Category Archives: Critical Thinking

Another Double Blind Test surprise

Stradivarius Fails Sound Test Versus Newbie Violins Download pdf (from sciam) Can you tell the difference between modern violins and antiques crafted by Italian masters? Don’t feel too bad – expert players can’t do it either. In a double-blind test, 21 experienced … Continue reading

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Correlation Does Not Imply Causation

Another classic from Dilbert See also  Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc

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The Coherentist’s Nightmare

The coherency theory of truth

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Benefits of Collaborative Philosophical Inquiry in Schools

Stephan Millett & Alan Tapper Centre for Applied Ethics and Philosophy, Curtin University  If you need to show why doing collaborative philosophical inquiry, or just philosophy, in schools is important, this is a good place to start.       … Continue reading

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Conspiracy, Independent Scholarship and the Truth as a Commodity

Great stuff again from The Stone (NYTimes) Who Wrote Shakespeare? While it is perfectly obvious to everyone that Ben Jonson wrote all of Shakespeare’s plays, it is less known that Ben Jonson’s plays were written by a teen-age girl in … Continue reading

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The Backfire Effect

When people believe more strongly in something AFTER they have been given information that refutes it…. Good explanation here http://youarenotsosmart.com/2011/06/10/the-backfire-effect/ And paper by Brendan Nyhan here (pdf).  Abstract below. An extensive literature addresses citizen ignorance, but very little research focuses … Continue reading

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Bayesian Inference (Homo Bayesianis)

Bayesian Inference (and a good explanation of Bayes’ Theorem) ~best to ignore this one if you’re not already in the loop~ via http://www.brera.mi.astro.it/~andreon/inference/Inference.html

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Cognitive Dissonance Explained

By Dilbert, of course… Wikipedia cognitive dissonance.

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The Changing Climate of Skepticism

Via Embiggen Books In this excellent talk given by Peter Ellerton (winner of the 2008 Australian Skeptics prize for Critical Thinking) on the Climate Change debate, the viewer is encouraged to examine the way in which the debate is being … Continue reading

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Pick your Cognitive Bias

Another brilliant Dilbert

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Imagining the Tenth Dimension

Excellent intellectual exercise

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A Wonderful Piece of Pseudoscience in Advertising

Well worth reading the whole lot. The language is absolute nonsense. “By strengthening the body’s own natural energy and innate intelligence, the QLink allows it to recognise and differentiate between which external energies are healthy, and which are not. The … Continue reading

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Reasons for Reason

Via MICHAEL P. LYNCH NYTimes The Stone Rick Perry’s recent vocal dismissals of evolution, and his confident assertion that “God is how we got here” reflect an obvious divide in our culture. In one sense, that divide is just over the … Continue reading

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Atheism as a ‘Null Hypothesis’

An interesting take on the subject by QualiaSoup…

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Why do humans reason? Arguments for an argumentative theory

Great paper on Reasoning Why Do Humans Reason? (pdf) Abstract and authors below… Abstract: Reasoning is generally seen as a means to improve knowledge and make better decisions. However, much evidence shows that reasoning often leads to epistemic distortions and poor … Continue reading

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Tips on Writing a Philosophy Paper/Essay

A nice overview from  Douglas W. Portmore Tips on writing a philosophy paper (pdf) The full text is below…

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Ability to Think Scientifically Declines as Kids Grow Up

Young children think like researchers but lose the feel for the scientific method as they age        via Scientific American If your brownies came out too crispy on top but undercooked in the center, it would make sense … Continue reading

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Developing critical thinking skills

A useful handout that talks about reading, writing and thinking critically with examples of how to achieve this. via http://sydney.edu.au/stuserv/documents/learning_centre/critical.pdf Critical Thinking Skills (pdf)

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Critical Thinking – An Introduction (Alec Fisher)

This ebook is widely available for download on the web.  I got it here www.axzopress.com/downloads/pdf/1560526483pv.pdf  Critical thinking introduction (pdf) A good resource for referencing what we mean by critical thinking.

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The power of the non sequitur

From www.dilbert.com of course…

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