[OEC] Critical Thinking

Critical Thinking

Introduction

We all engage in the process of reasoning, but we donot always pay attention to whether we are doing it well. Not many people can easily

Identify flaws in arguments,
analyze the reasoning in newspaper articles, books and speeches,
assess the credibility of evidence and authorities,
make sound decisions and solve dilemmas,
approach any topic with the ability to reason and thinking critically.

And that is why we introduce critical thinking as our topic today, hoping we could think critically and be not confused about the situation we are in.

Process

There are two role in an English Corner, host and group members. The host will have to collect some topics, so that other member could share their opinions about the topics if they are interested in.

Time

20:00 - 22:00, Sat.

How to join the EC

If you would like to join us, please list your name in the table below. If you cannot attend but your name is right here, do not forget to remove your name at least half an hour in advance.

Participants booking

20:00 - 21:00	Name	Reserved Column
1	Home	Hubei / TBSI
2	Sarah	THU medicine / Physician
3	Faye	Sichuan / China foreign affairs university / International Law
4	Victor	Shenzhen /
5	Carrie / Zhang Yujing	Yantai /
6	David	Fujian / Shanghai Jiaotong University / Clinic
21:00 - 22:00
1	Brynn	Shanghai International Studies University / International Political
2	Alice	Fujian / Renmin University of China
3	Sarah (Host reserved)
4	Oven
5	Summer	Wuxi, Jiangsu /
6	Olivia

Note:

IF participants > 6 : divide the size into two, eg: one EC on 20:00-21:00 the other in 21:00-22:00

IF participants < 2 : cancel

Round 0

Topic	Warming up
Q0	What would you do if you have a time machine? Will you travel to the future or the past? Why?
F	travel back to campus life / study darder / etend more outdoor activites
V	past / college/ grandpa alive ; future / dreams + goals
D	future / kids (son or daughter) / adopting ?
C	past / miss high school mate / work harder for better university

Q1	How do people celebrate the Spring Festival in your hometown?
D	get together / go to friends’ home / three days
V	Shenzhen empty VS. Guangzhou fireworks / many people / more happier / many common / flower market for decoration / Spring Festival gala / married prepare pocket money (small cash, 5 Yuan ) for the unmarried.
F	~~Chuxi~~ Chinese/Lunar New Year Eve / hot pot / fireworks / 1st for dead ancestor / Majiang
C	Dumplings , traditional food / receive money before 22, happiest part /
Sarah	heavy snow for outdoor activities / diverse customs / traditional way

Q2(optional)	What does friendship mean to you and what kind of people do you make friend with?

Round 1

Topic	Concepts Introduction
Q0	What is critical thinking?
Ans	Click Me When we evaluate other people’s reasoning, we restrict ourselves to saying what is wrong with it. Critical evaluation involves judging both what is good and what is bad about someone’s reasoning.
Sarah	not critical to other people /
V	a way to decide whether the / thought from ourselves
F	ability to determine / adopt different (contract) opinion / learn from them to draw conclusion
C	very import
D	cons and pros / think comprehensively / treat one thing in

Q1	What is reasoning?
	The act or process of drawing conclusions from facts, evidence, etc.
Q2	What is conclusion?
	Click Me The proposition said to be true
Q4	What is argument?
	Click Me Conclusion + Premiss

Round 2

For each of the following passages:

decide whether it is an argument;
if it is an argument, say what the conclusion is.

Exercise	Identifying arguments and conclusions
Q0	Pets are good for you. Research has shown that pet owners are less likely than other people to be depressed or to suffer from high blood pressure.
Ans	Click Me This is an argument, and the conclusion is the first sentence. The evidence that those who have pets are less likely to suffer from depression and high blood pressure gives a reason to support the claim that pets are good for you, provided we can assume that it is the presence of the pet which accounts for the benefit to health. To rewrite the passage, reverse the order of the two sentences, and insert ‘so’ or ‘therefore’ before the claim that ‘pet are good for you’.

Q1	Children who are good at spelling usually have a good visual memory. Poor spellers have not learnt to look at words carefully. Practice in reading does not necessarily help spellers.
Ans	Click Me This is not an argument. It gives information about good spellers and poor spellers, but none of these claims follows from any of the others. The two claims about poor spellers are not supported by the information about good spellers, and there is no abvious connection between the two claims about the poor spellers.

Q2	Training can improve one’s performance in sport, and advance in the technology of sporting equipment can help athletes to break world records. But this does not mean that the right training and the right equipment can help anyone to excel. Scientists have identified genes that give some individuals an advantage in athletics, for example a gene that helps the body to use oxygen efficiently, and thus helps the muscles to work well for longer periods.
Ans	Click Me This is an argument. The conclusion is the second sentence, and the reason given is the third sentence. The argument could be rewritten as follows: Scientists have identified genes that give some individuals an advantage in athletics, for example a gene that helps the body to use oxygen efficiently, and thus helps the muscles to work well for longer periods. So, although training improve one’s performance in sport, and advances in the technology of sporting equipment can help athletes to break world records, this does not mean that the right training and the right equipment can help anyone to excel.

Round 3

In each question, pick the answer which could be reason for the conclusion, and explain why this is the right answer, and why the other options are wrong. Note that you are not to worry about whether the reason is true. You MUST JUST CONSIDER whether, if it were true, it would support the conclusion.

Exercise	Identifying reasons
Q0	Blood donors should be paid for giving blood.
a)	The Blood Donor service is expensive to administer.
b)	People who give blood usually do so because they want to help others.
c)	There is a shortage of blood donors, and payment would encourage more people to become donors.
Ans	Click Me The answer is c). a) does not support the conclusion, because it suggests that the Blood Donor service may not be able to afford to pay donors. b) may look temping, but it does not support the conclusion, unless we assume that people should always be paid for helping others. It suggests that for many people, there is no need to pay them in order to motivate them to give blood. c) supports the recommendation to pay blood donors by mentioning an advantage of doing so - that is would remedy or reduce the shortage of blood donors by encouraging more people to become donors.
Q1	When choosing someone for a job, employers should base their decision on the applicants’s personalities, rather than on their skills.
a)	Personalities may change over time, and skills go out of date.
b)	Skills can easily be taught, but personalities are difficult to change.
c)	Some skills cannot be acquired by everyone, but everyone can develop a good personality.
Ans	Click Me The answer is b). a) does not support the conclusion, because if both personalities and vital skills are subject to change, then neither applicants’ personalities nor their skills provide a good basis for choosing someone for a job. b) supports the conclusion since if employers ignore the importance of applicants’ personalities, they may appoint someone with an unsuitable personality which cannot be changed. If, however, they appoint someone with a suitable personality, they can easily teach this person the necessary skills. c) counts against the conclusion, because it suggests that personality differences between candidates are not very important (since everyone can develop a good personality), and also that for some jobs, those which involve skills which not everyone can acquire, differences between candidates in terms of their skills are very important.
Q2	The fall in percentage of married couples who divorce is not evidence that the percentage of unloving marriages has fallen.
a)	The total number of marriage per year has been steadily falling.
b)	People who live together without marring are more likely to split up than those who are married.
c)	Some couples remain married simply because divorce is regarded as too expensive.
Ans	Click Me The answer is c). a) has no impact on the conclusion, because the conclusion is about a fall in percentages, and a percentage is not affected by the total number of the group in question. b) does not support the conclusion, because it concerns a different group than the group about which the conclusion is drawn. c) supports the conclusion, because it gives a reason why people may not divorce even if they do not have a loving marriage, and hence why the divorce rate could be falling even if the percentage of unloving marriages were not.

Round 4

Identify word/words that are ambiguous int the following argument

Exercise	Using language skills in critical thinking
Q0	It is important that in bringing up children we should try to develop the quality of empathy, because those who lack it can be dangerous. For example, child molesters and psychopaths are dangerous precisely because they do not care about the suffering of others. However, children will need more than the quality of empathy in order to grow up into the kind of citizens we want, because empathy can be used in good or evil ways- for example the businessman who can use his understanding of others to inspire colleagues or in order to exploit them.
	Click Me
Q1	Doctors should always be honest with their patients. If a doctor tells a patient a lie, and she finds out that she has been deceived, then the relationship of trust which is crucial for successful medical treatment will have broken down. Moreover since patients have a right to know everything about their medical condition, those patients who ask doctors about their condition should be given truthful answers to their questions.
	Click Me