1 / 26

Welcome to university!

Welcome to university!. You’re not in High School any more. Now you get to THINK. Critical Thinking. An Introduction. "What are the moral convictions most fondly held by barbarous and semi-barbarous people ?

taini
Download Presentation

Welcome to university!

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. Welcome to university! You’re not in High School any more. Now you get to THINK

  2. Critical Thinking An Introduction

  3. "What are the moral convictions most fondly heldby barbarous and semi-barbarous people? They are the convictions that authorityis the soundest basis of belief;that merit attaches to readiness to believe;that the doubting disposition is a bad one,and skepticism is a sin.“ Thomas Henry Huxley(1825-1895)

  4. “The civilized man has a moral obligation to be skeptical,to demand the credentials of all statements that claim to be facts." BerganEvans(1904-1978)

  5. “A university’s essential character is that of being a center of free inquiry and criticism -- a thing not to be sacrificed for anything else.” Richard Hofstadter(1916-1970)

  6. 1st big word for the day… EPISTEMOLOGY

  7. Knowledge Certain Probable Scientific Inductive Empirical Synthetic Experimental Evidence • Mathematical • Deductive • Rational • Analytic • Definitional • Proof

  8. 2nd (not so big) word of the day ARGUMENT

  9. Argument?

  10. Argument A conclusion supported by one or more premises

  11. A syllogism: the perfect argument P1: Socrates is a man P2: All men are mortal • • • Socrates is mortal

  12. The Death of Socrates Socrates was sentenced to death for corrupting the youth of Athens and for failing to worship the official gods of Athens. His real crime? Critical thinking.

  13. CRITICAL THINKING Usually involves questioning the premises to test the validity of the conclusion. It is usually in the premises that errors occur. If a premise is wrong, the conclusion must be treated as questionable…especially if the argument seems valid

  14. Where is the error? P1: Boris is a dwarf P2: All dwarves are dangerous • • • Boris is dangerous

  15. Empirical evidence challenges the conclusion

  16. WHERE’S THE ERROR?(This one’s easy) P1: My teacher said that Sydney is the capital city of Australia. P2: Teachers are always right. • • • Sydney is Australia’s capital

  17. If the conclusion is wrong, look at the premises…

  18. One more definition: LOGICAL FALLACY

  19. Logical Fallacies: Errors in reasoning 75% of heroin addicts first smoked marijuana Marijuana should therefore be illegal to prevent heroin addiction Right?

  20. There is a logical fallacy at work here 100 % of heroin addicts first drank milk. Should milk therefore be illegal? Correlation ≠ Causation Post hoc ergo propter hoc

  21. At the university level… • You do not succeed by repeating what you have learned • You are expected to synthesise ideas from what you have learned • You excel by building on what came before and bringing something original to the party • We are not here to TEACH you. We are here to help you teach yourselves

  22. Paradigm Shift University requires that you use the tools you acquired in high school. You will be confronted with much information. You must accept or reject it through critical analysis.

  23. CONGRATULATIONS! You are now in charge of your own education

  24. A few words from perhaps the greatest teacher of all time: “I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing. “Socrates “The unexamined life is not worth living. “Socrates

  25. And final words for freshmen everywhere Come mothers and fathersThroughout the landAnd don’t criticizeWhat you cant understand.Your sons and your daughtersAre beyond your command;Your old road isRapidly agin’.Please get out of the new oneIf you can’t lend your handFor the times they are a-changin’. Bob Dylan

  26. THANK YOU! Have a great year!

More Related