Critical thinking skills

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Layokee

Wed, Jun 26 2024, 7:33 pm

How does someone learn how to think critically ?

#BestBubby ↓

Wed, Jun 26 2024, 7:39 pm

Seriously consider both sides of an argument.

Watch debates. Read opinion pieces.

Reading fiction teaches empathy, understanding others point of view.

↑ #BestBubby ↓

Wed, Jun 26 2024, 7:40 pm

research vax v non vax issue.

BeingBee

Wed, Jun 26 2024, 8:14 pm

It doesn’t help to think about both sides of a debate if you don’t have the tools to break down the ideas.

Learn about how ethos, pathos and logos work to build an argument.

Learn about logical fallacies

Learn about how research is done, what is considered a “good” study.

Learn to check sources.

Do a google search on each of these things and you’ll find a ton of resources on each.

Hashem_Yaazor

Wed, Jun 26 2024, 8:16 pm

There's objective and subjective.
Logic puzzles help with learning how to rule out things and distill info. For objective, we talk a lot and share our opinions and hear others and refute and go back and forth.

When I'm solid in certain views, I personally (would not suggest this to teach) read things slanted the other way so I can solidify where I think they're going wrong. It opens me up to different opinions that I can then think through for myself with my backbone how I don't agree.

Laiya

Wed, Jun 26 2024, 9:03 pm

Good question.

Try to recognize the difference between fact and opinion. If fact, ask what evidence supports it. Do you find that evidence persuasive?

Ask questions about conclusions. Is the conclusion based on facts? Or assumptions and speculation?

Comptroller ↓

Wed, Jun 26 2024, 9:32 pm

#BestBubby wrote:

research vax v non vax issue.

Did that sharpen your critical thinking skills?

Were you able to recongnise how reckless the anti-vaxers are towards small children?

Could you detect the contradiction where anti-vaxers rely on a reality created by vaccines, which helped contain infectuous diseases, to argue against vaccines because "nothing happens if you don't vaccinate"? Well yes, the diseases are rare now, so as long as everyone else takes the vaccines, the risk for the tiny minority of anti-vaxers is limited in some realms, but if everyone did what they do, it would send us back to situation before there were vaccines, and this is not funny.

↑ #BestBubby ↓

Wed, Jun 26 2024, 11:02 pm

Most anti vaxxers don't rely on herd immunity but try to deliberately expose their children to measles,mumps and chicken pox to get real lifelong immunity.

It is questionable whether herd immunity exists given that vax immunity wanes.

It is documented that before vaccines the mortality rate from measles had declined by about 95% due to better nutrition and living conditions. Children were not dying from measles in the 1950s.

↑ Comptroller

Thu, Jun 27 2024, 2:28 am

#BestBubby wrote:

Depends where. In Africa, there are, saddly enough still many deaths from measels and chickenpox today.

Trademark ↓

Thu, Jun 27 2024, 3:36 am

I think a big part is how you were raised and if your parents taught you.

If parents run to suggest solutions to every problem they don't give a chance for the child to develop skills.

↑ Trademark

Thu, Jun 27 2024, 4:38 am

I don't know why this had to be made into an anti vax thread but I'll address it in general term.

Some think they are smart and critical thinkers because they are contrarians and don't accept the mainstream "narrative".

When you start questioning everything (is the earth round?) it's just the other side of the same coin

Smart people have some skepticism but understand not everything is a conspiracy. They have discernment and understand that there is nuance to most situations.

ShishKabob

Thu, Jun 27 2024, 4:39 am

Layokee wrote:

How does someone learn how to think critically ?

Learn gemara lol

↑ #BestBubby

Thu, Jun 27 2024, 9:58 am

Comptroller wrote:

Depends where. In Africa, there are, saddly enough still many deaths from measels and chickenpox today.

Yes, due to starvation and lack of clean water.

Does not apply to children in first world counties who are not dying of measles and chicken pox.

zaq

Thu, Jun 27 2024, 2:17 pm

#BestBubby wrote:

Yes, due to starvation and lack of clean water.

Does not apply to children in first world counties who are not dying of measles and chicken pox.

I guess you forgot about the measles outbreaks IN THE US about 30 years ago. Insurance companies had stopped covering routine pediatric immunizations and people weren't getting their kids immunized.

From the CDC: As of May 10, 1991, local and state health departments reported a provisional total of 27,672* measles cases in the United States for 1990---a 52.1% increase over the 18,193 cases reported for 1989 (1) (Figure 1)---and 89 suspected measles-associated deaths.

Yes, in the United States. The insurance companies, which had to cover the cost of hospitalizations, saw the light (read: made a business decision to prevent future outlays) and reinstated coverage of pediatric immunizations.

peace2

Thu, Jun 27 2024, 2:21 pm

ShishKabob wrote:

Learn gemara lol

You’re not wrong. Gemara is a great way to develop critical thinking skills. You can try logic puzzles to sharpen that part of your brain
Sorry for hijacking the hijacked thread back to the original topic

sequoia

Thu, Jun 27 2024, 3:02 pm

Trademark wrote:

Very good point.

singleagain

Tue, Jul 02 2024, 2:13 am

I was thinking about this and one thing I have to say is read (actually read) all the way through. A lot of people don't follow through and only read part of article. maybe skim the rest...maybe get board and stop. I don't know I actually haven't read anything like this 😂 ...

I'm basing this assumption off two things (1) the number of times I see ppl post "I haven't read the whole thread" / "I only read the first post" .... Although even when they don't say that it's sometimes obvious bc they quote the first post with such a heated response, that you know they hadn't read OP's second post bc of how the story changed.
This is especially prevalent on threads that are more than 3 pages, in which is important to at least skim for OP's post bc as we all know new details come out.

(2) I was watching/listening to a video about how Holocaust denial became a thing, and the writer said he wanted to first give you all of their arguments and then disprove them like he had done with some other conspiracy theory video, but YouTube analytics show that many ppl stop a video halfway and he felt a responsibility to not (even accidentally) create more Holocaust deniers, so he made sure to give you the proof first.

So that's why I think it's important to really make sure to read all the way through an article or listen to the entire podcast or whatever. Don't just stop halfway.

Also I see this in the back of a lot of books... "Book club questions" read and think about that questions. Maybe try to come up with some of your own questions. Look at a lot of different questions/books online. And maybe as you read books without the club questions, try to come up with your own.

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