Can you think critically?

I was checking my inbox the other day and found this article from Conversation in it. So why arts degree?

Research shows our society will need the skills, deep knowledge and understanding to reframe what it means to create cohesive multicultural and diverse communities. It will need to support all lives – including the very young and the aged – with meaning and purpose in order to forge humanity’s future.

To do this, we should reimagine the future workforce through values, competencies and skills, not “professions”.

Conversation

Critical thinking is the objective analysis, synthesis and evaluation of an issue in order to form a judgement.

Critical thinking is the skill to search for the truth.

iversity

Before Socrates, people make decision based on their culture and tradition. Socrates was the first person in history to always question common beliefs and assumptions. To seek logical ground statement. To question authority as source of truth.

Who are the teachers of philosophy and critical thinking?

Socrates -> Plato -> Aristotle. Newton is father of Physics. Descartes is father of Philosophy. Machiavelli is father of Politics. Machiavelli said, ‘You have to be cruel to be kind.’

Your teacher might be wrong. Learn to think for yourself!

lao tze

We should encourage and teach kids critical thinking. There is an evidence-based guide about this.

If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.

mark twain

What is the Rabbit Rule?

The first principle is the Rabbit Rule.  It says that any significant term or concept which appears in the contention must also appear in one of the premises. Premise 1: All men are mortal. Premise 2: Socrates is a man. Conclusion: Socrates is mortal.

This classic, simple argument conforms to the Rabbit Rule.

In real life:

  • Look for hidden premises!
  • There’s a lot of words
  • There can be more than 2 premises
  • You cannot always find conclusion markers (e.g. so, therefore, thus) or premise markers (e.g. for, since, because)

What is a good argument? It’s simply an argument that leads to a true conclusion. That’s it! And, how does it do that?