Critical Thinking Perceptions Facts Inferences Assumptions Opinions Viewpoints

Facts A fact is something known through experience, observation, testimony, record, or measurement Some things people considered facts in the past are no longer believed. ◦ Ex: The sun revolves around the earth Some facts are not absolutes – they are really probability statements. ◦ Ex: The sun will rise in the east tomorrow ◦ Ex: The third pitch was a strike State a belief you are certain about and one you are uncertain about

Facts and Social Pressure The human need for confirmation leaves us vulnerable to manipulation Sometimes people are willing to deny the evidence of their own senses if other members of the group interpret reality differently Ex: Comparing lines Ex: The emperor's new clothes

Standards to determine facts Verifiability Reliability Probability Plausibility People who don’t verify facts can get taken advantage of through scams.

Inferences When we infer we bring our imaginations to fill in for missing facts ◦ Example: when we see dark clouds we infer that it will rain Sometimes we connect the dots correctly, sometimes we don’t. Exercise: Give an example of a time you jumped to a conclusion or made a hasty inference which later turned out to be incorrect

Assumptions We assume something when we take it for granted without thinking about it Examples: ◦ The sun will rise tomorrow ◦ The United States will still exist tomorrow ◦ It will be warmer in July than now ◦ There will be oranges in the grocery store Your examples?

Example You are a guard at the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Stillwater. One day a prisoner is found to be missing. When you inspect his cell you find a hole dug through the concrete under his bed. All that is next to the hole is a bent metal spoon. What assumption of the guards did the prisoner exploit in order to escape? Additional examples Marlys Mayfield book (p 146)

Cultural Assumptions How we act in our society is assumed to be the norm, and we project that onto other cultures. If any of you have traveled outside the U.S. have you found behavior that you found surprising? My examples

Opinions Opinions express our decisions about Life We collect them from experiences or adopt them from others. They may be based on a careful study of evidence or they may not. An opinion is a belief stronger than an impression and not as strong as positive knowledge

Rating Opinions A – An opinion I would accept and act on B – An opinion worthy of consideration C – I’d want another opinion D – Forget it, you’re nuts!

Types of Opinions Judgments; ◦ This is good; This is bad; This is right; This is wrong. Advice: ◦ You need a haircut; you should get a new car; Drop your boyfriend. Generalizations ◦ There is no free lunch; We work too hard

Types of Opinions – cont’d Personal Taste ◦ I like this; I don’t like that. Public Sentiment ◦ We should restrict illegal immigration ◦ We need to have a guest worker program ◦ We need to reduce fossil fuels because of the danger of global warming ◦ Global warming is an unproven theory. ◦ We should tax the rich more ◦ We should lower taxes

From Fact to Opinion Fact: There are more Americans now (310 million) than there were 10, 30, 50 years ago Inference: Our population will continue to grow Assumption: Population growth is normal and to be expected Opinion 1: We should limit immigration so that population grows more slowly Opinion 2: This is good news – there will be more people to support us when we get on Social Security

Fact to Opinion Exercise: Life Expectancy Fact: Life expectancy is rising each year. It is now 78. In 1960 it was 71. In 1930 it was 61. Put together a Fact- Inference – Assumption – Opinion scenario

Viewpoints Fundamental way of looking at the world. Similar to Worldview of Philosophy (from Chapter 1 of text) Can be analyzed pertaining to different categories.

Viewpoints based on categories Socioeconomic Ethnic U.S. High school youth Occupation Pastimes Education Political Describe viewpoints under each category Describe the characteristics of one sub- group