Some Special Features:
From Chapter 9: Justification, Paradigms and Reasoning
From Chapter 10: Seeing, Reasoning and Scientific Justification
From Chapter 12: Philosophical Dialectic and High Justification
The Basic Philosophical Ideas behind Critical Thinking:
From Chapter 13: Religion and Science
From Chapter 14: Pseudoscience as Unjustified Statements
From Chapter 15: The United States and the Global Corporate Economy
The Bastard Theory of CEO Compensation:
Jukebox Government:
Environmental Damage:
The Business Cycle:
Taxes and “Wealthfare:”
Korten on Corporations:
Near the conclusion of the book:
Some Special Features:
Several features of this book ought to be of wide use to many readers.
First, the tables of reason and conclusion indicators in Chapter One
should be of use to readers of any level to improve their recognition of
reasoning and analysis of it into reason and conclusions.
Second, the method of arrow diagramming in Chapters One and Two should
help anyone determine the structure of any piece of reasoning no matter
how long or complex.
Third, Chapter 6 contains a very recent, large expansion of
syllogistic logic which enables us to form general statements with much
more precision on five levels of generality, not just two. It also provides
a method of determining validity of 4,000 syllogistic forms which is
exact and avoids the circle - drawing and confusion students sometimes
face over where to put the “x” in Venn diagrams.
Fourth, Chapters 9 and 10 get deeply into that part of Theory of
knowledge called “justification.” This is essential for evaluation of
unsupported claims. Chapter 12 expounds the philosophical positions
underlying critical thinking as a method.
Fifth, for young people, particularly students, Chapters 13, 14, and 15
provide large doses of negative facts about religion, pseudoscience, and
the American and global corporate economy as things to be critical
about, background for evaluation of many unsupported claims.
From Chapter 9: Justification, Paradigms and Reasoning
There are some powerful parts of human nature which distort our world
views, making us poor epistemic agents. The main ones are EGO,
SELF-DECEPTION and WISHFUL THINKING. “Egotism” means thinking that you
are better than others “Egoism” means "looking out for Number One." Both
often lead to “rationalization.” Rationalization is reasoning from
reasons which falsely favor oneself and ones' group. In general, people
tend to think too highly of themselves, their own family members,
school, church, nation. They also think too lowly of others. Gilovich
cites surveys which show that large majorities of people think that they
are more intelligent, fair-minded, less prejudiced, and better drivers
than the average person. It is mathematically impossible for large
majorities to be better than average. We are able to deceive ourselves,
because these selves are loose-knit collections of subsystems, not
single souls which can “see” all our beliefs at once.
From Chapter 10: Seeing, Reasoning and Scientific Justification
Thinkers make up words to help talk about things. For example, the
Greeks talked about "Zeus's thunderbolts." They meant what we now call
"lightning"... [There follows a discussion of the words “epicycle" and
“possession by demons:"]
Some people seem to behave like two or more different people. Medieval
priests tried to explain this strange behavior. Following the Bible,
they theorized that such people were "possessed by demons." “Demon” thus
became a theoretical term. This led them to practices such as beating
such people or making them eat and drink foul substances. The theory was
to make the body unpleasant for the demon. This treatment didn't help to
explain or predict split personality behavior. Worse yet, it added to
the misery of the sick person. So eventually people stopped saying
things like (50) "Fat red demons make people violent, while thin green
ones make them sad." Were these medieval exorcists really talking about
anything when they talked this way? Most of us would be inclined to say
"no." ...
A shorter form of Ockham’s Razor is “What can be explained by the
assumption of fewer things is vainly (that is uselessly, wrongly)
explained by the assumption of more things.”... Ockham’s Razor is a
principle of critical thinking which has come to be deeply involved in
philosophy and science. “Ontology” means the study of what kinds of
beings exist (and maybe of what kinds don’t exist.) Let’s call the list
of things we believe to exist our “ontological commitments.” Ockham’s
Razor says we should be parsimonious (say par sih moan e uhs), that is,
stingy, in what we believe to exist. We need to have good reason to
believe that something exists. It must be necessary to actually explain
or predict something. ...
From examples like “demon” and Ockham’s Razor has developed the idea of
“the Ontological Fallacy.” The Ontological Fallacy is the fallacy of
making a thing out of words. When people hear a word, particularly a
noun, used in a sentence, they automatically think there must be some
thing which the noun stands for. But this is not always true, as we see
in the case of "possession by demons."...
Proposed theoretical terms, to function in highly justified claims,
must occur in statements which are testable and consistent with other
justified claims. The statements must explain and predict events and
enable us to act successfully on the world...
An explanation is unjustified when it 1) relies on unprovable or
improbable claims as initial conditions or laws and 2) uses unnecessary
entities.
Horrendous examples of both circumstances 1) and 2) are given by
Robbins (1959, p. 18). In 1608 an Italian Friar named Guazzo
explained why a priest cut his own throat while waiting to be burned at
the stake. The priest was 90 years old. He had been tortured. He was
desperate over his fate. But Guazzo “explained” that a demon appeared to
him and tempted him so that ... he cut his own throat with his knife. A
papal judge named Paulus Grillandus gave an “explanation” why a witch
can not escape from prison. The devil could, after all, change her shape
and enable her to crawl through the keyhole. However, “when the devil
has once got control over [witches] he is eager that they should be put
to death, in order that they should not escape him by recanting and
penitence.”
Often what needed to be explained had an obvious explanation which
could not be accepted. An example was the torture and murder of people
based on false accusations. An Inquisitor named Bartolemeo Spina
“explained” why oxen which were left unguarded and allegedly killed by
witches were later found alive and in their original condition. The
Church would have been committing a mortal sin to torture and murder
innocent people on false charges. But the Church cannot commit mortal
sin. So he “explained” that witches kill the oxen and eat them but
then, with the help of the devil, they put the skin back on the bones
and bring them back to life. Demonologists had to explain how a woman
could be seen in bed at night by her husband and still be far away at a
witches’ Sabbath. A “deus ex machina” (say DAY uhs eks mah keen a) is a
“god in the machine,” a non sensible, personal being assumed to exist
just to explain some event without careful study of the laws and causes
involved in that event. Since it has no known laws governing its’
behavior, it is a “wild card”. It can be used to give a “pseudo
explanation” of any event. Assuming “wild card” supernatural powers and
a devil, inquisitors could pseudo explain evidence of witchcraft and
even treat non-evidence as evidence.
Among competing explanations those are better which: 1) explain
numerical detail of an event or object more precisely, 2) explain
similar events in detail, 3) explain other types of events, 4) enable
precise prediction of future events, 5) enable or make it easier for
humans to have effects on events though the development of tools,
instruments, machines or procedures, 6) do not leave the event or data
to be explained surprising, 7) do not allow for raising unanswerable
questions. Such explanations are also 8) simpler and 9) consistent with
other explanations and theories which are better in the same senses.
Non sensible personal beings which can violate the laws of nature
(spirits, souls) are useless to provide any specific explanation to fix,
predict or control anything and are worse than scientific explanations
on these criteria.
From Chapter 12: Philosophical Dialectic and High Justification
Many philosophers, like some religious leaders, have been persecuted
for their freethinking in the long process of putting wisdom and justice
into government and other human institutions. Socrates was executed.
Anaxagoras was banished and Aristotle had to flee from Athens. Zeno of
Elea was tortured. Hypatia was murdered. Seneca was forced to commit
suicide. Boethius was imprisoned and executed. Bruno was burned at the
stake. Spinoza was excommunicated by the synagogue and the victim of
attempted murder. Hobbes, Locke and Marx had to flee their countries.
Gramsci was imprisoned for a long time...
The Basic Philosophical Ideas behind Critical Thinking:
Critical thinkers believe in a view called Realism (or “Truth
Absolutism” or “the Objective View of Truth.”) Realism says there is a
way that the world is independent of what anyone thinks. It says that
there are facts which are independent of what anyone wishes or hopes the
facts might be. It is the view that the truth really is “out there.” It
holds that much important truth is objective, not subjective or relative
to individuals, societies, or sets of concepts. It disagrees with the
view that we humans make our reality. That view could be called
“Idealism” or “Truth Relativism” or “Truth Subjectivism.”... Other ideas
presupposed by critical thinking are materialism, mechanism, naturalism
and humanism.
From Chapter 13: Religion and Science
Many wars are described in the Old Testament. In Exodus Ch. 15: V. 3
Moses and the children of Israel sing: “The Lord is a man of war.” In
Numbers Ch. 31: V. 7-18 it describes the fate of the Midianites. After
the Israelites defeat them, they kill the kings and all the men. When
they bring the women and children to Moses, he gets angry and says:
“kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath
known man by lying with him. But all the women children that have not
known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.” In
Deuteronomy Ch. 2: V. 31 - 34, Moses relates that God gave Sihon and
his land to the Israelites. Moses says (V. 34) “And we took all his
cities at that time, and utterly destroyed the men, and the women, and
the little ones, of every city, we left none to remain.” These religions
prohibited birth control so they could out breed others to build bigger
armies. Retrograde fundamentalists still try to prohibit it while there
is an environmental crisis and they have lost control of governments
and the ability to field armies at all.
To kill a large number, or all men, women and children; civilians, is
called “genocide.” It is widely condemned among nations today as
barbaric wrongdoing. Yet God threatens or orders it repeatedly. In
Deuteronomy Ch. 3, genocide is committed against all of the three score
(60!) cities of Bashan (V. 4.) In Ch. 7, V. 2 it is commanded against 7
nations. In Joshua, Ch. 10, God “delivers” 6 cities, “and he [Joshua]
smote [them] with the edge of the sword, and all the souls that were
therein; he let none remain.” Check out 1 Samuel 15:2-3 and Hosea 13:16
on ripping open pregnant women and dashing infants. With such images of
God, it is no wonder that a fundamentalist American-Israeli M.D., Baruch
Goldstein, could forsake his medical oath, take up a submachine gun and
slaughter worshipers in one the holiest Islamic mosques in Israel.
Lately they have wished to kill each other over a red cow and an
offensive drawing of Mohammed...
Tertullian (150 - 230 A. D.) said that the incarnation of Christ “is
certain because it is impossible.” He also said, “Credo quia absurdum
est,” I believe because it is absurd. He seemed to recognize that
theological statements are absurd, highly unjustified, by a standard of
evidence applied to factual claims. Their distinctive absurdity is a
reason for their being held at all. Distinctive absurdity seems to be a
necessary quality in statements settled on to be “articles of faith.”
Theological claims are picked to be confessed, not professed or
asserted. They are membership-confessing statements (see Cowley, 1991
p. 7.) In marketing terms, they differentiate brands, like Joe Camel and
the Marlboro Man...
Such non - reality - based disputes are settled only by political
struggle, war or schism, (splitting.)...
Judaism was founded about 4,000 B.C. Hinduism developed around 1,500
B.C. Gautama began the split of Buddhism from Hinduism about 500 B.C.
Catholicism began with the death of Jesus in 33 A. D. Islam began with
the teachings of Mohammed around 600 A. D. The Eastern Orthodox Church
separated from Catholicism around 1,000 A. D. The Reformation saw
Lutheranism begin with Martin Luther’s 95 theses in 1517. The Anglican
Church split from Catholicism in 1534. Presbyterianism began with the
teachings of John Calvin and John Knox in the 1560s. Unitarianism has
origins going back to the 1500s. Congregationalism developed out of
Puritanism in the early 1600s. The Baptist religion began with John
Smyth in Amsterdam in 1607. Methodism was founded by John and Charles
Wesley in England in 1744. Episcopalianism formed into a separate
religion founded by Samuel Seabury in 1789. Mormonism was founded by
John Smith in Palmyra, New York in 1830. The Salvation Army began with
William Booth in London in 1865. The Jehovah’s Witnesses religion was
founded by Charles Taze in the 1870’s. Christian Science was founded in
1879 by Mary Baker Eddy. Pentecostalism was founded in the United States
in 1901.
Which of these 19 religions were founded on the discovery of some new,
repeatable phenomenon of nature? Which have led to theories confirmed by
others’ observations? Tools and inventions are machines. the essence of
a machine is reliable performance. Which have contributed any tools or
inventions for the production of food, clothing, shelter, or medicines
for prevention or cure of diseases? Which have not been in conflict with
others for followers? Only critical thinkers ask such questions. Major
religions have hundreds or thousands of denominations. There are no
Orthodox, Pentecostal, Adventist or Jehovah's physicists. This suggests
that if there is one Reality, science is getting at it, theology is not.
From Chapter 14: Pseudoscience as Unjustified Statements
The term “pseudoscience” means "pretend" or "fake" science. The pseudosciences present a lot of claims as true, as known, as providing
important factual knowledge of reality, as useful for prediction of
events and gaining some wisdom and control over one’s life. Yet on
examination such statements turn out not even to be justified. Subjects
in which pseudoscientific claims are made include abduction (kidnapping)
by aliens, ancient astronauts, astrology, the Bermuda Triangle,
crystal and pyramid power, cults, demonic possession and exorcism,
Freudian psychology, ghosts and channeling, health and nutrition
quackery, monsters (like Big Foot and the Loch Ness monster), New Age
Millenarianism, psi phenomena, (including telepathy, and telekinesis),
pyramid power, satanism and witchcraft, and UFOs as “flying saucers.”
Hines (1998) excellent treatment of pseudoscience lists the most
common qualities of the pseudosciences as follows.
1) They make
unfalsifiable hypotheses.
2) They look for or actually manufacture
“mysteries.”
3) They claim that these “mysteries” can not be explained
by science.
4) They uncritically accept myths or Bible stories as
literally true.
5) They uncritically accept eyewitness testimony of
unique, non-repeatable events for the existence of phenomena which
careful scientific observers can not reproduce.
6) They accept as real
phenomena events which probably did not happen at all or which can be
explained in natural terms, or in terms of hoax, fraud or magicians’
tricks.
7) They refuse to revise or change their findings substantially
in light of new evidence (Hines 1988.)
We can add to Hines’ list several more from Radner and Radner (1982)
8) The pseudo sciences also engage in anachronism, that is, they present
as new, ideas which are sometimes old and long discredited. 9) They make
false analogies or ones at least very weak. 10) They make pseudo
explanations of events by scenarios rather than scientific explanations
by causal laws. 11) They are “armchair fields.” They substitute
interpretation of texts (like the Bible or people’s reports) for
real-world laboratory or field research.
The “paranormal” is that area of pseudoscience which relies on
dualistic pseudo explanations. The paranormal includes extrasensory
perception (ESP), telekinesis, ghosts, poltergeists, near-death
experiences as “proof” of life after death, reincarnation, and faith
healing. As we saw in Chapter 12, dualism has such severe problems that
it is unjustified to hold it. Therefore, it can not explain and
certainly can not justify the existence of these alleged phenomena.
If there is one principle that students who wish to become critical
thinkers should absorb from the following exposure to pseudoscientific
claims it is probably one stated by Sagan (1995.) The principle is
this. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof! ...
From Chapter 15: The United States and the Global Corporate Economy
Large portions of this chapter are based on work by Nancy Folbre (A New
Field Guide to the American Economy) and David Korten (When Corporations
Rule the World.)
Critical thinkers are people who can draw distinctions. A very
important distinction is that between the American people, our
government and our economic system. The American people have made great
achievements in the nearly 210 years since the country was founded.
However, the thesis of this chapter is: The economic and governmental
systems under which American’s accomplishments have been made are
terribly flawed. Furthermore, inequalities, injustices, social and
environmental damage they have created are getting worse, not better.
High stock prices, low inflation and increased employment can not make
up for the basic inequality of wealth, the decline in Americans’ real
wages, job insecurity and other negative factors...
Wealth in the United States is very unevenly distributed. In 1991, the
top 20% of households with incomes of more than $53,448, owned 45% of
all household wealth. The bottom 20%, with incomes of less than $12,852,
owned about 7% (Folbre, et. al. Sec. 1.1.) The rich continue to get
richer at the expense of the poor and middle classes. The top 1%
increased their share of net worth, or wealth, from 31% to 37% between
1983 and 1989. Their share now exceeds that owned by the bottom 90% of
all families. Much of this wealth will be passed on, untouched, to the
next generation. The top tax rate on income fell from 90% during the
Kennedy years to 31% during the Reagan years (Sec. 1.2.) The richest 10%
of families held: 80% of all nonresidential real estate; 91% of all
business assets; 85% of all stocks; 94% of all bonds. More than half of
the richest 400 people in this country largely inherited their wealth
(Sec. 1.4.)
The Bastard Theory of CEO Compensation:
What are American CEO’s paid so much for? One theory, to put it in
plain language, is that they are paid so much to be bastards, to lay off
thousands of American workers, force others to do their work, ship jobs
overseas to get lower labor costs, rape the environment, and generally
do anything to get higher profits and stock prices...
Jukebox Government:
Put a quarter in a jukebox and it plays your tune. Put a quarter
million dollars in the political party machinery and government writes
laws and makes decisions that you want... However, all the money given
by wealthy individuals alone is small be comparison to what corporations
themselves give. In terms of money power, giant trans-national
corporations have become the dominant form of governmental institution
in the world today. Without being elected to any office, they get law
written the way they want it by paying off politicians with campaign
contributions. In other words, government by corruption is the standard
operating procedure of our federal government. It takes so much money
to get elected to national office the money can not possibly come from
the people in small contributions. Also, no organizations other than
corporations have enough money to really influence government, not even
unions. In Congressional campaigns in 1991-92, business outspent other
groups by a wide margin. It invested more than $295 million in its
favorite candidates. Organized labor could only raise 15% of that
(about $43 million.) Environment organizations and other “special
interests” only raised $18.6 million (Folbre, Sec. 1.7.)
The distribution of income worsened considerably in the 1980s... In
1992, women still earned only about 71 cents for every dollar a man
earned ... About 43 million Americans have physical or mental
disabilities, and 66% are unemployed ( “Job creation,” 1993.) Despite
the Americans with Disabilities Act, challenged people, this largest
minority of all, face serious risk of poverty. Blacks and Latinos MAKE
up about 12% and 10% of the population. Asians and Pacific Islanders,
3%, and Native Americans nearly 1% (Sec. 4.1.) Only 12% of Blacks’
households and 15% of Latino’s had incomes over $50,000 in 1992,
compared with 27% of white households. In 1991, Latino and Black
families had a median net worth of only about one tenth that of white
families...
Environmental Damage:
Large areas of land have been degraded through overgrazing,
deforestation, agricultural mismanagement, and pollution. Land degraded
as a percentage of total vegetated land 1945-91: in Asia, 20%; Africa,
22%; South America, 14%; Europe, 23%; North and Central America, 8%;
Oceania, 13%; the World as a whole, 17% (Sec. 8.3.) Three hundred seven
types of Mammals, 226 Birds; 80 Reptiles; 14 Amphibians; 65 Fish and
386 plants are the number of endangered species, worldwide, as of 1992.
Species extinction is to some extent natural. However, humans may be
losing species which could be very valuable to ourselves by destroying
their habitats (Sec. 8.4.)
The Business Cycle:
The American economy is subject to a business cycle of booms and
busts. The sooner the student learns this, and learns to make hay while
the sun shines, the better off he or she is likely to be financially in
life. The US has had panics or recessions in 1873, ‘84, ‘90, ‘94, 1912,
‘29-39, ‘54, ‘58, ’70, ’73, 80-82, and ‘91...
Taxes and “Wealthfare:”
American workers pay lower income and payroll taxes, on average, than
workers in other industrial countries (25% as compared with 33%, Sec.
5.4). Most business also pay higher taxes in other industrial
countries. Japan and Germany have steeper corporate tax rates. And
their economies are growing faster than ours. Initiative is not damaged
by taxation. Although European workers pay more income and sales taxes,
they get a large variety of subsidized government services, including
universal health care, and much better unemployment compensation than we
do. Moreover, they don’t have to be ashamed, as we ought to be, about
the number of fellow citizens in poverty, homelessness, in ill health
or who go to bed hungry at night.
From another perspective, the average American working person’s taxes
are too high. That perspective is in relation to taxation on the wealthy
and corporations. Zepenzauer and Naimen (1996) outline how this works.
They assemble data indicating that wealthfare amounts to $448 billion
per year! Wealthfare is the money not collected from the wealthy and
corporations in taxes which used to be collected, or ought to be
collected, or which is transferred to them from working people’s taxes,
(Zepenzauer and Neiman, p. 6) We could wipe out the $117 billion
deficit by cutting wealthfare just 26%. Wealthfare for the rich costs
about 3.5 times as much as welfare for the poor, which is now being cut.
three years of wealthfare costs more than it costs to run the entire
federal government for a year. The national debt is now about $5.1
trillion. Less than 12 years of wealthfare at the current rate equals
all the deficit spending the U. S. government has engaged in over more
than 200 years!
Korten on Corporations:
It is Korten’s thesis that corporations have emerged as the dominant
governance institutions on the planet. The largest among them reach into
almost every country in the world and exceed most governments in size
and power. The corporate interest more than the human interest now
defines the policy of nations and international bodies... 358
billionaires in the world have a combined net worth of $760 billion -
equal to the net worth of all the poorest 2.5 billion of the world’s
people.
Near the conclusion of the book:
If the extensive critical discussion which went before makes the
situation seem hopeless, it was not intended to do so. Humankind makes
progress very slowly. By critical intelligence over perhaps 7,000 years
we have developed science and mastered most of the secrets of the
universe. Critical intelligence has made it possible for humans to live
long, healthy lives, to develop their talents and abilities, and to
contribute to the welfare of others.
There are still tremendous problems. One is the thousands of undisarmed
nuclear weapons, desperate people, fanatics and nations which may get
and use them. Another is corporate domination, the worsening economic
condition of many Americans and the growth of the intolerant Patriot
Movement in response to it. However, critical thinkers are not doomed to
unhappy irrelevance. Disraeli said, “Justice is truth in action.” In his
acceptance speech for the Green Party Presidential nomination Ralph
Nader (1996) quoted Daniel Webster: “Justice is the great work of human
beings on earth.” He added, “It’s truly remarkable what the fulfillment
of civic potential does to human beings. They’re happier.... So the very
pursuit of justice becomes the pursuit of happiness.