An argument is a reason for believing something. Arguments consist of two or more claims, one of which is a conclusion. The conclusion is the claim the argument purports to give a reason for believing. The other claims are the premises. The premises of an argument are offered as a reason for believing its … Continue reading Arguments
People generally have reasons for believing the things they believe. Sometimes those are good reasons and sometimes not. When we believe something, we typically take our reasons to be good ones. It would be hard to sustain belief for reasons we know to be bad. Perhaps people sometimes do this, but the problems with this … Continue reading Critical Thinking Note 30: Intellectual Courage
I am constantly trying to get my students to slow their thinking down and give some thoughtful attention to how conclusions are reached, not just how they feel about the conclusions. Open-mindedness, as I understand it, is not being open to accepting or tolerating all manner of diverse ideas. There are some ideas we should … Continue reading Our Latest Discord
So, I’m starting to see some students use AI to write their assignments. Of course I’m not giving credit for this. So far, AI writing is surprisingly easy to catch. this is because there is such a thing as style. It is easy to get AI to write in a technically expert style, but this … Continue reading A note on AI for my Students
Opinion | Colleges Are Putting Their Futures at Risk – The New York Times (nytimes.com) Pamela Paul takes universities to task for failing to promote open ended inquiry and knowledge seeking in the editorial linked above. She blames misuses of academic freedom whereby academics short-cut inquiry on a rapid path to conviction, advocacy, and activism, … Continue reading Academic Freedom isn’t what Pamela Paul thinks it is
Arguments are commonly regarded as tools of persuasion. Seen this way, arguments are sales pitches for believing something. In our consumer society, we are all skilled at negotiating the constant onslaught of sales pitches. Our default is the hard no. Any of us would soon be broke without rejecting the vast majority of sales pitches. … Continue reading Critical Thinking Note 30: It’s not about Buying and Selling
I have no ideas. I grasp a good many ideas. I’m acquainted with even more. Some ideas I understand pretty well. But none of them belong to me. Not even any I might have been lucky enough to entertain before anyone else. Even people who have discovered an idea or two didn’t create them. Sometimes … Continue reading I have no idea
This charge is being leveled at higher education frequently. The idea that colleges are in the business of indoctrination is a standard trope in attacks on higher education. Foes of education aren’t just preaching to the choir with this indictment. The appeal of the indoctrination charge is significantly wider, since many of our students aren’t … Continue reading Critical Thinking Note 29: Is Education Indoctrination?
Early on in the exploration of reasonableness we made a point of acknowledging basic human fallibility. Inquiry is not a linear path from absolute truth to absolute truth. Inquiry is a more typically a meandering path with frequent back tracking as we learn from or mistakes. Our conclusions, even when they support a healthy degree … Continue reading Logical Fallacies
Normative claims aim to tell us how things ought to be or what we ought to do. This, as opposed to claims that just aim to describe how things are. Philosophy may be the only discipline that inquires into the nature of normativity. We don’t just aim to uphold normative standards, as happens in every … Continue reading Varieties of Normativity