What does this all have to do with critical thinking?!? Can you reflect on how these “exercises” (from yesterday) relate to the critical thinking processes? How are observations and perceptions related to our prepositions (statements of knowledge)?

Brain Games The Rubber Hand Experiment channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/brain-games/galleries/brain-games-watch- this-pictures/at/optical-illusion-37418/ Pay Attention attention/ attention/ Switcheroo So, are you a believer yet? Human beings are not naturally critical thinkers....we fall into perception traps when our observations and perceptions collide…like they did here...

Descartes Believes in reason rather than the senses. In place of observation and collecting of data from sight, smell, hearing, and touch, Descartes wanted a universal system of science derived from logical and mathematical premises and proved by rigorous deduction.

Perception: Questions to Consider How does perception influence what you think about “big issues”? Can you see, like Descartes did, the benefits of logic? What arguments would you have against his ideas? How do you perceive knowledge and the world? How do you express your knowledge and does that change with new pieces of information? If we’re talking about information as a possible component of and barrier to critical thinking – where does perception come in and how can we use it to support the critical thinking process?

Basic Forms of Knowledge Empirical Knowledge Value judgments (norms) One’s basic view of the world (metaphysics)

Think About It Someone looks out over a field and sees, not too far away, what he takes to be a sheep and a dog. Suppose now that what he takes to be a dog is in fact a sheep, and what he takes to be a sheep is a dog. Why can we not say that he knows that there is a sheep in the field? Someone looks, precisely at noon as it happens, at a clock which unbeknownst to him is not working and has for some days shown the same time, 12 o'clock. So he accepts that it is 12 o'clock, it is in fact 12 o'clock, and he is completely justified in accepting that it is 12 o'clock. Why can we not say that he knows that it is 12 o'clock?

Theories of Truth: Western Philosophy So if we’re talking about knowledge and prepositions, how do we know what is true and can be considered a true preposition? 3 Main Theories of Truth (Western Philosophy)

Correspondence Theory: "A true proposition is a proposition which says that things are such and such, and things are just such and such" (Alfred Tarski) – i.e. for a proposition to be true it must correspond to or match a state of affairs in the world. Criticisms: How do we know things truly match up?

Example "England beat Australia in the 2003 World Cup Final" Does that correspond to "Australia were beaten by England in the 2003 World Cup final?”

Coherence Theory: According to this view, a proposition is true if it is consistent with all the other propositions we hold. The following question arises though: Without a basis, how can such a concept of truth ever get off the ground? We must accept some propositions as true so that others can be consistent with them. Criticisms: what is coherences? Who “coheres”?

Example "I dropped the vase because an African elephant knocked it from my grasp, since we were arguing over who should buy it". Why might we not accept this story? African elephants are not known to talk. African elephants are not known to be patrons of antique shops. African elephants are not found in this part of the world. No elephant was known to be within a certain number of kilometres of the shop. No-one else in the shop saw the elephant.

Pragmatism (from Gk. pragma, act, deed): This is a method of philosophy in which the meaning of an idea is to be found in an examination of the consequences to which it would lead (C.S. Peirce,) The truth of a proposition is measured by its correspondence with experimental results and by its practical outcome – i.e. by its consequences rather than its origin. Thus pragmatists hold that truth is not absolute, but modified as discoveries are made, and that it is therefore relative to time and place and purpose of inquiry

Example “The test will be easy.” I studied for the test. I was in class, and I was attentive. I know the material well. She is a fair test-marker.

What is Truth? MrAPUhttp:// MrAPU tMe278E&feature=relatedhttp:// tMe278E&feature=related