Hi Billy, On Dec 15, 2012, at 12:15 PM, [email protected] wrote: > I envision a course that incorporates many facets of critical thinking. > Students should get an introduction to logic. They should learn a bit about > cognitive science to understand some of the biases and mental shortcuts we > all subconsciously employ. (How can you think at a high level without the > awareness that there are wayward tendencies in your thinking machine that > sometimes require troubleshooting and maintenance?) They should study some of > the tools of rhetoric so they can identify the art of persuasion at work, > particularly when they’re being targeted by it. And they should study the > scientific method in this context, as a reliable guide through a treacherous > terrain full of pitfalls and mirages. > > I largely agree with his critique, but I fear logic-based approaches are doomed to fail. Knowing logical and rhetorical failures appears of limited use in actually curing people of cognitive biases. :-(
I suspect a more fruitful approach would be based on model thinking, a la Coursera: https://www.coursera.org/course/modelthinking Give people tools for understanding the world, and then SHOW them the limitations of those tools, so that they are both appreciative and skeptical. -- Ernie P. -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org
