Linguistics 21: Language and
Thinking
Spring 2013
Professor Thom Huebner
Office Hours: MW 8:30-8:45, 12:0013:00, 4:15-4:30
and by appointment
Office: Clark 402A
Telephone: 408-924-1315
Email: thom.huebner@sjsu.edu
Lecture 1: Critical Thinking –
What is it?
 When you hear the term ‘critical thinking,’
what does that mean to you?
CRITICAL THINKING
Involving or exercising skilled judgment or observation
Wide range of cognitive skills and intellectual dispositions
needed to –
analyze and evaluate arguments and truth claims:
Examples: Slide 4
overcome personal prejudices and biases:
Example: language accents
make reasonable and intelligent decisions about what
to believe and what to do.
INTELLIGENT DECISIONS
Critical Thinking
- What are the characteristics of a critical
thinker?
- What is an argument?
- Why is critical thinking important in the world
today?
STANDARDS
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Clarity
Accuracy
Precision
Relevance (Focus)
Consistency
Logical correctness
Completeness (Depth)
Fairness
CLARITY
 Example: Miss Teen South Carolina
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww
Questions:
– Which of the standards of critical thinking does
Miss TSC not meet? Why?
– Can you think of other examples of people “not
being clear on the concept”?
Relevance, Focus
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvzim5rC
eFw&feature=fvw
 Is ex-Governor Palin’s answer to the
question relevant?
 Why or why not?
CONSISTENCY
 Logical consistency: Not saying or believing two
(or more) things that could not simultaneously be
true
– Example: P & ~P
 Practical consistency: Not saying one thing and
doing another
– Example: Calvin and Hobbs, P. 12
 Exercise: Generate examples of logical / practical
inconsistency: page 7, Exercise 1.1 II.
LOGICAL CORRECTNESS
All mammals are dangerous.
Bobo is dangerous.
Therefore Bobo is a mammal.
I am a man.
Brad Pitt is a man.
Therefore, I am Brad Pitt.
All humans are animals.
Most animals can climb trees.
Therefore, most humans can climb trees.
FAIRNESS
 Not identifying truth with self-interest
 Not resisting unfamiliar ideas, prejudging
issues, stereotyping outsiders
BARRIERS
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Egocentrism
Sociocentrism
Unwarranted assumptions and stereotypes
Relativistic thinking
Wishful thinking
EGOCENTRISM
 Egocentrism: Seeing reality as centered on
oneself
 Self-interested thinking: Accepting and
defending beliefs that harmonize with one’s
own self-interest
– Example: “A rising tide raises all boats.”
 Self-serving bias: Overrating oneself
– Example: 90% of drivers rate themselves as
above average
SOCIOCENTRISM
 Sociocentrism: Group-centered thinking
 Group bias: Seeing One’s own group, tribe,
sect, sex as better
– Example: “Girls are better than boys.”
 Conformism: Following the crowd,
conforming uncritically to group standards
of conduct and belief
– Example: The lines experiment: page 16.
RELATIVISTIC THINKING
 Relativism: “There is no objective absolute
standard of truth.”
 Subjectivism: “Truth is a matter of individual
opinion.”
Exercise: List areas where truth may be a matter of
opinion.
 Cultural relativism: “What is true for person A is
what person A’s culture of society believes is true.”
Examples: drinking wine in France/Iran; polygamy
MORAL RELATIVISM
 Moral subjectivism: What is morally right
and good for an individual A is what A
believes is morally right and good.
– Example:
 Premarital sex –
– Premarital sex is always wrong.
– Premarital sex is not always wrong
PROBLEMS
 Relativism makes it impossible to criticize others’ /
our own cultural practices, i.e., cannibalism / racism
 It rules out the idea of moral progress, i.e.,
meaning of equality
 It can lead to conflicting moral duties:
– When an individual holds beliefs in conflict with
those of her society;
– When an individual belongs to two or more
cultures.
Discussion: Are you bi-cultural in any sense (do
you belong to two or more groups that hold
conflicting beliefs on a topic)?
UNWARRANTED ASSUMPTIONS
 Assumption: Something we take for granted,
something we believe to be true without any proof
or conclusive evidence
 We have to make assumptions (the floor was there
yesterday when I got out of bed; it’ll be there
today). This only becomes pernicious when those
assumptions are unwarranted.
 Stereotypes are unwarranted assumptions.
Error: Hasty generalization – making a
generalization about a large class of people from a
small sample
Discussion: Identify assumptions you’ve made since
you got up this morning. Were they warranted?
WISHFUL THINKING
 Wishful thinking: believing something not
because you have good evidence for it, but
because you wish it were true.
 Examples: “The wind will pick up.” “He
loves me.” “I don’t have a 1-73 chance of
dying in a car accident.”
 Exercise: Generate examples of hindrances
to critical thinking.
CHARACTERISTICS
of a Critical Thinker
 Passionate drive for clarity, precision, and
accuracy
 Careful, disciplined thinking
 Sensitivity to the ways that critical thinking
can be prejudiced by egocentrism, wishful
thinking and other psychological barriers
 Honesty and intellectual humility
 Open-mindedness, intellectual courage, love
of truth, intellectual perseverance
Short ‘Think Piece”
Review the list of critical thinking traits, p. 25-26:
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Clarity, precision, accuracy
Sensitivity to egocentrism, sociocentrism, wishful thinking
Intellectual honesty
Open-mindedness
Fact-based beliefs
Awareness of biases and preconceptions
Independent thinking
Intellectual courage to face ideas fairly
Pursuit of truth
Intellectual perseverance
Short ‘Think Piece”
 Jot down short responses to the following
questions:
– Which of the traits listed do you think is your
strongest critical thinking trait? Why?
– Which is your weakest? Why?
– What could you do to improve in this latter
regard?