Critical Thinking Flashcards
What is…
1. the process of inquiry
2. Rigorous examination of evidence/reasoning
Skepticism
What is…
1. Tenacious embrace of beliefs
2. Reasoning & evidence irrelevant
True belief
What is…
1. Nay-saying & fault finding
2. Do not seek truth; seek next target to mock
Cynicism
What are the 6 dangers of true belief?
- Decline in scientific literacy & critical thinking
- Inability to make informed decisions
- Monetary losses from frauds & scams
- Diversion of society’s resources to solve problems
- Promotion of simplistic answers to complex problems
- creation of false hopes & expectations
What are the characteristic of True Believers
confirmation bias, rationalization of disconfirmation, shifting burden of proof
What is confirmation bias?
searching for support
What is rationalization of disconfirmation
clinging to falsehoods
What is shifting burden of proof
making others disprove an unsupported claim
What is the probability model & degrees of certainty
- possible
- Plausible
- probable
- certain
Why is claim of possibility worthless
ex: jumping out of plane and landing in haystack
they don’t distinguish between strong & weak arguments
(if anything’s possible, what distinguishes one argument are stronger than another)
What is claim of plausibility like?
-claim is logical, but requires further substantiation
-additional evidence needed to move a claim from plausible to probable
Why is claim of certainty weak?
-provide weak defensive position bc. only a single exception defeats the arguement
in a large enough sample, wildly improbably event will happen to someone, someplace, somewhere
law of large numbers
law of large numbers is called “news of the weird” bc?
highly unlikely
Why is law of large numbers bad?
doesn’t provide sufficient justification for any claim based on the “anything is possible assertion”
