Critical Thinking or How to be a Really Good Pain in the Ass


1
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• Universal Criteria for Arguments
• If an argument does not meet specific criteria
  one may be committing a logical error or fallacy

2
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• Universal Criteria for Arguments
• We look at the form/structure of an argument as
  well as its content
• If an argument is formally valid it is impossible
  for the premisse(s) to be true and the conclusion
  false
• Even if an argument is formally valid we must to
  consider the content and have to ask if the
  premisses are acceptable

3
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• Probability
• What is the likelihood that something is or is
  not the case

4
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• Probability is dealt with in two ways
• As a relative frequency the probability of
  rolling two sixes is 1 in 36 1/6 X 1/6)
• As a likelihood based on our experience (in the
  widest sense) of similar events the probability
  of the moon containing green cheese is extremely
  small

5
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• The likelihood that future events will mirror
  past events is based on the regularity of our
  experiences it is not logically necessary but
  due to habit

6
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• The criteria we use are
• Premiss acceptability
• Relevance
• Adequacy/sufficiency
• These do not guarantee Truth nor are they
  supposed to they are helpful in establishing
  truth

7
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• Acceptability
• We have three options when we consider premisses
• Accept
• Reject
• Suspend judgement

8
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• Examples
• O. J. Simpson had some incentive to kill Nicole
  Brown therefore . . .
• The earth is flat so . . .
• Because capital punishment reduces crime . . .

9
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• Bias

10
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• Diplomacy
• Henry Kissinger
• Diplomat statesman war criminal

11
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• Be fair

12
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• Universal Criteria for Accepting Premisses
• Personal Experience or Testimony

13
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• Universal Criteria for Accepting Premisses
• Appeal to Authority

14
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• Universal Criteria for Accepting Premisses
• Appeal to Authority

15
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• Universal Criteria for Accepting Premisses
• Appeal to Authority
• Education and Experience
• Trust
• Unbiased

16
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• Consumer reports

17
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• An a priori truth is indisputable
• A bachelor is an unmarried man
• You are either younger than older than or the
  same age as me
• 8 5 13
• An a posteriori truth is knowable through
  experience
• This is hair gel

18
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• Common Knowledge

19
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• Universal Criteria for Rejecting Premisses
  (usually fallacies)
• Inconsistency
• Begging the Question
• Euphemisms Ambiguity Vagueness
• Equivocation
• False Dichotomy

20
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• Inconsistency
• Listen to and trust your feelings
• Dont let your feelings cloud your judgement

21
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• Hypocrisy

22
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• Begging the Question
• The word of the Bible is true. For it says right
  in the Bible that it is the word of God and God
  would never lie.

23
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• Journalists should say
• Raising the Question
• Inviting the Question
• Suggesting the Question
• Posing the Question

24
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• Language Problems
• Euphemisms
• Vagueness
• Ambiguity

25
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• Euphemisms
• Hes dead
• Hes old
• Hes bald
• Collateral damage
• Clean bomb

26
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• Vagueness
• Hes nice
• Shes a liberal thinker

27
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• Bob loves sheep

28
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• Fallacy of Equivocation
• (P1) Power tends to corrupt
• (P2) Knowledge is power
• (C) Therefore Knowledge corrupts

29
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• False Dichotomy
• Either you are with us or you are against us.
• The choice for Canadian University students is
  clear they can choose not to smoke marijuana and
  live a healthy happy life or they can choose to
  become addicted to the deadly weed which will
  inevitably lead them to harder drugs and a life
  of crime.
• (While walking during a snow storm) David Boy I
  hate this weather.Roy Look at it this way
  either we get the snow or we get freezing rain
  which would you prefer

30
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• Relevance of the Premisses
• Positive relevance When the premisses support
  the conclusion and so make it more likely to be
  true
• Negative relevance When the premisses weaken the
  conclusion making it more likely ot be false
  unacceptable or unjustified
• Neutral relevance When the premisses have no
  bearing on the conclusion they are irrelevant

31
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• Positive Relevance
• (P1) Jones is a loyal hard-working employee.
• (P2) Jones is conscientious about his work and
  behaviour.
• (P3) Jones is more qualified for the position
  than any other applicant.
• (C) Jones should get the promotion.

32
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• Negative Relevance
• (P1) Jones is a loyal hard-working employee.
• (P2) Jones is conscientious about his work and
  behaviour.
• (P3) Jones has occasionally taken money from
  petty cash to buy alcohol.
• (C) Jones should get the promotion.

33
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• Irrelevance
• (P1) Jones is a loyal hard-working employee.
• (P2) Jones is conscientious about his work and
  behaviour.
• (P3) Jones can touch the tip of his nose with his
  tongue.
• (P4) Jones is more qualified for the position
  than any other applicant.
• (C) Jones should get the promotion

34
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• Analogy
• The brain is like a computer because it is a
  processing centre which takes in information
  processes it according to a criteria-governed
  screening process and then either initiates or
  suppresses behaviour.

35
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• Disanalogy

36
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• Jerrys argument
• (P1) Sex with inhibitions may be good but not
  great (implied).
• (P2) Jerry has sex with no inhibitions.
• (C) Therefore Jerry has great sex.

37
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• Georges understanding
• (P1) Sex with inhibitions may be good but not
  great (implied).
• (P2) Having sex with no inhibitions would be just
  like going to the washroom in front of a lot of
  people and not even caring.
• (C) Therefore uninhibited sex is great.

38
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• Disanalogy
• No its nothing like that

39
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• Strawman Argument

40
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• Red Herring
• Bob How can you support the abortion of fetuses
  for brain tissue in the treatment of Parkinsons
  disease
• Anne Parkinsons disease is a disease which
  requires considerable funding. If we had more
  funding we might not need to use such measures as
  treatments.

41
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• Ad Hominem (abusive)
• Why on earth should we read anything written by
  Plato since it is clear that he was a homosexual

42
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• Tu quoque
• Brian Hey Peter you have to quit drinking so
  much. Its killing you!
• Peter Oh yeah. Well you drink too much too! So
  just shut up!

43
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• Appeal to force Do we have a problem here!

44
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• Appeal to pity
• How could the Dean have hired Jason over Helen
  Jason is single in perfect health and with no
  family obligations whatsoever while Helen has a
  broken leg and is a single mother with two
  children to care for!

45
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• Appeal to popularity

46
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• Adequacy

47
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• Determine the strength of a claim within context

48
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• To assess how strong a claim is we ask questions
  like
• What is his level of authority or expertise
  regarding in this case the development of
  severe weather patterns such as tornadoes Is he
  an alarmist
• How reliable have his past judgements been
  Whats his track record
• How much experience does he have in spotting
  tornadic activity How long has he been studying
  such phenomena

49
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• Avoid drawing hasty conclusions
• (P1) Because they save lives
• (C) Airbags are good
• (P2) Airbags have caused severe injuries and
  deaths
• (C) So airbags are bad
• (P3) Airbags have been modified to reduce the
  risk of injury from them
• (C) So airbags are good after all

50
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• Q. Should we adopt policies which err on the side
  of caution (i.e. a moratorium on GMOs) until long
  term studies indicate that there are minimal side
  effects

51
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• Argumentative maturity A balanced case
• (P1) Anatomical ultrasound indicates that fetuses
  develop nervous systems around the 12 to 14 week
  stage of maturation.
• (P2) Once the nervous system is in tact a fetus
  can then experience pain and instinctively reacts
  to any external threat.
• (C) Therefore perhaps we should not allow
  abortion after say the tenth week of pregnancy.

52
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• Argumentative maturity A balanced case
• (P1) A womans body is her own property and no
  one elses.
• (P2) As such a woman can do whatever she wants
  to her own body without fear of persecution.
• (C) Therefore abortion should be allowed at any
  stage of fetal development according to the
  discretion of the woman herself.

53
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• Fallacies of Adequacy The slippery slope

54
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• Appeals to Precedent

55
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• Argumentum ad ignorantum
• (P) There is no evidence for the truth of x
• (C) Therefore x is false
• (P) There is no evidence for the falsity of x
• (C) Therefore x is true

56
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• Argumentum ad ignorantum
• (P1) There is no supporting evidence for the
  existence of fairies or gnomes.
• (P2) We have taken responsible steps to determine
  whether there are fairies or gnomes
• (C) There are no fairies or gnomes.

57
Critical Thinkingor How to be a Really Good Pain
in the Ass

• A Checklist For Assessing Arguments
• 1. Circle indicator words.
• 2. Underline conclusion.
• 3. Bracket and number premisses.
• 4. Legend and Diagram Argument.
• 5. Premiss Acceptability/ Rejection (Fallacies).
• 6. Premiss Relevance (Fallacies).
• 7. Premiss Sufficiency/Adequacy (Fallacies).