How To Think Critically

junjan · **#21** by **junjan** » Oct 02, 2010 7:22 pm

Cito di Pense · **#22** by **Cito di Pense** » Jan 07, 2011 1:31 pm

Here's a nice resource with many links on critiquing pseudoscience and thinking critically:

http://www.chem1.com/acad/sci/pseudosci.html

early_cuyler · **#23** by **early_cuyler** » Feb 08, 2011 12:00 am

http://www.amazon.com/Art-Thinking-9th-Vincent-Ruggiero/dp/020566833X/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1297122918&sr=1-2 I used earlier editions of this with much success many years ago in freshman English classes.

Loren Michael · **#24** by **Loren Michael** » Mar 09, 2011 12:55 pm

Why is nobody talking about biases.

psikeyhackr · **#25** by **psikeyhackr** » Mar 26, 2011 9:14 pm

A lot of so called logic is semantic bullshit.

You need to filter out THE TYRANNY OF WORDS

THE TYRANNY OF WORDS by Stuart Chase
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/artic ... 06,00.html

But a brief grounding in semantics is a life work in itself. Modern semantics dates from 1923, when two English professors. C. K. Ogden and I. A. Richards, wrote a book called The Meaning QJ Meaning, followed by Ogden's invention of an 850-word vocabulary called Basic English. Indicative of the complexity of semantics is the fact that while Ogden is an orthologist and psychologist and Richards is an esthetician, important contributions have been made by a Polish mathematician, Count Alfred Korzybski, and a Harvard physicist, Percy Williams Bridgman. Semantics ranges from the equator of Basic English through the lush tropics of political bunkum to the North Pole of James Joyce's word-coining.

I struggled through most of Korzybski's Science and Sanity decades ago but I never heard of The Tyranny of Words until last year. So if this society really wanted most people to think straight why isn't the book common knowledge. The culture is designed to keep most people confused.

Sci-fi writers like Heinlein and A.E. van Vogt were into General Semantics in the 50s. It got incorporated into their works.

http://www.roger-russell.com/sffun/nulla.htm

psik

psikeyhackr · **#26** by **psikeyhackr** » Mar 26, 2011 9:19 pm

I suppose it is redundant to state the obvious but it seems to get missed so often:

Sort the data that is relevant to the problem from the data that is not.

psik

Hugin · **#27** by **Hugin** » May 18, 2011 12:16 pm

I think this video is pretty good:

"If something doesn't make sense, don't pretend that it does."

Laurens · **#28** by **Laurens** » May 27, 2011 8:50 pm

I'm currently reading 'Asking the Right Questions' by M. Neil Browne and Stuart M. Keeley. It seems like a very decent introduction to critical thinking.

Sigillum Militum · **#29** by **Sigillum Militum** » Mar 20, 2012 11:54 am

I think one of the most important points is neatly summarized by a pic I made to parody some other atheist pic that was floating around on the Interwebs:

Remember that the Western concept of rationality is instrumental, meaning that it prescribes only means, not ends. This means that e.g. free market theory, human rights charters, feminism, do not automatically get rolled into the canon of Rationality™.

z8000783 · **#30** by **z8000783** » Mar 20, 2012 12:31 pm

I have never dispensed with MY epistemic scruples even when asked polity.

John

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