TC CHAPTER 5:
Constructing Knowledge, or,
How a Bill Becomes a Law
BELEVING AND KNOWING
• The distinction
can be
illustrated by
replacing
“believe” with
“know” as such:
• I know that I will die.
• I know that I will not die.
• I know that there is life on
other planets.
• I know life from other planets.
• I know working hard is the
answer.
• I know that the earth is flat.
• I know that the earth is round.
To know means at least 2 things
• I think this belief is
completely accurate
• I can explain to you the
reasons or evidence
that supports this belief.
• Note that this might not
also include the entire
working knowledge of
the belief.
Thinking activity 5.1
• State whether you
believe the following
to be :
• Completely accurate
• Generally accurate
(often, but not always)
• Generally not accurate
(usually not, but
sometimes
• Definitely not accurate
• After determining this,
explain why according
to the example on pg
165.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
I believe essay exams are more
difficult than multiple-choice exams.
I believe that longer prison sentences
discourage people from committing
crimes.
I believe that there are more people
on the earth today than there were
100 years ago.
I believe fate plays an important role
in determining life’s events.
I believe that people have the
freedom to change themselves and
their circumstances if they really want
to.
Cont.
• Pick love, happiness,
health, or religion and
write one of your most
important beliefs on
that topic.
• Would anyone
characterize these
beliefs as a generally, or
all a definitely?
Corporate intellect
• Cornerstone of human
achievement.
• Allows us to “stand on
the shoulders of giants”
• Language based,
typically oral and
written
• But what are the side
effects of this
approach?
• Authoritarian nature of
society (hierarchy)
• Lack of authentic
inquiry/discovery
• 4 out of five dentists . . .
EXPERTS DISAGREE
Enter Socrates
• Socratic method
• Padiea
• Some beliefs are better
than others
• How effectively do your
beliefs explain what is
taking place?
• To what extent are these
beliefs consistent with
other beliefs?
• How useful are they in
the future?
• To what extent are they
supportable and
verifiable? Falsifyable?
William Perry’s simplified stages of
knowing:
• The garden of Eden
• Anything goes
• Thinking critically
(wisdom?)
Eden
• Heavy on authority
• No compromise or
negotiation
• “red and blue”, no
purple
• Works best in
homogenous
environments
• 4 out of five dentists?
What if experts
disagree?
• My dentist is better
than your dentist.
• Then you go to dental
school.
Stage 2: anything goes
• If authorities disagree,
then some must be
fallible and
untrustworthy.
• Then no pov is
inherently better than
another.
• Relativism: all value is
relative with respect to
the observer. (like taste)
• If we truly believe this,
though, then we cannot
condemn any action,
and cannot praise any
action, no matter what.
• No superlatives
Stage 3 or critical thinkers (sages)
• Has checked the facts,
and weighed the
feelings
• Forms knowledge of
varying flexibility
• Accepts alternatives,
believes, and evolves
THINKING ACTIVITY 5.3:
BELIEF SURVEY
• PICK 4 OF THESE 6
• Evaluate according to
authorities, references,
evidence, and
experience (see green
on pg 172)
• Should the government
take all steps to keep
our society safe from
terrorism, even if this
means curtailing some
of our personal
liberties?
• Should health care
workers and potential
patients be tested for
AIDS, and if positive, be
identified to each
other?
• Should the government
provide public
assistance to citizens
who cannot support
themselves and their
families?
• Have aliens visited the
earth in some form?
• Should parents be
permitted to refuse
conventional medical
care for their children if
their religious beliefs
prohibit it?
• Should people with
terminal illnesses be
permitted to end their
lives with medical
assistance?
Pg. 176/7
Thinking critically about visuals
Plato’s Cave (the coolest thing ever)
• Draw what I am about to
describe to you.
• Illustrate it in diagram
form, labeling all parts
• Now looking at this
diagram, what does the
overall arrangement
remind you of?
• what metaphorical
devices are at work here?
• Apply to education
• Government
• Religion
• Media
how can you become a
reformed troglodyte?
• Live life deliberately
• Cut through mediation
• Investigate the giants
from the soles-up!
Hiroshima
First, the position paper
• See handout
• Topics:
Hiroshima
Trash
Zoos
Outsourcing
TC Chapter 6: Language and Thought
• Informal def. of
language: “sent
messages about our
thinking”
• Recall that one of our
definitions for
“thinking” was “the
activity of the brain
which can be
potentially
communicated”
• Has oral components,
often written
components
• (no telepathy—yet)
• Non-written or
“prehistoric” languages
rely on oral tradition
• Written language relies
on oral and physical
written information
Imagine a world without language
• Helen Keller
• Allegory of the Cave
• Similar to the
immediate state of
things after the
confounding of the
workers at the Tower of
Babel
Language as a component of culture
• Language plays a role in solidifying people in
groups, also in excluding people from groups.
• Language becomes an elaborate “secret
password” between “us” and “them”
• Think “Nationalism”
• Think of the British Empire and Anglophilia
Language is Evolutionary
• Mutation
• Variation
• Natural Selection of the
“fittest”
• Creates the best solution
in the “here and now”
• Has no “ultimate end”;
never reaches
“perfection”
• Is a reciprocal agent of
human evolution
• Has family trees, much
like animals
• Latin is a great example
• English, too (perhaps a
better one)
• See Elliot Engle, “Light
History of the English
Language”
Symbolic Nature of Language
• Humans communicate
through symbolism—
letting one thing
represent another
• A system of codifying
• Think Hieroglyphs
• House
• To go forth
Words are the basic units of language
• Symbolize objects,
thoughts, feelings,
actions, concepts
(basically the same
definition as “noun”)
• Meanings can be specific
or suggestive, concrete or
abstract, can change from
linguistic group to group,
and within a group over
time.
• Some are “loaded”, some
are not (think prejudice,
stereotype, discriminate)
• (see dialogue on pg. 207)
Definition II
• Language is a system of
symbols for thinking and
communicating thought
• Note that we “think” in
one or several languages
• Charlemagne apparently
thought of Math and
Science in Greek, Religion
and Arts in Latin, spoke to
servants in Spanish, his
people in French, and his
horse in German.
• We do similar things—
think of the language we
use with a parent, a peer,
a small child, or a Judge.
Types of meaning (4)
• Semantic-- also called
DENOTATIVE
• Expresses the
relationship between a
linguistic event
(speaking or writing)
and a nonlinguistic
event (object, idea,
feeling).
• DENOTE: LITERAL
MEANING/DIRECT OR
EXPLICIT
• Think of this as a
dictionary definition
Perceptual meaning
• Also known as
connotative meaning
• Connote= con-(with,
together) + notare (to
note), or, to note
together
• Relationship between
speaking/writing and an
individual's
consciousness
• Suggests or conveys
notions in addition to
denotations
• Based on previous
experience and past
associations
Syntactic meaning
• A word’s total
meaning also
contains its
relation to
other words in a
sentence.
• Defines three relationships:
content (major message),
description (elaborative or
modifying), and connection
(join the major message)
• Can be used to “fudge” a word
in a pinch
• See Jabberwocky pg 213
Pragmatic meaning
• Also known as
situational meaning
• Involves the speaker,
audience, and overall
situation
• That student likes to
borrow books from the
library.
• Use of the word
“crusade”
Thinking Activity 6.3—
language of cloning (pg 214)
•
•
•
•
Cloning
Therapeutic cloning
Nuclear transplantation
Therapeutic cellular
transfer
• Embryo vs. activated
egg
• Ovasome
• “Working overtime to
develop linguistic
cloaking devices.”
• “We don’t have any
words for this that don’t
mean something else to
somebody.”
• Pro-life vs. pro-choice
• Estate tax vs. death tax
Using language to clarify thinking
• When you pour water
from a glass, you empty
it.
• When you pour words
from your brain to your
paper, you are still filling
your brain
• Thoughts are messy
• Writing clears this mess
up
Vague language
• Vague wording—
wording that lacks a
clear and distinct
meaning
• From Latin vagari—to
wander
• Think vagrant, vagaries,
vagabond
• Requires the recipient
to interpret or fill in
details, often to poor
results.
Vague language can be cleared up
using the reporter’s tool kit
•
•
•
•
•
•
Who?
What?
Where?
When?
How?
Why?
Using language in a social context
• Language meaning
depends both on the
user and the audience
• Standard American
English marks an
educated person
• SAE might not always
be used by an educated
person
• Slang—urban or youth
language, proliferated
through conversation
and the media
• Is about “us” and
“them”—is a restrictive
style of language that
limits its speakers to a
particular group
Jargon
• Can be thought of as a
static professional
slang.
• Makes communication
between professionals
more precise
• Leaves the rest of us
(laypersons) out in the
cold
• “a rhinovirus infection
exacerbated by acute
sinusitis”
• Sinus headaches
associated with the
common cold
Dialect
• Restricted to a
geographic or ethnic
group
• May vary from the
vernacular in
vocabulary, grammar,
etc.
• “I reckon I’ll run by his
house directly.
• Easy, now, you bitchompin’, buddy-roe?
Social boundaries of language
• Dialect can identify your
geographic region
• Slang marks age and
subculture (punk, skater,
grunge, urban/hip hop,
geek)
• Jargon identifies
occupation(legalese,
scientific notation,
Esperanto
• Accent suggests locale
and socioeconomic class
• How do we interpret
these variations?
• How do we stereotype
persons based on these
ideas?
• Valley Girl?
• British Accent?
Euphemistic Language
• Eu (good) pheme
(voice)
• Substituting a more
pleasant, less
objectionable way of
saying something for a
blunt or more
objectionable way
•
•
•
•
Passed away,
Departed,
Went to his/her reward,
Shuffled off this mortal
coil.
Euphemisms Run Amuck
• Can sometimes be used to
sugar over the stark reality
of something, especially
human practice
• Final solution
• Special treatment
• Social drinker?
• Euphemisms can be used to
deter attention away from
an action, perhaps by
linking it to some more
noble idea
• Ethnic Cleansing
• Mom Approved
• Misappropriation of Funds
• Force Reduction
• War on Terror
• Freedom Fries
• Spin Doctors/PR
Emotive Language
• A charged word, phrase, Also the realm of spin
or composition that
doctors (pr/press sec.s)
elicits a strong
emotional response
• Any emotion applies:
(love, lust, humor, hate,
fear, patriotism, duty,
repulsion-as in
vulgarity)
Tannen’s Sex, Lies, and Conversation
• What gender-specific
differences are there
concerning
communication?
• How is inter-gender
conversation like
shouting across a
divide? A cross-cultural
conversation?
• What other human
conflicts/differences
can be viewed similarly?
TC Chapter 7Forming and Applying Concepts
• Aristotle describes
intelligence as a mastery
of concepts.
• Definitions of “concept”:
• Vocabulary of thought
• Vehicles we use to think
about our world in
organized ways and to
communicate these
thoughts with others
• Webster’s: an idea or
thought, especially a
generalized idea of a
thing or class of things; an
abstract idea
Concept (n) is related to conceive (v)
• From the Latin,
conceptus, to take in or
receive
• Conceive 1: to become
pregnant with; to begin
life
• Conceive 2: to form or
develop with the mind
• Related to
perception/perceive,
inception, also
contraception
• TC definition: concepts
are general ideas that we
use to identify,
distinguish, and relate
(organize) our experience
• works by bringing
together our prior
knowledge with new
elements or sensa
Conceptualizing process
• Involves forming new
concepts,
• applying prior or newly
devised concepts,
• Defining new concepts,
• And Relating similar or
antagonistic concepts
• It is often helpful to
map this process
• This clarifies the
application of old
concepts to new
material
• Goes on all the time
“enabling us to think in
a distinctly human way”
See the TED Lecture, Joshua Klein on
the intelligence of crows
• How do crows apply the
conceptualizing
process? Specifically,
how do we see them
• forming new concepts,
• applying prior or newly
devised concepts,
• Defining new concepts,
• And Relating similar
concepts
Thinking Activity 7.1 (p 252)
• Identify an initial
• Should include the
concept that you had
following: an initial
about some event in
concept; new info
your life that changes as
provided by additional
a result of your
experiences; and a
experiences
new/revised concept
formed to explain the
situation.
Structure of Concepts
• Pens, doggies, horses
• Is a method of
categorization and
classifying
• Classifying: the process
by which you group
things based on their
similarities
• Do we recognize a
concept as a kind of a
thing we have seen
before?
Structure of Concepts cont.
properties
sign
referents
Structure of Concepts cont.
Properties: wheels, chassis,
engine, seats
Sign:
automobile
Referents:
Ford Model T;
Ferrari Enzo
Concepts are Formed by
generalizing and interpreting
• Generalizing: focusing on
he common properties
shared by a group of
things to develop
requirements
• Interpreting: finding
examples of the concept;
often the more varied the
list, the better the
formation of the concept
(has clearer boundaries)
• Revision of concepts is a
continuing totter
between properties
(generalizing) and
referents (examples)
• See triangulation model
on pg 256
Structure of Concepts cont.
properties
sign
Apply to the following:
•Table,
•dance,
•religion,
•cold,
•dark
referents
Thinking critically about visuals
• See pg 258-9
• When was this taken?
• To what extent can
political or social
concepts be expressed
by what we wear?
• What is Mamet’s*
argument about
fashion?
• Can political or cultural
fashion statements be
frivolous, irresponsible,
or counterproductive?
• *for David Mamet, see
GlennGaryGlennRoss
and Heist
Concepts: Masculinity and Femininity
• In Susan Brownmiller’s
definition of femininity,
what are the
• Properties?
• Examples?
• What would you add?
• In Patricia Leigh Brown’s
definition of
masculinity, what are
the
• Properties?
• Examples?
• What would you add?
•Should ideas of Gender Cultures be revised? Are they
inherent in human culture? Are they gender-specific?
What are the possibilities for transgender individuals?
Visual Thinking
• see pg 266
• Notice how lenses of
perception color our
classification of
concepts
Classifications of killing
• classification
Circumstance
1. Manslaughter Accidental
2. Self-defense
3. Premeditation
4. Euthanasia
5. Diminished
capacity
example
DUI, faulty eqptmnt
Defining concepts
• Word definition is
related to the word for
boundary
• Delineation
• Digress
• Much can be learned
through etymology
(word study)
• Ambrose Bierce: an
edible is good to eat
and wholesome to
digest, as a worm to a
toad, a toad to a snake,
a snake to a pig, a pig to
a man, and a man to a
worm.
• Hamlet: worm
King fish beggar
Mind Maps
•
•
•
•
•
•
Examples include:
Notetaking
Outlining
Storyboarding
Corkboarding or carding
brainstorming
• Ven diagrams
What is an American?
Native/European
European/Native Native/European
“Identify Yourself: Who’s American?”
• See pg 271
• How would you relate the concept of multiculturalism
to that of being an American? Do you think these
concepts are in potential conflict with each other?
• Multiculturalism– a view asserting the idea that no
culture is inherently better than another; therefore all
extant cultures should receive equal representation in
society.(try a double-bubble)
• How have wars traditionally influenced the general
perception of being an American? What are the
implications of war in a Multiculturalists' society?
Quiz, concepts
• View From the Earth to
the Moon, “Galileo was
Right”
• What attitudes had
America formed about
space travel by the late
Apollo missions?
• What scientific goals were
emphasized for this
mission?
• How did scientists
prepare Astronauts (both
the pilot and the
excursion crew)
conceptually for their
tasks?
• How did this mission
require the astronauts to
reform/revise their
concept of “astronaut”?
TC: Relating and Organizing
• Each one of us is a
Creator, a Maker
• Our world is not a
finished product
• We are active
participants in
composing our world
• We interact with our
world by drawing
relationships:
chronological, process,
comparative, analogical,
and causal
relationships.
• How do seemingly
seperate things relate
to each other?
Chronological relationships
• Chronos (Gr) time
• The oldest and most
universal form of this is the
• Logos (Gr) to know
narrative, a tool of the oral
• Draw relationships in
tradition
terms of their
• A narrator (narrare- L for
occurrence in time
“to tell”; akin to gnoro;
• Is sequential
Indoeuropean for “know”,
• Think of a calendar,
as in witness)
journal, timeline, etc.
• To “relate” can also mean
to “narrate”, as in “to relate
a story”
Chronological Relationships cont.
• See diagram on pg 281
• How does this
accurately show
chronological
relationships?
• Why isn’t it akin to
pearls on a string?
Process relationships
• Another kind of timeordered thinking.
Sequential.
• Focuses on relating aspects
of the growth and
development of an event or
experience
• Example: growing up;
planting a garden, seasonal
changes; building a building;
inventing a new product;
writing
• Process analysis: divide the
process or activity into parts
or stages (take it apart; see
how it works)
• Explain the process by the
movement through its
constituent parts
• Useful when we want to
explain a process for
replication, or to set up
information (avoid being
doomed to repeat history,
for example.
Rube Goldberg Machines
• Inspired by cartoonist
Goldberg, who would
illustrate unnecessarily
complex machines
designed to perform
simple tasks.
• Would later
As you walk past cobbler shop, hook (A) strikes suspended boot (B), causing it to kick
football (C) through goal posts (D). Football drops into basket (E) and string (F) tilts
sprinkling can (G), causing water to soak coat tails (H). As coat shrinks, cord (I) opens
door (J) of cage, allowing bird (K) to walk out on perch (L) and grab worm (M), which is
attached to string (N). This pulls down window shade (O), on which is written, "YOU
SAP, MAIL THAT LETTER."
Thinking Activity 8.2
•
•
•
•
See pg 281
Purpose?
Stages?
Questions about
process?
• Jacketing Lambs
• Meditiation
• Stages of mourning
Thinking Activity 8.3
• Process relationship
description
• See pg 284
•
•
•
•
•
Planting a garden
Changing a tire
Mowing grass
Getting a passport
Buying a car/house
Comparative Relationships
• Think about comparison • Standards for
shopping
comparison vary, but
avoid:
• We see what’s out
there, then make
• Incomplete
judgements based on
comparisons (focusing
personal criteria
on too few points of
suggested by this
comparison)
comparison
• Selective comparisons
(taking a side before we
see both sides; bias)
Thinking Activity 8.4
See pg 286.
Identify the ideas being
compared
Analyze points of similarity
and dissimilarity using a
mind map (see my
variation)
Describe the conclusions
associated with these
comparisons.
• Ameri/Franco cookbooks
• Silent Spring
Analogical Relationships
• Writers and readers of
literature love these!
• Analogy: a comparison
between things that are
basically dissimilar, but
have an inherent
illustrative relationship
• Analogies illuminate our
understanding by drawing
comparisons between an
original subject and a
compared subject
• Similies: an explicit
comparison between
basically dissimilar things
(is like)
• Her education is like
perfume on a pig.
• Metaphor: an implied
comparison . . . (IS)
• His background will yield
a lot of heavy baggage in
his run for mayor.
Causal Relationships
• A cause is anything that
yields an effect
• Cause and effect are
rarely clear
• Post hoc, ergo propter
hoc
• After this, therefore
because of this
• A logical fallacy;
sometimes called
“correlation not
causation”
Causal Chains
• A cascade of cause and
effect
• Often these causes are
related and
compounding; see the
procrastinator’s tale on
294
Contributory Causes
• Causes can act
simultaneously to
contribute to a general
effect
• Causal Chains and
contributory causes can
act in tandem,
sometimes to massive
effect: think Titanic;
Financial Crisis
incentive
• Something that
stimulates one to take
action
• Typically relies on a
gain, a positive result,
or the avoidance of a
loss, a negative result
• Think of conditioning
• Is big in human cause
and effect
•
•
•
•
Parenting has this
School has this
Markets have this
Tax codes have this
Freakonomics
• Stephen Levitt
(economist)
• Stephen Dubner
(journalist)
• Economists apply
mathematics to trace
incentive; note that this is
often applied to money,
thus the idea that
economists study the
economy.
• “freakonomics” is a term
used to describe the
uncanny relationships
that we often see when
we statistically compare
data sets to isolate for
human incentive
• How is incentive
illustrated in the cause
and effect relationships
offered in Freakonomics?