PSC482G, Spring 2000
Assignment 1, due Friday 21 January 2000
Critical thinking 1
Read:
The essays “Using important words
precisely” and “Probability, belief, and proof.”
Answer
these questions:
For “Important words”:
1. This brief essay describes two
distinctly different meanings for fact.
Use a good-sized dictionary and see how many other meanings or shadings of
meaning you can find for this word. List each and put it into a sentence. Now do
you see how careful we must be to speak and write precisely?
2. Same as (1) except for prove.
3. Another common word that is often misused is control. In each of the sentences below, explain what control or its derivative means. (You will probably need to consult your dictionary.)
a. One of the main techniques of scientific research is controlled
experiments.
b. I carefully controlled the conditions of my experiment.
c. He is the controller of the university.
d. Control your rage!
e. When arriving in Brussels, turn left as soon as you exit from Passport
Control.
For
“Probability, etc.”:
4. National polls of the American people
consistently show that 80–90% of them believe that a conspiracy killed John F.
Kennedy. How does the careful thinker evaluate to this statement? Does it
constitute sufficient grounds for reopening the official investigation, as some
students of the assassination think?
5. Evaluate this fictitious statement that is typical of advocacy groups: “If you believe with us that the rainforests must be saved, send a generous contribution to Save the Rainforests, P.O. Box 1234, Anywhere, U.S.A.”
6. “After deliberating for 16 hours spread over three days, the jury found the defendant guilty of embezzling $100,000 from the small post office where she worked.” What did the jury really do?
7. Certain JFK-conspiracists are now saying “Conspiracy is now a fact. Let us move beyond Dealey Plaza to the deeper meanings of the assassination.” What sort of documentation should we expect from anyone who proposes this?
8. Person 1: “The Mafia killed Kennedy.” Person 2: “You’re crazy. He had nothing to do with it.” What is the logical weakness in this dialogue, and how could we alter it in order to bring meaning to it?
9. Why do I say “I don’t care a whit what you believe; I care only what you can prove”?
10. What are the implications of convicting someone of murder and imposing the death sentence based on “beyond a reasonable doubt and to a moral certainty”?