Lecture 1: Chapter 1

Question 1

A belief

Answer 1

is propositional, which means it can be expressed in a declarative sentence - a sentence that is either true or false.
- results in a statement or claim.

Question 2

objective claim

Answer 2

• has this characteristic: whether it is true or false is independent of whether people think it is true or false.

Question 3

what is an example of a objective claim

Answer 3

• “there is life on mars” is an objective claim, because whether or not life exists there does not depend on whether people think it does. if everyone suddenly believed there is life on mars, that does not means that suddenly there would be life on mars.

Question 4

subjective claim

Answer 4

• whether a subjective claim is true or false is not independent of whether people think it is true or false
• Whether a subjective claim is true or false often depends on what people believe about it.

Question 5

what is an example of a subjective claim?

Answer 5

• subjective claims would be judgements of taste, such as “rice vinegar is too sweet” (it depends on what you think)

Question 6

moral subjectivism

Answer 6

• most moral philosophers reject the notion that moral opinions are all purely subjective

Question 7

objective questions or issues

Answer 7

• is Moore taller than Parker? whether he is or isn’t does not depend on whether we think we is, so this is an objective questions

Question 8

what are the two concepts that are traditionally used in talking about arguments

Answer 8

1: a reason for accepting a claim is expressed as something called a premise
2: the claim itself is called the conclusion

Question 9

an arguement

Answer 9

• consists of two parts: one part of which (the premise or premises) is intended to provide a reason for accepting the other part (conclusion)

Question 10

premise

Answer 10

• “I love Priglet” I an take care of him, and I can see no reason not to take him

Question 11

conclusion

Answer 11

• think of the conclusion of an argument as stating a position on an issue, and of premises as giving reasons for taking that position

Question 12

there are two things so that you may get the general idea of the critical thinking process

Answer 12

1: a premise can offer support for a conclusion only if the premise is true
2: it can offer support only if it is relevant to the conclusion

Question 13

belief bias

Answer 13

• the tendency to evaluate reasoning by how believable its conclusion seems.
• this affects us unconsciously

Question 14

Heuristics

Answer 14

• general rules we unconsciously follow in estimating probabilities
• i.e. the availability heuristic

Question 15

availability heuristic

Answer 15

• involves unconsciously assigning a probability to a type of event on the basis of how often one thinks of events of that type.
• closely related to the false consensus effect

Question 16

false consensus effect

Answer 16

• which refers to the inclination we may have to assume that our attitudes and those held by people around us are shared by society at large

Question 17

bandwagon effect

Answer 17

• refers to an unconscious tendency to align ones thinking with that of other people
• the effect is potentially a powerful source of cognitive distortion

Question 18

negativity bias

Answer 18

• the tendency people have to weight negative information more heavily than positive information when evaluating things
• negativity bias is hard-wired into us: the brain displays more neural activity in response to negative information than to positive information

Question 19

loss aversion

Answer 19

• when there are people who are more strongly motivated to avoid a loss than to accrue a gain

Question 20

in group bias

Answer 20

• another cognitive factor that may colour perception and distort judgement
• we may well perceive the members of our own group as exhibiting more variety and individuality than the members of this or that out-group, who we may view as indistinguishable from one another and as conforming to stereotypes

Question 21

fundamental attribution error

Answer 21

• the tendency to not appreciate that others behaviours ideas much constrained by events and circumstances as our own would be if we were in their position.

Question 22

overconfidence effect

Answer 22

• one of several self-deception biases that may be found in a variety of contexts

Question 23

better-than-average illusion

Answer 23

• the illusion crops up when most of a group rate themselves as better than most of the group relative to some desirable characteristic, such as resourcefulness or driving ability