ASSAIGNMENT

SUBMITTED BY Waleed khan

PhD (computer science)

SUBMITTED TO DR. Arif-Iqbal-umer

Department of (information technology)

Hazara University Mansehra

TITLE chapter 1 summery

Department of Communication and media studies

Hazara University Mansehra
FALL-2020
 Chapter 1: Don’t Believe Everything You Think Basics

● The purpose of critical thinking is to come to conclusions and challenge our

beliefs.
● Beliefs and claims A belief is something you believe. Beliefs and claims are
propositional: they can be expressed in true or false declaration.
● Claim- when a belief (judgement or opinion) is asserted in a declarative
sentence, the result is a claim, statement or assertion.
○ Objective claim
■ Where it’s true or false it is independent of whether people think its
true or false.
■ “There is life on mars”- whether or not life exists there doesn’t
depend on whether people think it does.
■ Is true or false regardless of whether people think it is true or false.
■ This is also known as a factual claim.
○ Subjective claim
■ Whether it is true or false is not independent of whether people
think it’s true or false.
■ Hot chocolate is too sweet - this depends on what you think.
■ Its truthfulness depends on what your personal opinions.
● Relativism the idea that truth is relative to the standards of a given culture.
○ If 2 cultures have different meanings for the word water, then
neither of them are mistaken for the meaning of the word itself.
● Moral subjective- Moral subjectivism is the idea that moral opinions are
subjective - For example if you think bullfighting is wrong then it is morally
wrong for you and there is no need for further consideration - “There is nothing
either good or bad, but that thinking makes it so” - Hamlet - But this raises
questions
● Nothing is either good or bad but our thinking makes it one or the other.
● Issue- this is a question.
● First you need to consider what exactly the issue is - As well as what
considerations are needed to come to a conclusion
● Argument
○ Consists of 2 parts
■ The premise/premises is intended to provide a reasons for
accepting the claim.
■ The conclusion states a position on the issue under
consideration.
■ In our experience, lots of college students seriously
contemplate getting a dog or cat. But they are conflicted. On
the one hand, it would be sweet to have a nice pet; but on the
other, it would be extra work and cost money, and they aren’t
sure what to do with the animal if they take a trip. If you are
such a student, you weigh the arguments pro and con. An
 argument presents a consideration for accepting a claim. For
example, this is an argument:
■ A dog would keep me company; so I should get one.
■ My landlord will raise my rent; so I shouldn’t get one.
■ The first example is an argument for getting a dog. The second
is an argument for not getting one. As you can see from these
two examples, an argument consists of two parts. One part
gives a reason for accepting the other part. The part that
provides the reason is called the premise of the argument,*
though an argument may have more than one premise. The
other part is called the conclusion. The conclusion of an
argument is what the premise supposedly supports or
demonstrates. You should always think of the conclusion of an
argument as stating a position on an issue, and of the premise
or premises as giving reasons for taking that position.
○
● Cognitive biases- a feature of human psychology that skews belief formation.
○ Belief bias- evaluating reasoning by how believable its conclusion is.
○ Confirmation bias- a tendency to attach more weight to considerations
that support our view.
○ Availability heuristic- assigning a probability to an event based on
how easily or frequently it is thought of.
○ False consensus effect- assuming our opinions and those held by
people around us are shared by society at large.
○ Bandwagon effect- the tendency to align our beliefs with those of
other people (in order to fit in the group).
○ Negativity bias- attaching more weight on negative information than
positive information.
○ Loss aversion- being more strongly motivated to avoid a loss than to
receive a gain.
○ In-group bias- make us view people who belong to our group
differently to those who don't belong to our group.
○ Fundamental attribution error- having 1 understanding of the
behaviour of people in the in-group and another for people not
in the in-group.
○ Obedience to authority- a tendency to comply with instructions from
an authority.
○ Overconfidence effect- leads us to overestimate what
percentage of our answers on a particular subject are correct.
○ Better-than-average illusion- leads us to overestimate our own
abilities relative to those of others.
● Truth- a claim is true if it is free from error.
● Knowledge- if you believe something, have an argument beyond a
reasonable doubt that it is so, and have no reason to think you are mistaken,
you can claim you know it.