Critical Thinking Midterm

Suppressed/Neglected Evidence

Failing to consider relevant information that counts towards the conclusion

Begging the Question

Assuming what you are trying to prove

Also known as circular reasoning

Either/or Fallacy

Assuming there are fewer alternatives than there are

Also known as false dilemma

Drawing the line

Believing that an unclear boundary of an argument equates to no meaningful difference

Borderline cases do not eliminate clear cases

Inconsistency

Holding/asserting claims that cannot be true together

Can be fixed/altered but needs reframing and context

Appeal to ignorance

No evidence means that it appeals to the contrary

Lacking evidence for either side

Strawman Fallacy

Distorting someone’s position too attack or discredit them

Making a persons argument look weak to dismiss them

Ad Hominem Fallacy

Guilty by association

Attacking a persons position in a group to distract from the argument

Red Herring Fallacy

Premise is irrelevant to the conclusion

Introducing irrelevant issues to distract from the actual argument

Fallacy Against the Person

Irrelevant attacks on the person not the argument

Intellectual Responsibility

Adults are responsible for carefully thinking about things and the actions they have because of them

Reasoning

Good reasons are said to be cogent (based on evidence)

Inferences

Arriving to a new belief based on reasoning

Arguments

Reasoning adds up to an argument

Premise + Premise = Conclusion

Relativism vs. Objective Facts

One claims that there are no objective answers to questions of right or wrong while the other highlights collective truths

Dogmatism

True believers in some theory or doctrine

These views provide a set of principles and categories that they use to interpret daily life

Fallibility

Commitment to free, independent, critical reasoning that acts on the best reasons and evidence that can be found

Belief that all views could be true or false but that does not mean all beliefs are equally well supported or good

Premise

Reasons within an argument

Multiple sentences

Conclusions

The new belief created from an argument

One sentence

Deductive Validity

When the premise of an argument is strongest and in its best form

If all premises are true, the conclusion must be true

It is impossible for the conclusion to be false if the premises are true

Soundness

If the argument is deductively valid and all the premises are true

Inductive Reasoning

Casual reasoning that is subjected to uncertainty

Affirming the Antecedent

Deductively valid arguments

if a, then b = a/b

Affirming the Consequent

Deductively invalid arguments

If a, then b = b/a

Perception

A selective inference on what we think is happening around us

Inductive Inference

Filling in the gaps of our memory and updating the information stored in our heads

Filtering

A form of perceptual selectivity that occurs on neural level

Bottom-up Processing

Processing from the sensory stimuli to the brain

Top-down Processing

Processing from our expectations onto the incoming sensory stimuli

Perceptual Set

How we are primed to perceive things

Expectations + experiences + context

Hostile Media Phenomenon

Most people who think the media is biased think its biased against their views

Halo Effect

The belief that a person having a single positive characteristic must lead to multiple positive traits

Harry Frankfurt on Bullshit

No regard for the truth while lying is simply not true

Selling narratives

Dunning-Kruger Effect

Overestimating our own performance in areas where we are not very knowledgeable

Algorithms

Relevance in databases

A tool that affects what you find on the internet

Filter Bubbles

Content determined by an algorithm

Can corner a person in a certain type of genre or interest

Echo Chambers

Chamber that we build by surrounding ourselves with like minded people

Tricking ourselves into thinking our beliefs are more common then they actually are

Conspiracy Theories

Conspiracies that are being intentionally hidden for some reason

The Problem of Disappearing Knowledge

A loss in confidence of the information that we are provided

Gets you to question or doubt the knowledge we already have

Stages of Memory

Encoding

Storage

Retrieval

Encoding

Taking information into our brains

Storage

Elaborating and revising information in our brains

Retrieval

Recalling and recognizing information from our brains

Inductive Inference

Filling in gaps in our memory as a way of updating stored information

Recall vs. Recognition

Retrieval Cues

Features of a situation that help us retrieve information from memory

Schemas

Organized packets of generic information that we use to understand the world

Stereotypes

An inaccurate schema that leads us to percieve and remember things in a distorted way

Misinformation Effect

Exposure to subtle, barely noticeable misinformation that eventually influences our memory through revision

Flashbulb Memories

Highly emotional moments that seem particularly vivid and indelible

Motivated Misremembering

Our desires and motivations leading us to misremember something

False Memory Syndrome

A pattern of feelings, emotions and thoughts based on distorted or entirely false memories

Belief Preservation

The tendency to continue to believe something even after we get evidence against the belief

Collective Memory

Beliefs and stories of the past that are harbored by societies and cultures

The Problem of Inert Knowledge

Having a great deal of knowledge stored in the memory that we cannot access

The importance of Active Integration

Integrating material in a way that allows us to connect it to things we already know

Emotions

Central parts of our lives that can sometimes provide an incentive to think badly

Reasoning

A combination of emotional and critical thinking

Legitimate Appeals to Emotions

Emotions are relevant to a situation

Illegitimate Appeals to Emotions

Attacks to trigger intense emotions that make it harder to remain focused on the real issue

Self Serving Bias

Our own emotions that leave us to distort our own perceptions of the world

Wishful Thinking

Disregarding evidence and allowing our desire for something to be true to convince us that it is true

Defense Mechanisms

Something we do to keep from recognizing our actions, motives, or traits as something that might lower our self esteem

Rationalization

Fabricating reasons after the fact to justify actions that were really done for an other, less acceptable reason