Philosophy 1100

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/