Critical thinking is vital to ensure certainty of correct conclusions in the face of presented arguments. It consists of several methods to establish whether what is being said is truthful.
"To the medieval mind, debate was a fine art, a serious science, and a fascinating entertainment, much more than it is to the modern mind, because the medievals believed, like Socrates, that dialectic could uncover truth. Thus a ‘scholastic disputation’ was not a personal contest in cleverness, nor was it ‘sharing opinions’; it was a shared journey of discovery"
The Ancient Greeks (Socrates et al) developed many rules of logical thought processing, which were taught actively in schools up to the medieval period within the Trivium structure of learning .
"To the medieval mind, debate was a fine art, a serious science, and a fascinating entertainment, much more than it is to the modern mind, because the medievals believed, like Socrates, that dialectic could uncover truth. Thus a ‘scholastic disputation’ was not a personal contest in cleverness, nor was it ‘sharing opinions’; it was a shared journey of discovery"
IT Programming revolves around truth being established. It uses logical structures (posited by Aristotle) to create logic gates to ensure computers process information correctly :
1 AND 0 = FALSE
1 AND 1 = TRUE
0 AND 0 = FALSE
1 OR 0 = TRUE
0 OR 0 = FALSE
etc..0 OR 0 = FALSE
To be able to pick out Logical Fallacies in conversation is one aspect of good CT anyone can master. I will post several as other posts progress.
Straw man and Begging the question are two phrases we use but may have no idea what they are - they are both expressions of Logical Fallacy - put simply - a daft argument .
Logical Fallacy : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logical_fallacy
- Straw man: A straw man argument is an informal fallacy based on misrepresentation of an opponent's position.
- Example
- Person A: Sunny days are good.
- Person B: If all days were sunny, we'd never have rain, and without rain, we'd have famine and death. Therefore, you are wrong.
- Problem: B has misrepresented A's claim by falsely suggesting that A claimed that only sunny days are good, and then B refuted the misrepresented version of the claim, rather than refuting A's original assertion. ie they have taken a hit at the straw figure not the original argument.
- Example
Stop begging the question !
- Begging the Question: demonstrates a conclusion by means of premises that assume that conclusion.
- Example
- Argument: George always tells the truth, I know this because he told me so.
- Problem: George may be lying. (and was)
- Also called Petitio Principii, Circulus in Probando, arguing in a circle, assuming the answer. Begging the question does not preclude the possibility that the statement is incorrect, and it is not sufficient proof in and of itself.
- Example
It is no coincidence that most politicians have legal backgrounds which involve high level training in critical thinking....unfortunately this is often used to ensure issues are clouded rather than revealed.
There is an A-level in Critical Thinking available, but the techniques are mainly now only encouraged at Oxbridge and Durham where small tutorial discussions take place.
Socratic questionning is used a lot in schools, but the teachers themselves are not trained in critical thinking, so it doesn't often lead anywhere useful in terms of learning and independent thought in students.
There is a lot of concern in steering children towards 'correct' conclusions based on current emotions in society. Global Warming is one of the largest areas currently in the public domain where critical thinking is not being applied.
There is one for Greenpeace here with several logical fallacies labelled.
This is not to say Global warming is a fallacy per se - but whether it is human caused, or able to be solved by humans (in part or whole) is another matter. I hope we can. No need to ply us or our children with anger, guilt and disinformation in the process is there..?
One major effect of CT is a feeling of ownership or ideas or principles. There is a marked drop in educated adults feeling problems or issues are in their realm of understanding or influence, because they have not been encouraged to own the problems, but instead continually await a decision from on high, even for topics that do not require specialist knowledge.
There is a lot of concern in steering children towards 'correct' conclusions based on current emotions in society. Global Warming is one of the largest areas currently in the public domain where critical thinking is not being applied.
This is not to say Global warming is a fallacy per se - but whether it is human caused, or able to be solved by humans (in part or whole) is another matter. I hope we can. No need to ply us or our children with anger, guilt and disinformation in the process is there..?
One major effect of CT is a feeling of ownership or ideas or principles. There is a marked drop in educated adults feeling problems or issues are in their realm of understanding or influence, because they have not been encouraged to own the problems, but instead continually await a decision from on high, even for topics that do not require specialist knowledge.
A 1995 study found there to be a genuine lack of critical thinking amongst the post graduate and general population. [Leon Gardiner]
There has been a resurgence in the realisation of the need for CT more recently thankfully, for without it we are at the mercy of pure emotion and illogical falsehoods.
Dorothy L Sayers argues a return to old style education in 1947- I think it is safe to say further decline has happened since then ..
http://www.gbt.org/text/sayers.html
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