General Slides for SOC120 Winter 2008 Week 3 (Study Guide edited 3/09/10)

1. General Slides for SOC120Winter 2008Week 3(Study Guide edited 3/09/10) Class Outline Chapt Study Guide

2. Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson go on a camping trip.  After a good dinner and a bottle of wine, they retire for the night, and go to sleep. Some hours later, Holmes wakes up and nudges his faithful friend. "Watson, look up at the sky and tell me what you see." "I see millions and millions of stars, Holmes" replies Watson. "And what do you deduce from that?" Watson ponders for a minute. "Well, astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets.  Astrologically, I observe that Saturn is in Leo.  Hierologically, I deduce that the time is approximately a quarter past three. Meteorologically, I suspect that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. Theologically, I can see that God is all powerful, and that we are a small and insignificant part of the universe. What does it tell you, Holmes?" Sherlock Holmes What does a critical thinker think/do?

3. Sometimes the answer is right in front of our eyes! • Holmes is silent for a moment.  "Watson, you idiot!" he says.  "Someone has stolen our tent!" This joke was submitted by Geoff Anandappa, from Blackpool in Britain to a web based study of the funniest jokes: http://www.laughlab.co.uk/

4. Recent Local Occurrences –no CT here – • Local undercover policeman assigned to catching underage students trying to get adults outside a convenience store to buy beer—problem he forgot his handcuffs were hanging from his back pocket. • Robber with his hand pretending a gun in his pocket forgot and left his thumb out. • Local teacher brings cold, fried Long John Silver’s for lunch everyday because she wants to loose weight and she heard eating fish was a good weight-loss diet.

5. Ethics is part of Critical Thinking You have a great job with low chances of obtaining an equivalent job. The problem is your supervisor is both Muslim and homosexual and thinks that you (a Christian) are a Muslim and a homosexual (you are heterosexual) as well. Are you being unethical to not reveal the truth to your employer and risk loosing your job. Is it always wrong to lie? What does a critical thinker think/do?

6. The ‘real” case was somewhat different, the case was a Jewish, lesbian, academic who saw her job future was dependant on a boss who was anti-Semitic and homophobic. Would this change your answer? Should it change your answer?Changing the components of an ethical decision so that it fits our circumstances often clarifies our thinking. Change the religion, sex orientation and job of the academic to yours and the bosses to opposite and see what you think. In politics change the party that committed the act to the opposite and think about your position—did it change? How we should treat captured terrorists? How should our captured troops be treated by their captors. Is it the same? This program segment, and one answer to the problem, can be listened to at : NPR Ethicist/

7. Relativism & Language • Lots of discussion around the FCCs attempt to control “bad language” before 10:00 but under close scrutiny what is bad language becomes a bit cloudy! • Making love, having intercourse, having sex, bonking, fornicate… are all acceptable in varying degrees and situations but the F word/Fbomb—never for the FCC! • We used to refer to dark and white meat on chicken because “breast” and “thighs” was in bad taste. C**t was a medical word referring to part of a female sexual organ but now is unacceptable • How about these, the same concept in a different language. Do you feel offended or think that the typical American or the FCC would be offended? Italian: scopata Portuguese: foda German: brumsen French: baise • What about teenage peer groups? Is the language the same as they would speak around adults? • Censoring books is another indicator of time and place differences in what is offensive in language: A recent case in language. It looks like profanity is relativistic! Don’t go to this link if offended by language or nudity! http://www.insultmonger.com/swearing/

8. Euphemisms and Language • Abbreviations: B.O. (body odor), W.C. (toilet) • Foreign words: faux (fake), or faux pas (foolish error) • Abstractions: before I go (before I die) • Indirections: rear-end, unmentionables • Longer words: flatulence, perspiration, mentally challenged • Technical terms: gluteus maximus • Mispronunciation: darn, shoot, gosh darn

9. Week 3: Evaluating Informative Claims • Review week 2: Quiz Topic/issue/Library research/Empirical (scientific) Research Topic, literal vs. emotive (rhetorical), relativism/subjectivism, definitions, typical (mean, median, mode), semantic vs. syntactic • Dante’s Inferno – view of sins and your level in hell • Project Part I will be due next week—will discuss 2nd class W3 [Print] • Choose Issue/Debate Topics • Groups review A02 then Hand In • Hand Back A02 • Practice on quiz, A02 “Misstatements” from PP w2 &W3S12 • Issue Groups • C3 Study groups • Magazine exercise Part I: Review one set determine beginning criteria Part II: Review additional sets refine criteria Part III: Compare one from each set Part IV: Each group describe one magazine type • Quiz C3 1st Slide

10. This T-shirt indicates that redundancy must not always be bad!

11. 3. How to judge expertise; Edu., Exp Accomplishment., Reputation, Position (5)[89m-90] 4. Other considerations about experts: bought experts (FDA), disagreements between experts, experts can be wrong (Global warming), expert in one area ~necessarily expert another area (Class ex Vitamin C) [p90b] E CREDIBILITY AND THE NEWS[p90-] Our source for news Class: Medias source for news –press releases not investigations Reasons for increased skepitcism GOVERNMENT MNGMNT OF NEWS [p91] VNR’s DEF/EX [p91b-92t] Reporters “editorialists” Iraq film footage BOX:Saving Prvt Lynch MEDIA FOUL-Ups EX [p94] BIAS WITEHN THE MEDIA Political bias?[p94-95] http://www.mediaresearch.org Important to remember and points [p96m] TALK RADIO [p97, 98] THE INTERNET 2 kinds of info sources [p98]EX Rember..[p99m] ADVERTISING [p91]DEF (Class: Lucky Strikes 40s) Use of ads [p98b] Advertising firms knowledge and ad quality Question to ask [p100] 2 kinds of ads [p100b] Three types of ads w/o reasons for purchase Promise ads-what they tell and don’t tell ads and justification for purchase—one case where purchase is justified [p103b] Exception to use ads as base for buying [p103b] C3 8th ed. Study Guide Concepts A Intro Credibility • Examples of necessity of eval credibility, “phishing”, “419”, your examples? [p77,78] • 2 grounds for suspicion [p79] • Reasons for being fooled…[p78b] B THE CLAIM AND IT”S SOURCE [p78b] • Initial plausibility [p78] • Degrees of credibility [p79] EX • Irrelevant considerations (10+) [p79b] EX • Honest mistakes [80b] • Interested party [p81t] • General answer, General Principle [81t] C ACCESSING THE CONTENT OF THE CLAIM I Conflict with Personal observations? [p81b] • Reasonable position [p81b] • Not infallible-observation [81b] BOX: Eyewitness p84t] • Reliability of memory [81b, 82b]Disk memory ex • Individual variability [82t] • Factors that influence our observation [82t] • Beliefs “Wishful Thinking” [Lake 831b] • Interests, bias, … II Does Claim conflict with Our Background Information • Background information DEF/EX [83b] • Response to claims [p83b] • Scale of initial plausibility [p87m] • Most effective way to increase evaluation/CT ability [87] D CREDIBILITY OF A SOURCE 1. Interested party example [p87, 88] Response to claim from interested party [p88] 2. 2 kinds of doubts about source credibility 1st Slide

12. Issues for Critical ThoughtFall 2004 This was taken in Pahrump Nevada, Would we see a sign like this in Bakersfield? What is the term from the text that describes this conclusion?

13. Issues for Critical ThoughtFall 2004 The Executive Branch of the U.S. government maintains that it has the right to determine who are citizens and should enjoy the rights of the constitution and who are “enemy combatants”? http://www.cnn.com/2002/LAW/08/columns/fl.ramasastry.detainees/

14. During the heat of the space race in the 1960's, the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration decided it needed a ball point pen to write in the zero gravity confines of its space capsules. After considerable research and development, the Astronaut Pen was developed at a cost of about $1 million. The pen worked and also enjoyed some modest success as a novelty item back here on earth. The Soviet Union, faced with the same problem, used a pencil. Cultural Fishbowl: Technology

15. Errors in Writing • Organization • Essay types (to avoid) • spelling • grammar • definitions • Wordiness,(Types:redundancy, prolixity[verbose]) • complexity (pedantic) • ambiguity (Types: syntactic, semantic, grouping) • vagueness • Fallacy of division • Fallacy of composition • comparisons • writing and diversity

16. “Critical Writing” examples from class: What is the problem? How would you improve these? • The Soviets tried bombs, smoke-outs and even weapons designed to crumble cities with little success. • *Does voluntary castration of child sex offenders have an effect on the decrease of it. • *Whether castration will reduce recidivism for male sex offenders or not. • Castration should be voluntary, if you want to change you should sacrifice something in order to accomplish what you want. • Whether or not castration is right for sex offenders who are in jail. • *The article was short on reasoning as to how the ferry may have sunk. • *Within these to articles one can see how the mass media was immediately sought after to get there heart felt emotions on how someone could kill innocent people for what they believe in and try to make seem as though it was done to fight a never ending battle between terrorist fight for what they believe in. • There isn’t an argument per say, though a scientific study could certainly, if not, definitely use an argument or two. • *The issues of scientific reality are expressed without bias but given with consequences if solutions are not found or followed. • It uses graphs and percentages to back up the information. They also have experts talk in their article. • Below, clearly and correctly, state an issue, a library research topic and an empirical research problem for the topic of cooperate responsibility • No, the approach towards critical thinking was not added to this paper.

17. Abbreviations and SpellingareImportant! Posted on DDH Fall 05

18. Issues for Critical Thought There is a great price on a computer at CompUSA, BestBuy, etc. but it is based on a rebate I have to mail. What does a critical thinker think and do?

19. Rebates • 40%, 2 of 5 buyers get the rebates they qualify for • 40% never get mailed • 20% of rebate applications are disqualified—not filled out, no UPC bar included, etc • What To Do • Make sure dates, product, etc. are correct for rebate. • Make sure multiple receipts, rebate form, UPC Bar code are all there before leaving the store (don’t accept clerks statement the alternatives are OK) • Test the product before sending in the rebate material • Read and follow all the rules exactly • Write legibly • Keep copies so that you know who to contact when rebate (probably) is late • Staple everything together • If you don’t get a rebate in the stated time, call and ask • Bakersfield Californian 1/11/04 pE3 25