25 May WHAT WAS IT ABOUT?
For years grade school students faced this question on their science tests: “True or False—The famous rings of the planet Saturn are composed of solid material.” If the students marked “true,” they lost credit, because the “truth” was that Saturn’s rings were composed of gas or dust. Then, in 1973, radar probes revealed that all those wrong answers had been right. Saturn’s rings are, in fact, composed of solid matter. 12 This confusing case seems to suggest that the truth changed. Did it really? Explain.
5. The scene is a campus security office, where two students are being questioned. A few minutes earlier, they were engaged in a fistfight in the cafeteria. The campus police ask them again and again how the fight started. The stories conflict. Because each student seems genuinely convinced that the other one was the aggressor and there were no witnesses, the campus police have no hope of discovering the truth. But is there a truth to discover? Or are there two truths, one for each student’s story? What light does the chapter shed on these questions? Ruggiero, Vincent. Beyond Feelings: A Guide to Critical Thinking (Page 44). McGraw-Hill Higher Education -A. Kindle Edition.
2. Read the following comment by Bernard Goldberg, a journalist and author of Bias: “Here’s one of those dirty little secrets journalists are never supposed to reveal to the regular folks out there in the audience: a reporter can find an expert to say anything the reporter wants—anything! Just keep on calling until one of the experts says what you need him to say and tell him you’ll be right down with a camera crew to interview him. If you find an expert who says, ‘You know, I think that flat tax just might work and here’s why . . .’ you thank him, hang up, and find another expert. It’s how journalists sneak their own personal views into stories in the guise of objective news reporting.” 24 What implications does this statement have for the subject of this chapter? Explain your answer.
3. In each of the following cases, someone believes he or she knows something. In light of what you learned in this chapter, discuss whether the person really does.
a. Ted reads in the morning newspaper that a close friend of his has been arrested and charged with burglarizing a number of stores. Ted is shocked. “It’s impossible. The police have made a mistake,” he tells his mother. “Bob and I have been as close as brothers. I just know he’s not guilty.”
b. Ralph: Here, Harry, try my antiperspirant. It really stops wetness. Harry: No, thanks. I’m suspicious of antiperspirants. It seems to me that anything designed to block a normal body function may do a lot of harm. I wouldn’t be surprised if it
caused cancer.
Ralph: Don’t be foolish. I know it doesn’t cause cancer. Products like these are carefully tested before they’re allowed to be sold. If it caused cancer, it would be banned.
c. Jane: I just read there’s some evidence that aspirin can prevent heart attacks.
Jenny: That’s a lot of nonsense. I know it can’t. My uncle took lots of aspirin and he died of a heart attack last year.
Ruggiero, Vincent. Beyond Feelings: A Guide to Critical Thinking (Page 57). McGraw-Hill Higher Education -A. Kindle Edition.
Chapter 5 #8 p.69 or #1 p.68
1. Imagine that you are the senior librarian for your college. A faculty member sends you the following list of recommended magazines, with a brief description of each quoted from a standard guide, Magazines for Libraries, by Bill Katz and Linda Sternberg Katz. 18 The Nation. “This is the foremost liberal/left-wing journal, and the standard by which all other liberal publications should be judged . . . unabashedly partisan.” Human Events. “The editor makes no claims about impartiality. . . . The editorial tone is decidedly conservative, particularly when discussing Congress.” Free Inquiry: A Secular Humanist Magazine. “The articles in this journal strongly reflect the position of CODESH [the Council for Democratic and Secular Humanism] and tend to be more anti–organized religion than positively secular humanist.” Paidika: The Journal of Paedophilia. “Paidika is a journal intended for academics studying human sexuality as well as for pedophiles and pederasts discovering a history and an identity.” Explain which magazines you would subscribe to for the library, which you would not, and which you would need more information about before you decided. If you would need more information, explain what it would be and how you would obtain it. (Note: Your library may have a copy of Magazines for Libraries.) Ruggiero, Vincent. Beyond Feelings: A Guide to Critical Thinking (Page 68). McGraw-Hill Higher Education -A. Kindle Edition.
8. Read the following dialogue carefully. Then decide whether anything said violates the ideas in the chapter. Identify any erroneous notions, and explain in your own words how they are in error.
Fred: There was this discussion in class today that really bugged me.
Art: Yeah? What was it about? Fred: Teenage sex. The question was whether having sex whenever we please with whomever we please is harmful to teenagers. Some people said yes. Others said it depends on the circumstances.
Art: What did you say?
Fred: I said it doesn’t do any harm to anybody, that parents use that story to scare us. Then the teacher asked me what evidence I had to back up my idea.
Art: What did you tell him?
Fred: I said I didn’t need any evidence because it’s my opinion. Sex is a personal matter, I said, and I’ve got a right to think anything I want about it. My opinions are as good as anybody else’s.
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