Critical Thinking

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Week 3

Assignment:

1. What are the two arenas that are used to assess credibility? How do they tie into the degrees of credibility and incredibility?
2. How does the content of the claim relate to fallacies from the previous chapter? How does an observation relate to fallacies?
3. Why is background information essential to assessing a claim? Give an example from last month’s news to support your answer.
4. Name five ways that one can prove his/her expertise. Explain how they are not always foolproof using examples from current events.

WEEK 4

Assignment:

1. Watch a cable news program for one full hour where guests are asked to provide their opinions. List the rhetorical devices or logical fallacies or both, found during the dialogue by name of show, time of day, host name, guest name, and organization to which the guest belongs. Evaluate the motivation for this person in using rhetorical devices or logical fallacies.
2. Define the 13 rhetorical devices in common use and give examples, stating how each tie into critical thinking.
3. What are the emotional fallacies and their premises and conclusions? Use current events from the last month as examples.
4. What are the non-emotional fallacies and their premises and conclusions?
5. Name 5 emotions and the fallacies that are associated with them. Give examples of each as they relate to something important to you.

WEEK 5

Assignment:

1. Name 5 of the 11 ad hominem fallacies and explain how they confuse the qualities of a person making a claim with the qualities of the claim.
2. Are fallacies used in politics? Give an example from the most recent election.  
3. Listen a talk radio program, a television program, or have a conversation with another person. Provide examples of the following that you’ve overheard:

– Hasty generalization (describe which type and why it was incorrect)

– Generalizing from exceptional cases (describe which type and why it was incorrect)

– Fallacious appeal to Popularity (common belief) (describe which type and why it was incorrect)

• What is “begging the question”? Give a real life scenario in which this has happened to you. 

WEEK 6

Assignment:

1. Name the four types of categorical claims and draw Venn diagrams for each.
2. Draw the Venn diagram for the three categorical operations and a Venn diagram for a current event in the past month.  
3. Generate the square of opposition. Explain all parts of it in detail and how each would relate to a current event.
4. Select a recent news event and create four Categorical Syllogisms 

WEEK 7

Assignment:

1. Describe the 18 Elementary Valid Argument Pattern rules. 
2. How does Principle of Total Evidence work in inductive reasoning? Use an example from current events.
3. What are the differences between statistical syllogisms, inductive generalizing from samples, arguments from analogy and reasoning from the general to the general? Explain in your own words when each is appropriate. 

WEEK 8

Assignment:

1. What is the difference between Physical Causal Explanations and Behavioral Casual Explanations, and how do they tie into critical thinking?
2. Name the types of explanations and how they are evaluated. Use examples from your life to support your answer.
3. What is an Inference to the Best Explanation and how does it relate to forming a hypothesis?
4. What are the definitions of aesthetic value and judgment? Use examples from your life to support your definition. 

 

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