Chapter Two Flashcards
Is anyone immune to category one barriers
No. No one is immune to category one barriers.
To protect ourselves and out mental framework, what do we do?
We distort our own judgements and thereby raise our rise of error.
What are the forms self-interested thinking takes?
-Accepting a claim solely because it advances, or coincides with, our interests.
-Accepting a claim for no other reason than that they help you save face.
What are signs of self-interested thinking?
-Emotional insistence on their own point
-Clear rejection of all relevant evidence
What are the consequences of self-interested thinking?
Can be self-destructive.
- Make mistakes in critical thinking that will decrease your chances of success.
-Leave you wide open to propaganda
- Leave you open to manipulation of your personal desires.
How do you overcome the excessive influence of your own psychological needs?
- Watch out when things get personal
- Be alert to ways that critical thinking can be undermined.
- Ensure that nothing has been left out.
What is selective attention?
Preferential treatment for some statements over others.
- We notice certain things and ignore others, usually without even being aware that we’re doing it.
How do you remedy selective attention?
Make a conscious effort to look for opposing evidence.
What is peer pressure?
Pressure to conform that comes from your peers.
What are the type(s) of group pressure?
- Peer pressure
- Appeal to popularity
- Appeals to common practice
What is appeal to popularity?
When an argument tries to support a conclusion on the basis of the mere popularity of a belief.
What is appeals to common practice?
The pressure that comes from assuming that our own group is the best, the right one, the chosen one, and all other groups are not as good.
What group pressure is the most powerful?
Appeals to common practice
What are the consequences of group pressure
- Generates narrow-mindedness
- Resistance to change.
- Steryotyping
How do you defend yourself against group thinking?
Always proportion your acceptance of a claim according to the strength of reasons.
What is a world view?
A philosophy of life.
- A set of fundamental ideas that help is make sense of a wide range of important issues in life.
What is subjective relativism?
The idea that the truth depends on what someone believes.
What is a subjectivist fallacy?
Accepting the notion of subjective relativism or trying to use it to support a claim.
What is the biggest problem with subjective relativism and social relativism?
Critics say that it’s self-defeating.
What is Social Relativism?
The view that truth is relative to societies.
- Many use this to try and escape the difficulties of subjective relativism.
What is philosophical skepticism?
The view that we know much less than we think we do or that we know nothing at all.
- People who believe this view are known as philosophical skeptics.
What are the two main categories of hinderances to critical thinking?
- Barriers that occur because of how we think.
- Barriers that occur because of what we think.
What is steryotyping?
Drawing conclusions about people based merely on their membership in some group.
