CRITICAL THINKING Instructor: Dr. Raj Ayyar

What we perceive isn't necessarily 'Real' ! Do you see a Young woman or Old woman? The young woman’s chin is the old woman’s eye is the young woman’s ear. If you see a young woman, and wish to see the old woman, imagine the ear as an eye, the necklace as a mouth and the chin as a nose. If you see an old woman, and wish to see the young woman, imagine the eye as an ear, the mouth as a necklace and nose as a chin. Your brain wants to flip to either one or the other image but if you study it long enough you might see both images at once. Can you do it?

Good or evil ! You can read the word GOOD in black, and the word EVIL in white (inside each black letter is a white letter). It could be taken as the philosophical concept that Good can’t exist without Evil

Six blind men and the elephant !

SPOT THAT ASSUMPTION !  ‘Much of what we call real’ is, in fact the product of untested assumptions.  Many assumptions come from different sources of cultural conditioning- parents, high school, T.V. and electronic media, the wolf pack.  How real is ‘real’?

BECOMING AN INDIVIDUAL Abandoning wishful thinking. How serious is your lack of individuality? Acknowledge the influences that have shaped your thinking. ‘My mind is full of other people’s ideas and attitudes which I received uncritically’. Sort out and evaluate your ideas and beliefs, even your most cherished ones. Real individuality involves a lifetime’s worth of work on oneself. It cannot be accomplished overnight.

HABITS THAT HINDER THINKING The mine is better habit Ethnocentrism Face saving Resistance to change Avoid the following-‘Trail of the Calf’ Conformity Stereotyping-All or none thinking Differences between stereotypes, prejudices and opinions

BRAIN IN A VAT ARGUMENT!

LANGUAGE AND REALITY General semantics in the work of Korzybski, Hayakawa and Wendell Johnson. The map is not the territory Time indexing, using subscripts ex: NewDelhi 2014 is not the same as NewDelhi 1984 Stepping down from vague generalities.

LANGUAGE AND REALITY conflict

Facts v/s reportage This source of knowledge covers most of what we are taught by our parents and teachers, what we hear reported in the news, and what we read in books and magazines and on the internet. Most people who present ideas to us are undoubtedly trying to teach accurately and do not deliberately misinform us; they themselves believe what they tell us. Yet, because they are human and therefore capable of error, it is likely that a fair percentage of what we have been taught is at least partly incorrect. An interesting example of the extent to which error can creep into news reports was revealed by George Seldes. Here is an original new story, together with the actual facts, as later determined by Seldes.

Facts v/s reportage The Story: Belgrade, Oct. 27—A few moments before she should have appeared on the stage at the Lioubliana Theater last night, Mme. Alla Behr, a Slovene actress, was found hanging dead in her dressing room. The reason for the suicide is unknown. The Facts: After the first act. Not at the Lioubliana, but the Klagenfurt. Her name, Ella Beer. Not Slovene, but Viennese. Not in her dressing room, but in her hotel. The reason was known. How could the reporter make such a total botch of the story?

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