If I listened long enough to you
I’d find a way to believe that it’s all true
Knowing that you lied straight-faced while I cried
Still I look to find a reason to believe
Someone like you makes it hard to live without
Somebody else
Someone like you makes it easy to give
Never think about myself
If I gave you time to change my mind
I’d try to leave all the past behind
Knowing that you lied straight-faced while I cried
Still I look to find a reason to believe.
Someone like you makes it hard to live without
Somebody else
Someone like you makes it easy to give
Never think about myself
Rod Stewart, Reason to Believe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7LfPj-6C6o
1
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
2
What is a CLAIM?
• We will refer to a claim as an assertion, an
opinion, a belief, a “view”, a thought, a
conviction, or perhaps, an idea.
• A claim must be expressed as a statement
or a complete, declarative sentence. It
cannot be a question.
• In its clearest form, a claim asserts that
something is true or false. That is, it
asserts a fact. This kind of claim is
known as a “factual claim” or a
“descriptive claim.” Your text also refers
to this as an “objective claim.”
3
What is a CLAIM?
• Value statements can also be claims
though. In such claims, a fact is not
asserted in the same sense that it was in
factual claims.
• For example, the claim “You should come to
class” is not clearly true or false in the same
way that the claim “P1100 class is held in
Room 116” is.
• Thus, some claims are “normative claims”
or “prescriptive claims.” They express
values and how one should act based on
values. A value statement is a claim that
asserts something is good or bad.
4
An Argument is . . .
• An attempt to support a claim (or
conclusion) by giving reasons (or
premises) for believing it.
• Not to be confused with the
confrontational act of attempting to
persuade.
• Please note: We are reserving the use of
“argument” to refer to the combination of
claim & premises and not using it as it
often is in daily speech to refer to
premises only.
5
The Fundamental Principle of Critical Thinking
•
Making a claim is stating a belief or an opinion (a
conclusion)
•
A claim or conclusion states a proposition -- a
sentence that is either true or false, or a
sentence that asserts or denies a fact or a
prescription.
•
An argument is presented when you give a
reason that the claim is true.
•
Thus, an argument consists of two parts:
1) the claim or the conclusion, and
2) the premise is the reason for thinking
that the claim is true.
6
1) Introductions &
Discussion
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.
2) Syllabus
7
Class Discussion:
Your Claims &
Premises:
What is the Issue?
Did you give a relevant
Reason to Believe for
your claim?
8
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.
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.
·
9
Student Portfolios:
Assignment #1
·
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)
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
Class Discussion:
What is Critical Thinking? Why Is it Important?
"5% think,
10% think
they think,
85% would
rather die
than think.“
Video
13
How do you Avoid Being Stupid?
Video
14
“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 fairmindedness.”
Definition of "critical thinking" from a California State
Senate bill to update the State's Education code
15
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.
16
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 selfdeception
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.
17