Phil (Critical Thinking)

What are the odds that another student in this online course has the same birthday as you? (assume that there are 23 students in this course).

1/2

Arguing that a claim must be true merely because a substantial number of people believe it is called the fallacy of...

Appeal to the masses

Rejecting a claim by criticizing the person who makes it rather than the claim itself is known as the fallacy of...

Appeal to the person

If you are ever on a jury, you should

Be skeptical of eye-witness testimony

John is on trial now for murder, but the proceedings are a waste of time and money because everyone knows he's guilty.

Begging the Question

To allow every man unbounded freedom of speech must always be, on the whole, advantageous to the state; for itis highly conducive to the interests of the community that each individual should enjoy a liberty, perfectly unlimited, of expressing his sentiments.

Begging the Question

Which of the following claims conflict with our background information?

CSN is located in Detroit Michigan The government controls the weather Louis can turn a stone into gold just by touching it Some babies can bench press 500 pounds

Arguing that what is true of the parts must be true of the whole is the fallacy of...

Composition

The fallacy of appeal to the person is rejecting a claim by...

Criticism of the person who makes it

If a claim conflicts with our background information, we have good reason to...

Doubt it

If a claim conflicts with other claims we have good reason to accept, we have good grounds for...

Doubting it.

How is our memory like the telephone game?

Each time we recall a memory, it gets distorted

The use of a word in two different senses in an argument is the fallacy of...

Equivocation

Because we can never be knowledgeable in every field, we should reject the claims of experts.

False

Memory is much like a video recorder; you record events and replay them later.

False

The memories of eyewitnesses are almost always trustworthy.

False

The more times you recall a memory, the more precise the memory gets.

False

I used to work with this engineering major. And, man, they are all really socially inept.

Hasty Generalization

The French are snobby and rude. Remember those two high-and-mighty guys with really bad manners They're French. I rest my case.

Hasty Generalization

The probability of any particular event occurring may be extremely low, but that same event given enough opportunities to occur may be...

Highly probable over the long haul

Which of the following is an example of the gambler's fallacy:

I have had 3 boys in a row. I am due for a girl. The coin has laded heads the last 10 times, the next time it has to be tails I keep getting bad hands in poker. I am due for a good one.

Whether someone is hypocritical regarding her claims is...

Irrelevant to the truth of the claims

What are some clues that a newspaper report is trustworthy?

It does not leave out important information Alternate news sources also confirm the story The story does not conflict with what you know to be true.

Fallacies can be psychologically persuasive even though they are...

Logically flawed

Bill Nye, the science guy, is a former mechanical engineer. He has argued that the chemical agent in Roundup (glyphosate) "is pretty benign." Should we trust Bill Nye on this matter?

No, Bill Nye is not qualified to make this judgment

Personal experience, though generally reliable, is

Not infallible

Automatically rejecting a claim just because it's traditional is...

Not reasonable

In a faulty analogy, the things being compared are...

Not sufficiently similar in relevant ways

An example of the law of large numbers is:

One guy named Rex is hit by lightning 10 separate times Marsha wins the lottery twice! John's dad died in a airplane crash and 30 years later so did John

When a claim is not quite dubious enough to dismiss outright yet not worthy of complete acceptance, we should...

Proportion our belief to the evidence.

We fall into a fallacious appeal to authority by...

Regarding a nonexpert as an expert

An example of pareidolia is:

Seeing Jesus in a grilled cheese Hearing Satanic messages when records are played backwards seeing alien faces in pictures of Mars seeing images in the clouds

What causes distortions of memory?

The number of times the subject recalls the memory. The context or environment where the memory is recalled Your mood when the memory is recalled. Suggestions or input from the people around you.

A slippery-slope pattern of argument is fallacious when...

There is no good reason to think that doing one action will inevitably lead to another undesirable action

Experts are more likely to be right because they have access to more information on the subject than we do and because...

They are better at judging the information than we are

A tricky thing about perception is that we often perceive exactly what we expect to perceive--regardless of whether there's anything there to detect.

True

About 75% of innocent persons convicted of crimes were convicted based on false memories.

True

If a police officer suggests that the witness saw a yield sign the witness will remember seeing a yield sign. But if a police officer suggests that the witness saw a stop sign, the witness will remember a stop sign.

True

It is not reasonable to believe a claim when there is no good reason for doing so.

True

It is reasonable to accept the evidence provided by personal experience only if there's no reason to doubt it.

True

The opinion of experts generally carries more weight than our own—but only in their areas of expertise.

True

We ought to be "reasonably skeptical" of everything we encounter on the internet.

True

When a person tells a story about their past with conviction and passion that must mean that it is true.

True

Witnesses memories of an event can be altered by the questions they are asked during an interview.

True

A news report that conflicts with other reports you believe are reliable or with facts you already know is...

Untrustworthy

Neil deGrasse Tyson is a physicist. He argues that philosophy is a waste of time because philosophers just sit around defining words. How should we judge Tyson's claim?

We should not believe him because he is a physicist and not a philosopher

Are doctors experts?

Yes and no, doctors are experts in diagnosing and treating diseases but are not experts in deterring whether a particular treatment is safe

The new StratoCar is the best automobile on the road. Picture the admiring glances you'll get when you take a cruise through town.

appeal to emotion

Arguing that a lack of evidence proves something is the fallacy of...

appeal to ignorance

Gremlins exist, that's for sure. No scientsist has ever proved that they don't exist.

appeal to ignorance

I don't believe in heaven and hell because no one--not even scientists--has ever produced proof that they exist

appeal to ignorance

Kelly says that many women who live in predominantly Muslim countries are discriminated against. But how the heck would she know? She's not Muslim.

appeal to ignorance

Professor, I deserve a better grade than a D on my paper. look my parents just got a divorce.

appeal to pity/emotion

Is the theory of evolution true? Yes. Polls show that most people believe in it.

appeal to popularity

The prime minister is lying about his intelligence briefings since almost everyone surveyed in national polls thinks he's lying.

appeal to popularity

Anthony argues that capital punishment should be abolished. But why should we listen to him. He is a prisoner on death row right now.

appeal to the person

Does acupuncture work? Can it cure disease? Of course. It has been used in China by folk practitioners for at least three thousand years.

appeal to tradition

Of course the death penalty is a just punishment. It has been used for centuries

appeal to tradition

Random drug testing in schools is very effective in reducing drug use because the regular use of the testing makes drug use less likely.

begging the question

What are opinions?

beliefs that we take to be true

How might an expert's opinion be corrupted?

by financial gain a political agenda a religious agenda an anti-religious agenda

Seeing that the eye and hand and foot and every one of our members has some obvious function, must we not believe that in like manner a human being has function over and above these particular functions?

composition

Our perception and memory are...

constructive

Hypnotherapists and regression therapists sometimes

create false memories in their patients cause people to remember that they were abused as a child when they were not cause people to remember fantastic supernatural events that never happened

Things that can interfere with our perception are:

drugs and alchohol fatigue stress distraction

Only man has morals. No woman is a man. Therefore, no woman has morals.

equivocation

Your husband eats like a pig. And why are you eating with a pig? You should really keep the pigs in the barn.

equivocation

The American basketball team is going to be great. It is made up of some of the best players from the NBA.

fallacy of composition

My sweater is blue. Therefore, the atoms that make up the sweater are blue.

fallacy of division

My tax cut plan will be a windfall for the American taxpayer. Under my plan, the average tax savings will be $1100 per person. Just think of what each of you could do with that extra income.

fallacy of division

Claims are guilty by association

false

Generally, humans are very good at figuring out probabilities.

false

The quality of news reporting has nothing to do with money.

false

Either we fire this guy or we send a message to other employees that it's OK to be late for work.

false dilemma

Some people are fools. And some people are married fools.

false dilemma

Bill is an investment banker, drives a Cadillac, is overweight, and votes Republican. John is also an investment banker, drives a Cadillac, and is overweight. So John probably votes Republican too.

faulty analogy

The New York Times reported that one-third of Republican senators have been guilty of Senate ethics violations. But you know that's false--the Times is a notorious liberal rag.

genetic fallacy

Reporters get a great deal of their information from:

government officials corporate public relations people advocacy group spokespersons

I met these two guys on a plane, and they said they were from Albuquerque. They were total druggies. Almost everyone in that city must be on drugs.

hasty generalization

Canned news is

news that is slanted toward the sources that have supplied it

Editors, reporters, and producers can dramatically alter our perception of the news by:

playing up a story by making it the lead in a broadcast playing a story down by giving it a few seconds at the end of a broadcast re-arranging the information so that the most important information comes last

The legislators should vote for the three-stikes crime rule. I'm telling you, crime is a terrible thing when it happens to you. It causes death, pain and fear. And I wouldn't wish these on anyone.

red herring

If today you can make teaching evolution in public schools a crime, then tomorrow you can make it a crime to teach it in private schools. Then you can ban books and other educational materials that mention evolution. And then you can ban the very word from all discourse. And then the anti-science bigots will have won.

slippery slope

Geraldo says that students who cheat on exams should not automatically be expelled from school. But it's ridiculous to insist that students should never be punished for cheating.

straw man

Pro-choice people believe that you should even be able to kill babies if they are inconvenient for you.

straw man

What does it mean when we say we should proportion our beliefs to the evidence?

the stronger the evidence for the claim, the stronger our belief in the claim the weaker the evidence for the claim the weaker our belief in the claim the strength of our beliefs should co-vary with the strength of the evidence

What is background information or evidence?

things that we already believe or know

Unlikely things are likely because

thousands of things happen every day to every person on the planet

Deliberately or unconsciously, editors and reporters may skew their reporting so as not to offend their advertisers, their audience, or their stockholders.

true

The fallacy of composition is thinking that the characteristics of the parts are somehow transferred to the whole.

true

The fallacy of equivocation occurs whenever a word has one meaning in one premise and another meaning in another premise or conclusion.

true

The gambler's fallacy is thinking that that previous events can affect the probabilities of the random event at hand.

true

The leading cause of wrongful convictions was erroneous identification by eyewitnesses.

true

Very strange or outrageous coincidences are the inevitable consequence of the law of probability when you are dealing with large numbers of people or events that can interact in a large number of ways.

true

When witnesses talk to other witnesses at a crime scene, it can contaminate the witnesses memories of the event

true

What are facts?

true statements

Eyewitness testimony is often...

unreliable

What is reporter slanting?

unsupported appeals appeals to popularity biased language

A news report that conflicts with other reports you believe are reliable or with facts you already know is...

untrustworthy

When should you doubt the opinion of an expert?

when the expert is strongly biased or dismissive when most other experts in the same field disagree when the expert does not adequately support his/her assertions when the expert does not treat opposing views fairly