the following sections in your folder. Student Portfolios: Portfolio Guidelines for Critical Thinking P1100 Students will create a folder (either electronically or hardcopy as you choose) and place periodic assignments into that folder . (Please note: Your own assessments do not influence your grade on the assignment, but must be completed as part of your portfolio experience and evaluation in this class.

  6. ·  What is Critical Thinking?   Collect” from your daily experience 2-3 anecdotes, stories, and/or examples from yourself, friends, family, and acquaintances that exemplify the challenges of thinking critically in daily life (regarding, as you choose, ones related to life choices, relationships, job, politics, and so on). ·   For each, write a description or explanation of the artifact selected and its relevance to the class topic (1 paragraph) Student Portfolios: Assignment #1

  7. Class Discussion: What is Critical Thinking? Why Is it Important? "5% think, 10% think they think, 85% would rather die than think.“ Video

  8. “Critical thinking is the ability to engage in reasoned discourse with intellectual standards such as clarity, accuracy, precision, and logic, and to use analytic skills with a fundamental value orientation that emphasizes intellectual humility, intellectual integrity, and fair-mindedness.” Definition of "critical thinking" from a California State Senate bill to update the State's Education code

  9. “The function of education, therefore, is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically . . . The complete education gives one not only power of concentration but worthy objectives upon which to concentrate.” Martin Luther King

  10. What is Critical Thinking? • Critical thinking is the process of assessing opinions. • We all might be entitled to our opinions, but some opinions are more reasonable than others. • Critical thinking consists of examining the views that you and others hold and the reasons to believe them. • The purpose of critical thinking is not to make you either more persuasive or a better contestant against others, but to improve your ability to understand and evaluate what you yourself believe.

  11. Critical Thinking Involves . . . • Identifying the issue • Recognizing what positions are being taking on the issue • Understanding the arguments for and against those positions • Pursuing aggressively the most reasonable course of thought or action based on evidence and facts • Not being influenced by rhetoric or fallacies. • Your text emphasizes critical thinking as “critique thinking,” that is, thinking about thinking.

  12. Critical Thinking All these steps can be fairly easily defined, but they cannot always be learned quickly. The ultimate goal of the entire process is a decision: What are the best reasons to accept a claim, reject it, or suspend judgment? Or, as Rod Stewart sings, analyzing the reason to believe.

  13. Critical Thinking Is Not: • Either “Negative Thinking” or “Positive Thinking.” It is “Reality Thinking.”Negative thinking and positive thinking are based in emotion, not reason. They presuppose a result for which evidence and facts have not been demonstrated and likely will be ignored if presented. • Just being “critical of things” or “being “contentious, disagreeable, or quarrelsome” without purpose or reason.

  14. The Critical Thinker’s “Attitude” is to: • Think logically • Find the best “reasons to believe” • Discover the best action for yourself, • Reject "intuiting" the truth & all forms of self-deception • Be fair and open-minded even with people you disagree with, • Give everyone a fair hearing, • Not be a hypercritical thinker and find fault where there is no fault or “make mountains out of molehills” by overstating small problems. • Look for common ground. The goal is not to confirm what you already believe.

  15. For the Most Part, the Principles of Critical Thinking are Universal !!! (although often ignored and not universally applied)

  16. Examples of Critical Thinking Principles in Judaism & Christianity • “A simple man believes anything, but a prudent man gives thought to his steps.” –Proverbs 14:15 • “It is not good to have zeal without knowledge, nor be hasty and miss the way.” –Proverbs 19:2 • “The Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” –Acts of the Apostles 17:11 • “Test everything. Hold to the good.” –1 Thessalonians 5:21 Source: http://www.rationalchristianity.net

  17. Critical Thinking Principles in Islam “One should develop critical thinking ability in one's studies first: in science, mathematics, computers, and economics, whatever subject one has chosen. If you cannot develop this ability most probably you would not understand the Quran.” Dr. Mansoor Alam “A Message to Muslim Youth” http//:www.tolueislam.com

  18. Our mission is to utilize Hip-Hop culture as a tool to facilitate critical thinking, foster social change and unity, by empowering communities through the use of media, technology, education, and leadership development; while preserving Hip-Hop culture for future generations. www.hiphopassociation.org

  19. Will Critical Thinking Help Me On My Job? “Learning to think, really think, beneath the surface of what you see, hear or read is one of the hallmarks of the most successful people in the world of work.” Carol Carter “Critical Thinking: One of the Most Valued Job Skills” http://www.makingitcount.com/students/ Career/how_criticalthinking.asp

  20. “Critical thinking helps us ask relevant questions, weigh evidence offered in support of arguments, interpret complex problems, and make wise decisions. This is especially important when you realize that many problems do not lend themselves to clear-cut solutions.”   Robert Bacal “Applying Critical Thinking – An Essential Job Survival Skill” http://workhelp.org/content/view/215/45/

  21. What is a CLAIM? • We will refer to a claim as an assertion, an opinion, a belief, a “view”, a thought, a conviction, or perhaps, an idea. • A claim must be expressed as a statement or a complete, declarative sentence. It cannot be a question. • In its clearest form, a claim asserts that something is true or false. That is, it asserts a fact. This kind of claim is known as a “factual claim” or a “descriptive claim.”Your text also refers to this as an “objective claim.”

  22. What is a CLAIM? • Value statements can also be claims though. In such claims, a fact is not asserted in the same sense that it was in factual claims. • For example, the claim “You should come to class” is not clearly true or false in the same way that the claim “P1100 class is held in Room 116” is. • Thus, some claims are “normative claims” or “prescriptive claims.” They express values and how one should act based on values. A value statement is a claim that asserts something is good or bad.

  23. Now, Critical Thinking is Absolutely Relevant to Both Sets of Claims • As we shall see in this class, it is necessary that we identify very clearly which kind of a claim we have before we can properly evaluate any argument for it! • Thus, please note we are taking a position against the subjectivist and saying that even moral judgments can be analyzed by the principles of critical thinking.

  24. What is an ISSUE? • Consider the following: Honda Accords are good cars to buy. They are cheap to fix. Their parts are easily found. • How many claims are there? • But what is the ISSUE? • Thus, an ISSUE is the Question we are asking. That is, we need to determine what claim we are asking about whether or not it is true. • Then, we must identify the ARGUMENT “in support of” the issue. Once the claim though is identified, we can also see that we are giving an ARGUMENT “for” that claim being true or false.

  25. An Argument is . . . • An attempt to support a claim (or conclusion) by giving reasons (or premises) for believing it. • Not to be confused with the confrontational act of attempting to persuade. • Please note: We are reserving the use of “argument” to refer to the combination of claim & premises and not using it as it often is in daily speech to refer to premises only.

  26. The Fundamental Principle of Critical Thinking • Making a claim is stating a belief or an opinion (a conclusion) • A claim or conclusion states a proposition -- a sentence that is either true or false, or a sentence that asserts or denies a fact or a prescription. • An argument is presented when you give a reason that the claim is true. • Thus, an argument consists of two parts: 1) the claim or the conclusion, and 2) the premise is the reason for thinking that the claim is true.

  27. So, is an Argument an Explanation? • Actually, they are typically very different. • An argument supports or proves a conclusion. It does not necessary try to understand why the conclusion is true. • An explanation generally proposes a cause for an event, how something is composed, or how it works. • Example: Amy likes to play the piano. My premise is that she told me that she does which is a good “reason to believe.” I am not suggesting an explanation. I have no idea whyAmy likes to play the piano.

  28. Arguments & Persuasion Sometimes we are influenced by considerations that are not logical arguments. We may be influenced by the style or music of a presentation, propaganda, flattery, images, or many other effects that appeal to our emotions and what we want to believe or what we already believe.

  29. Arguments & Persuasion In particular, we are often influenced by rhetorical devices. Rhetoric is language that is psychologically persuasive but does not have any relevant logical strength. For example: “Our brave, young soldiers in Iraq have sacrificed greatly in their valiant efforts.” But is this really a premise for a claim that we we should stay in Iraq? Or leave Iraq? Notice of course that most of us would agree that the above statement is true, but that being true does not necessary assure us that the statement is not being used rhetorically.

  30. Arguments & Cognitive Bias Psychologists are interested in why people think the way they do, that is, they are interested in explanations for the human behavior of thinking and reasoning. This is different than laying out guidelines FOR critical thinking as we are trying to to, but their results are very interesting on the scientific issue.

  31. Arguments & Cognitive Bias Consequently, your text discusses several “cognitive biases” that have been proposed by psychologists as explanations for why people act as they do (which is often counter to the principles of critical thinking that we will discuss.) Please observe that psychologists are primarily interested in “factual” or objective claims and issues and we as philosophers are interested in “normative” (but NOT “subjective” ones).

More Related