Carl Sagan's The Fine Art of Baloney Detection depicts the importance of thinking skeptically before new ideas can be accepted (Sagan, 1997). Skeptical thinking pertains to our ability to distinguish what is true from what is false in some sort of logical argument or idea. Sagan promotes nine tools for this type of thinking, six of which I believe are the most useful will be discussed throughout this essay.
The first tool that I found to be relatively effective in proving that an argument is truthful was Sagan's first tool of providing information that validates the facts (Sagan, 1997). In order to establish that the facts are honest, there must be evidence in the argument that confirms without a doubt that the facts are correct. This is what makes this tool so useful. It takes away some of the doubt you may have had in an idea if the facts in it are backed up with proof. For example, a scientist has a theory, but has no evidence to support it. With no evidence, this scientist has no way of showing that his theory is valid.
Another tool that I found useful was that there is no one person who has the absolute authority when it comes to science (Sagan, 1997). It establishes that you should not always believe what you hear just because it comes from someone who seems credible, especially if they do not provide evidence to support their claim. This idea also is useful because it shows that no one knows everything and that everyone makes mistakes. For example, product commercials endorsed by celebrities often lead to people buying those products (Mesher, 2012). We do not know if these celebrities are using the products they are trying to endorse or if these products actually work. The celebrities in these ads give ...
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One was the argument about how humans are developing new substances too quickly for nature to adapt to (pg 299-300, sec. 3-5). This argument, along with many others, is written in a way that is easy to follow and seem to fall into a solid path of reasoning. Another strong point of argumentation occurs when Carson addresses a counterargument. She counters the idea that pesticides are needed for food production with the fact about the surplus-food storage program (pg 301, sec. 11). I think that logos can be even more potent if you can use it to calmly and logically dismiss an opposing
Argumentation has followed humans from the dawn of time as a way for us to express our ideas and for our ideas to be heard. People naturally obtain the knowledge to persuade others, either backing their opinions by fact or touching others emotionally, from growing up and through their own experiences in life. We can be persuaded by a numerous amounts of different factors pertaining to the argument. There are four different types of strategies in which an argument can be presented and make the argument effective. Martin Luther King is a key example of the utilization of the strategies as he wrote, “Letter from Birmingham Jail” and Nicholas Carr also portrays the strategies with his essay, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Both authors perfectly
Carl Sagan’ speech “The Fine Art of Baloney Detection” bears a strong resemblance to Anne Causey’s “Is Hunting Ethical?” Both authors chose to invoke their audience’s emotional strings by first relaying a personal story before continuing on. While Causey delves into whether or not it is morally right to allow hunting for sport. Sagan choses to question our ability to detect the truth.
Upon reading Peter Elbow’s essay, I was struck with the realization that I use the doubting game in much of my daily life to make decisions. I even conducted an experiment around my house and noted that all of my family plays this logic-based game also. There is no correct process to use, though, it is merely your brains instinct based off past experience. I see no main difference between these two games and critical thinking, in fact, it appears that the doubting and believing games are actually just branches off of our critical thinking process. The idea behind critical thinking and the entire reason for using critical thinking in any strategy is to evaluate the evidence and form an analysis off of the presented information. The doubting and believing game are
In William James’s “Will to Believe,” there is a strong focus on amending William K Clifford’s argument surrounding the belief. According to Clifford, belief is completely reliant on evidence. Not only is it completely reliant on evidence but on “sufficient” evidence. James quoted Clifford’s summary of belief in section 2, stating that “it is wrong always, everywhere, and for everyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.” While James showed clear disagreement in Clifford’s assertion, his focus in defending the will to believe centered more on providing the individual with options while recommending the “genuine option” in terms of their will to believe.
Persuasion goes on around us everyday, all the time, on television, on advertisements, even in conversations with friends. Perhaps because of this, much has been written on how to persuade more effectively. Most of this literature is built upon the notion that to persuade is to urge successfully and completely. Going along these lines, certainty and confidence are logical complements to effective persuasion, since we cannot hope to convince others when we are ourselves in doubt. Doubt, therefore, is felt to be at the other end of the spectrum and antithetical to persuasion. But the art of persuasion is a human art, and so it is a living art, which cannot be satisfactorily summed up between the covers of self-improvement guides. In reality, successful persuasion can somewhat deviate from the conventional criteria of certainty; in fact, even doubt can be used to persuade.
In today’s world there are always people trying to come up with a new way to explain something. There will always be people trying to pedal a new product or story about an innovative new way to look at things. Some of these ideas will really be ground-breaking, but many of these will be false ideas. Many of them will just be honest mistakes, but just as many will be ideas from people trying to trick other people. Carl Sagan recognizes this and writes about it in his article The Fine Art of Baloney Detection. Within it he describes how he has been vulnerable himself wanting to believe things that people have told him that didn’t seem true, but was what he wanted to hear. He then goes on to talk about how people need to be skeptical about what they are told/read. He has developed a system using the scientific which he calls “Tools for Skeptical Thinking.” These are things that people can do when evaluating a situation or idea to check for “baloney.” I have picked six of these tools to explain in further detail.
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy defines skepticism as denial or doubt of a particular belief, fact, or action. Skepticism deals primarily with questioning knowledge from an opposing perspective and refrains f...
The author Vincent Ruggiero defines critical thinking in his book Beyond Feelings: A Guide to Critical Thinking, as a “search for answers, a quest.” It is the idea that one does not accept claims, ideas, and arguments blindly, but questions and researches these things before making a decision on them. From what I learned in class, critical thinking is the concept of accepting that there are other people and cultures in this world that may have different opinions. It is being able to react rationally to these different opinions.
Introduction Critical thinking provides an opportunity to explore the positive and negative sides of an argument for and against an idea, theory, or notion. Reasoning and perception is attuned to personal impression and provides outcome to belief and opinion. The dictionary term and understanding for the word ‘logic’ is “of sound thinking and proof by reasoning” (Merriam-Webster, 2009). Logic is the examination of the methods and doctrine used to determine ‘correct’ from ‘incorrect’ and is used in the structure of an argument.
Critical thinking skills in daily life can be the difference between a good decision and a bad decision. Skeptical thinking, likewise, is an important tool that many people use in order to discern between these decisions, and to make educated choices about their lives and the things that they choose to believe. As a consumer of science, I believe that it is important for people to have a repertoire of skeptical thinking skills, or tools, in order to make decisions deriving from the barrage of information (both false and true) that we absorb on a daily basis. I’ve chosen six skepticism tools from Carl Sagan’s article, The Fine Art of Baloney Detection, that I think are the most important for scientific purposes and for everyday life. These skills include discussing the matter at hand, ignoring position of power, personal detachment from the subject, a sound argument, an understanding of Occam’s Razor, and the ability to test the subject for falsities.
Our five senses –sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch help the ways in which we perceive the world around us. And while they seem to work independently at time they can effect each other and the way we comprehend something. Seeing something pretty, touching something soft, eating something cold and smelling something rotten are the sense we use to connect with the world around us and will all effect how we move forward in that situation. When you look at the top picture say the color of the word not the word itself. It is harder than it seems and takes a little practice to do it efficiently. It is because we see the spelling we were taught not the color it was written in. It is hard to process it the other way, but not impossible. Take the bottom picture for another example is this a
“Properly open mind is just the most enjoyable way to live” Ronald Geiger said in his article about skepticism. Skepticism is one of the first steps on the road to open, creative and critical thinking that young people should take in their lives. It is important for the people in adolescence, like high school students, to learn how to think properly and be critical toward some of the aspects of society. The course in skepticism in high school will allow students to have positive effects on their intellectual level, ethical standing, physical condition and psychological status. Skepticism should be included in high school curriculars and be one of the requirements for graduation because of its tremendous amount of beneficial factors in the life of high school students.
Rationality and good judgement are typically affected by certain ways of thinking which are often studied within the psychological community. Within the community, these different ways of effected thinking are called cognitive biases. Breaking down the overall umbrella of the term cognitive bias yields subcategories of decision-making, social and memory biases, among others. Biases such as these affect all humans in one way or another. My personal experience with cognitive biases include confirmation bias, authority bias and egocentric bias. This list is definitely not complete, as I am sure there are many more biases I experience without even realizing what is happening. That being said, the first experience I would like to present is
Critical thinking is a significant and essential topic in recent education. The strategy of critical thinking skills helps identify areas in one's courses as the suitable place to highlight, expand and use some problems in exams that test students' critical thinking skills.