Critical thinking 1

Critical thinking

The rational evaluation of argumentation, reasoning and thinking in light of local criteria

A good critical thinker

• is open minded

• can analyse and reflect

• is skeptic

Cognitive bias

features of human psychology that distort rational belief formation

cognitive bias systems

system 1 - automatic, quick, little effort of control

system 2 - concious effort, choice and concentration, subjective experiences of agency

Loss aversion

being motivated to avoid loss rather than accute gain

example:

people who stay in a relationship because that relationship has lasted a long time

Framing

reacting to information on the basis of how it’s presented (marketing)

Self-serving

leads us to attribute success to ourselves and faliure to others

example:

I passed a course because I studied hard

I didn’t pass because the course is hard

Cognitive dissonance

tendency to distort and reinterpret past events in a way that would alleviate the stress of commiting contrary beliefs aka Minimizing the value of something that is desireable but unatteinable

Overconfidence

we overestimate our abilities with respect to some quantifiable feature in the population

example:

84% of Frenchmen estimate that they are above average lovers

Conformation bias

tendency to notice and recall info that supports our existing beliefs and ignore info that challenges them

Groupthink

Individual group members align their opinions with the supposed consensus of the group

example:

a lot of people consider a book to be good because it is on the bestseller list

(if you’re leading a group appoint a devil’s advocate to challenge your beliefs)

Availability bias

tendency to estimate frequencies and probabilities on the basis of how easily relevant examples come to mind

example:

death by car crashes is more common than death by a plane accident but it seems otherwise because the media covers more plane accidents because they are rare

how to decreace cognitive bias?

• increase your awareness

• adopt different perspectives

• use reliable data

• give yourself time to understand a problem

Truth

Proposition (P) is true if and only if (iff) there exists some fact or state of affairs to which P corresponds

example:

Snow is white iff it corresponds to a state of affairs in the world wherein snow is white

iff

if and only if

Logical truth

P that is true purely by virtue of logic

example:

• all fish are fish

• if bob is male, then someone is male

Truthiness (not truth)

assertion or belief that a proposition is true because it seems true, is intuitively felt or wished to be true, regardless of arguments, evidence or facts

Lie

assertion that P is a lie iff P is false and it is asserted to deliberately misinterpret what the author takes to be the truth

(author cares to hide the truth)

• a liar knows the truth and hides it

Bullshi(t)

assertion that P is bull iff it is used deliberately to hide the author’s lack of commitment to the truth

(author doesn’t care about the truth)

• buller hides the lack of commitment to the truth

Knowledge

1. P is true

2. s believes that P is true and

3. s is justified in believing that P is true

Opinion

belief, often about some disputed issue, that is not fully supported by all the available evidence and faces, other partly supported competig beliefs about the same issue