Notes: Chapter 1: Critical Thinking, Facts, and Feelings

A fundamental concern of critical thinking is ________________________________________________.

This means that critical thinking is not about what you think, but ________
.. you think.
Critical thinking focuses not on what _____________ a belief, but on whether it is _________________.
A belief is worth believing, or accepting, if we have _______________________. The better the reasons
for acceptance, the more likely the belief is to be _____________.
CRITICAL THINKING: The systematic evaluation or formulation of beliefs, or statements, by rational
standards.
What makes it systematic? ______________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

How does it entail evaluation and formulation? ______________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

How does it operate according to rational standards? _________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Summarize in your own words what you have read/learned so far. ______________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Why It Matters
A consequence of believing whatever others (such as your parents, friends, influencers, etc.) think is a
loss of personal freedom.
From what you read, what does the above statement mean? ___________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Thus, in the most profound sense, critical thinking is not only enlightening but also empowering. This
empowerment can take several forms. List these forms below:
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

In a very important sense, critical thinking is thinking outside the box. How so? ____________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Claims and Reasons
A statement is an assertion that something _________________________________________________.
Statements, or claims, are the kinds of things that are either __________ or __________.
Explain why each of these is NOT a statement:
Does a triangle have three sides? _________________________________________________________
Turn that music off. ____________________________________________________________________
Hey, dude. ___________________________________________________________________________
Great balls of fire! _____________________________________________________________________

Statements backed by _____________ reasons are worthy of ___________ acceptance.

Reasons and Arguments

_________________ are the main focus of critical thinking. They are the most important tool we have
for evaluating the _____________________________ (our own and those of others) and for formulating
statements that are worthy of acceptance.
The statements (reasons) given in support of another statement are called the _________________. The
statement that the premises are intended to support is called the ______________________. We can
define an argument, then, like this:
ARGUMENT: A group of statements in which some of them (the __________________) are intended to
support another of them (the __________________).
Summarize in your own words what you have learned in this section of the text about arguments and
the relationship between premises and conclusions. __________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Sometimes people also confuse explanations with arguments. An argument gives us reasons for
believing that ______________________—that a claim is ____________________________. An
explanation, though, tells us why or __________________________________. Arguments have
something to prove; explanations do not.

What are indicator words? ______________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________

List some examples of premise indicator words: _____________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________

List some examples of conclusion indicator words: ___________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________
Probably the best advice for anyone trying to uncover or dissect arguments is this: Find the
___________________________ first.
Notes: Chapter 2: Obstacles to Critical Thinking

CRITICAL THINKING: The systematic evaluation or formulation of beliefs, or statements, by rational

standards.
We can sort the most common impediments to critical thinking into two main categories:
(1) __________________________________________________________________________________
(2) _____________________________|____________________________________________________

PHILOSOPHICAL OBSTACLES
In its most general sense, evidence is something that makes a statement ________________ to be true.

Self-Centered Thinking
Self-interested thinking takes several forms. (1) We may decide to accept a claim solely on the grounds
that it advances, or coincides with, our __________________________. (2) You may be tempted to
accept claims for no other reason than that they help you save ___________.

What are some of the consequences of self-centered thinking: _________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Group-Centered Thinking
Is it important to you to have independence and freedom of thought? Why? _____________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Do you ever feel subtle or overt pressure from your groups to believe certain things? If so, what?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Group pressure to accept a statement or act in a certain way has several overlapping subtypes. When
the pressure to conform comes from your peers, it’s called—surprise— ______________________.
When the pressure comes from the mere popularity of a belief, it’s known as an appeal ___________
___________________ (also known as an appeal to the masses). When the pressure comes from what
groups of people do or how they behave, it’s called an appeal to __________________________. Group
thinking can also easily generate narrow-mindedness, resistance to change, and stereotyping, which is
____________________________________________________________________________.

In your own words, explain the following psychological obstacles to and how to resist them.
Resisting Contrary Evidence: _____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Looking for Confirming Evidence: _________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Preferring Available Evidence: ___________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Motivated Reasoning: _____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Homophily: ___________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Mere Exposure Effect: __________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Illusion of Truth Effect: _________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

False Consensus Effect: _________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

The Dunning-Kruger Effect: ______________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Notes: Fallacies

For each fallacy listed below, write down its definition and an example. Do not simply google these. You will be
responsible for understanding each fallacy as it is explained in the assigned brief videos.

Circular Reasoning
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________

Hasty Generalization
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________

Slippery Slope
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________

Straw Man
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________

Ad Hominem
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
False Dichotomy
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________

Appeal to Emotion
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________

Equivocation
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________

Bandwagon Appeal
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________

False Analogy
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Notes: Chapter 5 – Inductive Arguments and Statistics

Unlike valid deductive arguments, an inductively strong argument cannot ______________________ that the
conclusion is true—but it can render the conclusion very ______________ true, even very, very likely to be true.

Enumerative Induction
Our main concern here is a common inductive argument that reasons from premises about _________________
members of a group to conclusions about the _______________ as a whole (from particular to general, or the
part to the whole). In such cases we begin with observations about ___________ members of the group and end
with a generalization about _________ of them. This argument pattern is called enumerative induction, and it’s
a way of reasoning that we all find both natural and useful.
Using the examples in the text as a guide, in your own words, write out an enumerative induction:
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________

Enumerative induction comes with some useful terminology.

The group as a whole—the whole collection of individuals in question—is called the _____________ population
or ______________ group.
The observed members of the target group are called the _____________ members or _________________.
And the property we’re interested in is called the ___________ property or property in __________________.
In the following example, the target group is the pickles in the barrel. The sample is the observed pickles. And
the property is the quality of being exceptionally good.
Forty percent of the observed pickles from the barrel are exceptionally good.
Therefore, 40 percent of all the pickles in the barrel are probably exceptionally good.

Sample Size
The sample size of enumerative induction must be sufficiently large for the argument to be good. When you
rely on a much too small sample size to draw a conclusion, you are have committed the error known as
______________________________________.

Representativeness
In addition to being the proper size, a sample must be a representative sample—it must ________________ the
target group in all the ways that matter. If it does not properly represent the target group, it’s a _____________
sample. An enumerative inductive argument is strong only if the sample is representative of the whole.

To be truly representative, the sample must be like the target group by (1) having all the same relevant
characteristics and (2) having them in the same _____________________ that the target group does. The
“relevant characteristics” are features that could influence the property in question. Given the examples below
this quote in the textbook, explain in your own words what (1) and (2) above mean.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________

Opinion Polls
Enumerative inductions reach a high level of sophistication in the form of opinion polls conducted by
professional polling organizations. But as complex as they are, opinion polls are still essentially
________________ arguments (or the basis of __________________ arguments) and must be judged
accordingly.

So as inductive arguments, opinion polls should (1) be ____________ and (2) have ____________ premises.
More precisely, any opinion poll worth believing must (1) use a _______________ enough sample that
accurately ________________ the target population in all the relevant population features and (2) generate
_________________ data (the results must correctly reflect what they purport to be about).

Be sure to know how question phrasing, question ordering, and restricted choices can negatively impact the
strength of opinion poll results.

Analogical Induction
An analogy can be used to argue inductively for a conclusion. Such an argument is known as an analogical
induction, or simply an argument by analogy. An analogical induction reasons this way: Because two or more
things are similar in several respects, they are likely to be similar in some further respect.
An argument by analogy, like all inductive reasoning, can establish conclusions only with a degree of
___________________. The greater the degree of ____________________ between the two things being
compared, the more _____________________ the conclusion is.
• The more relevant ________________________ there are between the things being compared, the more
probable the conclusion.
• Generally, the more relevant _________________________, or ______________________, there are
between the things being compared, the less probable the conclusion.
• The greater the number of ____________________, or __________________, that show the relevant
similarities, the stronger the argument.
• And we’ve noted that several cases (instead of just one) that exhibit the similarities can strengthen the
argument. In this criterion, however, we focus on a very different point: The greater the
__________________ among the cases that exhibit the relevant similarities, the stronger the argument.
Notes: Chapter 6 – Evidence and Experts

The probability of becoming an instant expert is pretty ________, and experts are not—and never have been—
___________________, but neither are they clueless. Nonexperts can come to know a lot about some complex
issues if they respect evidence, ___________________, and critical thinking. And the insight and know-how of
experts—when approached critically and used wisely—can help us live more intelligently and avoid
_____________.
An expert is someone who is more _____________________ in a particular subject area or field than most
others are. Experts in professions and fields of knowledge provide us with _______________ for believing a
claim because in their specialty areas, they are more likely to be right than we are. They are more likely to be
right because:
(1) _____________________________________________________________________________________, and
(2)
___________________________________________________________________________________________.

Commonsense Principles of Critical Thinking

[G]ood critical thinkers are careful about expert opinion, guiding their use of experts by some commonsense
principles. … The most basic principle is this:
If a claim conflicts ____________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________

Background information is _____________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________
Some examples of background information are: ____________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________

If a claim conflicts with our background information, we have good reason to _________________ it. We need
to keep in mind that although our background information is generally trustworthy, it is not
____________________.
[W]hat should we believe about a claim that is not quite dubious enough to summarily discard yet not worthy of
complete acceptance? We should __________________ our belief to the __________________.
Implicit in all of the foregoing is a principle already mentioned, but it deserves to be repeated because it’s so
often ignored: It’s not reasonable to believe a claim when there is _________________________________ for
doing so.
[W]hen a claim runs counter to a consensus among experts, this principle holds: If a claim conflicts with expert
opinion, we have good reason to ______________ it.
This tenet follows from our definition of experts. If they really are more likely to be ______________ than
nonexperts about claims in their field, then any claim that conflicts with expert opinion is at least initially
dubious.
Here’s the companion principle: When the experts _________________ about a claim, we have good reason to
_________________ it.
But when is a claim considered in dispute among experts? It’s in dispute when _______________ numbers of
experts ________________ with one another—but not when a mere _________________ of dissidents disagree
with almost all of the others.
Explain in your own words what fallacious appeal to authority is. _____________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________

Judging Experts
To be considered an expert, someone must have shown that he or she has the knowledge, judgment, and
competence required in a particular field. What are the indicators that someone has this essential kind of
expertise? There are several that provide clues to someone’s ability but do not guarantee the possession of true
expertise.
In most professional fields, the following two indicators are considered minimal prerequisites for being
considered an expert:
1. ____________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
2. ____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
But, unfortunately, people can have the requisite education and experience and still not know what they’re
talking about in the field in question. … Two additional indicators, though, are more revealing:
1. _____________________________________________________________________________________
2. _____________________________________________________________________________________
These two indicators are more helpful because they are very likely to be correlated with the intellectual qualities
expected in true experts.
There are, of course, many other possible reasons to doubt the opinion of experts. Any blatant violation of the
critical thinking principles discussed in this text, for example, would give us good reason to question an
authority’s reliability. Among the more common tip-offs of dubious authority are these (list at least three):
1. ________________________________________________________________________________________
2. ________________________________________________________________________________________
3. ________________________________________________________________________________________

Experts and Personal Experience

[C]an we trust personal experience to reveal the truth? It’s reasonable to accept the evidence provided by
________________ experience only if there’s no good reason to ________________ it.
List below the common impairments discussed in the text. (Though there is not space to describe them, be sure
you know what each involves and how to spot them.
1. ________________________________________________________________________________________

2. ________________________________________________________________________________________

3. ________________________________________________________________________________________
Notes: Chapter 7 – Fake News

Fake news is ____________________ false or misleading news stories that masquerade as truthful reporting.
… Fake news, whether real or imagined, whether soothing or vexing, is bad for ____________________, bad for
the pursuit of _________________, bad for _________ politics, and bad for ________________. Critical
thinking, whether pleasing or upsetting, offers a necessary __________________.
Conspiracy theorists and their accomplices have, in the aftermath of mass shootings and other tragedies, posted
fake news designed to incite ____________, _________________, and _______________.
The most unsettling recent example of the damage that fake news can do to a democracy is the 2016 fake news
_________________ orchestrated by the ________________ government.
The classic example of fake news leading to harassment and violence is the “Pizzagate” incident. In your own
words explain what happened in this case. ________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________

Taxonomy of Misinformation
In your own words explain the following kinds of messages.
Lies: _______________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Propaganda: ________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Opinions: ___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Bias: _______________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Hoaxes: ____________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Satire: ______________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________

Telling Fake from Real

If you’ve already concluded that fake news is so widespread and treacherous that there’s nothing much you can
do to protect yourself from it, your conclusion is _________________.

In your own words explain (1) what it is to have an attitude of reasonable skepticism and (2) how such an
attitude can help you not fall victim to fake news. __________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
The text highlights several illegitimate reasons for accepting or rejecting claims from media sources. In your
own words, explain at least four of them. _________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________

Explain in your own words what it means to read laterally and how it helps reveal fake news and the like.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________

Explain in your own words what it means to read critically and how it helps reveal fake news and the like.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________

Explain in your own words what it means to check your own biases and how you do so.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________

What two obstacles to critical thinking are at work regarding our ability to identify fake images?
1. _____________________________________________________________________________________
2. _____________________________________________________________________________________

Explain in your own words the four ways suggested in the text for attempting to identify fake images & videos?
1. Determine the Source: __________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
2. Check for Previous Uses: ________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

3. Be Wary of the Incredible: _______________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________

4. Look for Incongruities: _________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________
Notes: Chapter 8 – Advertising: Commercial and Political

Advertising is the practice of calling the public’s attention to something to _______________ them to buy
products or services or otherwise _____________ their opinions or behavior. … Unlike many other
communicators—journalists, scholars, and serious authors, for example— advertisers are _______ necessarily
obliged to adhere to standards of objectivity, fairness, or reliability. Advertising is
__________________________ on stimulants and thus should be viewed through the lens of critical thinking.
Caught in this whirl of words and sounds and images, we can easily overlook the obvious and disconcerting facts
behind [advertisements]:
(1) All advertising is designed to influence, persuade, or ___________________ us;
(2) to an impressive degree and in many ways, it does _______________ influence, persuade, or manipulate us;
(3) we are often ________________ to—or in outright ________________ about— how effectively advertising
influences, persuades, or manipulates us.

How Advertising Works

Advertising online is even more powerful and pervasive. It has become the most precise, calibrated, targeted,
and sneaky form of advertising in history. In your own words and using what you read, explain what is different
about online advertising and why it is so effective.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________

How, then, should critical thinkers think about advertising? What should our attitude be as we are exposed to
countless come-ons per minute? The principle that should guide us is the same one we noted in the chapter on
fake news: ________________________.
To put the point bluntly, though advertising can be both truthful and helpful, its primary function is not to
provide ________________ and _______________ information to consumers. Advertisers will tell you many
good things about their products but are unlikely to mention all the _________. Their main job is not to help
consumers make _________________, rational choices about available options.
Another obvious reason for suspicion is that advertising has a _________________ for—and a history of—
__________________ messages. The world is filled with ads that make dubious or _______________ claims, use
fallacious arguments (stated or implied), and employ ___________________to manipulate consumer responses.

Internet Advertising
In your own words describe the following kinds of internet ads:
Paid Search Ads: _____________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Social Media Ads: ____________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Display Ads: _________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Native Advertising: ___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________

In your own words explain the following “old school” advertising tricks:
Identification: _______________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Slogans: ____________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Misleading Comparisons: ______________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Weasel Words: ______________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________

Political Advertising
Political advertising is a far bigger challenge (or a far bigger affront) to __________________ than most other
forms of advertising. It is often difficult to tell the difference between political advertising and _____________
(as defined in chapter 7), for the former can be just as deliberately ___________ and misleading as the latter.
And now that political ads have gone digital and started micro-targeting us on social media feeds, they can be
more ______________and ___________ than ever.

In your own words, explain the following methods of creating false images and/or video:
Misrepresentation: __________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Splicing: ____________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Doctoring: ______________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________

In your own words, explain why Facebook political ads are both exceedingly effective and incredibly
manipulative. In particular, what is micro-targeting and how to does it manipulate viewers?
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Notes: Chapter 10 – Inference to the Best Explanation

Recall from chapter 1 that an explanation is a statement (or statements) asserting ______ or ______ something
is the case. For example: The bucket leaks because there’s a hole in it. He was sad because his dog died. She
broke the pipe by hitting it with a wrench. These explanations and all others are intended to clarify and
elucidate, to increase our ________________. Remember too our discussion of the important distinction
between an explanation and an argument. While an explanation tells us why or how something is the case, an
argument gives us __________________for believing that something is the case.
The kind of explanation we’re concerned with here—and the kind we bump into most often—is what we’ll call,
for lack of something snappier, a __________________explanation. Such explanations are theories, or
hypotheses, that try to explain _________ something is the way it is, _________ something is the case,
________ something happened. In this category, we must include all explanations intended to explain the cause
of events—the causal explanations that are so important to both science and daily life. Theoretical explanations,
of course, are ____________. They assert that something is or is not the case.
Now, even though an explanation is _________ an argument, an explanation can be __________ of an
argument. It can be the _____________ of the kind of inductive argument known as inference to the best
explanation. And in this kind of inference, the explanations we use are _________________ explanations.
In inference to the best explanation, we reason from ______________ about a state of affairs to an
__________________ for that state of affairs. The premises are statements about observations or other
evidence to be explained. The explanation is a ____________ about why the state of affairs is the way it is. The
key question that this type of inference tries to answer is, __________________________________________
____________________________________________________? The best explanation is the one
______________________ to be true.
If the explanations in these arguments really are the best, then the arguments are inductively ______________.
And if the premises are also true, then the arguments are _______________. If cogent, we are ______________
in believing that the explanations for the phenomena are in fact correct.
Explain in your own words what it means that an inference to the best explanation goes “beyond the evidence”?
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
List some instances/circumstances other than those in the book in which we use inference to the best
explanation every day. _________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________

Theories and Consistency

The first step in determining which explanation is the best explanation is to see if the theory meets the
minimum requirement of consistency. Explain in your own words explain what is involved when we evaluate
the consistency of a theory. ____________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Theories and Criteria
Applying the ___________________________ to a set of theories constitutes the ultimate test of a theory’s
value, for the best theory is the eligible theory that meets the criteria of adequacy better than any of its
competitors. Here, “eligible” means that the theory has already met the ________________________________.
In your own words explain each of the criteria of adequacy:
Testability: _________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Fruitfulness: ________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Scope: _____________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Simplicity: __________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Conservatism: _______________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________

Telling Good Theories from Bad

In your own words, explain the four steps of the TEST formula:
Step 1: _____________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Step 2: _____________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Step 3: _____________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Step 4: _____________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Notes: Chapter 13 – Critical Thinking and Morality

If we are to be intellectually mature, we also must try to integrate the results of these moral analyses and
deliberations into a comprehensive picture of reality, what is known as a ___________________, … [which is] a
philosophy of life, a set of beliefs and theories that helps us make sense of a wide range of issues in life. It
defines for us what exists, what should be, and what we can know. We all have a worldview, and our notions
about morality are an important part of it. A good critical thinker tries to ensure that his or her worldview
contains no internal ______________________ and that it offers reliable guidance in dealing with the world.

Moral Arguments
Moral arguments, however, differ from nonmoral ones in that their conclusions are _____________ statements,
… [which are] statements asserting that an action is right or wrong (moral or immoral) or that something (such
as a person or motive) is good or bad.
The standard moral argument is a mixture of moral and nonmoral statements. At least ______ premise is a
moral statement that asserts a general moral principle or moral standard. At least _______ premise makes a
nonmoral claim. And the conclusion is a __________ statement, or judgment, about a particular case (usually a
particular kind of action).

Write your own example of a moral argument. Don’t use the examples provided in the textbook.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________

Moral Premises
As noted in previous chapters, accurately assessing the truth of nonmoral premises depends mostly on your
knowledge of the subject matter, including the results of relevant scientific research, the analyses of reliable
experts, and the content of your background information. Gauging the truth of moral premises (moral
principles) mostly involves examining the support they get from three sources: (1) ______________________,
(2) ________________________, and (3) _______________________________.

In your own words, explain the meaning of the three things you listed above.
1. _________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________

2. __________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________

3. __________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Moral Theories
As we have seen, theories of morality are attempts to explain what makes an action __________ or what makes
a person or motive ____________. They try to specify what all right actions and all good things have in common.
As such, they can give _____________, _______________, or ________________ to our moral decision making,
shaping our moral principles, judgments, and arguments.
Interestingly enough, we all have a ___________________. Whether we articulate it or not, we all have some
kind of view of what makes actions right or persons good. Even the notion that there is no such thing as right or
wrong is a moral theory. Even the idea that all moral theories are worthless or that all moral judgments are
subjective, objective, relative, or meaningless is a moral theory. The critical question, then, is not whether you
have a moral theory but whether the theory you have is ____________________________.

Evaluating Moral Theories

All moral theories are not created ______________. Some theories are ________________ than others.
In your own words, explain the following criteria of adequacy for moral theories:
Consistency with considered moral judgments: ____________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________

Consistency with our experience of the moral life: __________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________

Workability in real-life situations ________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________

Two Important Theories

In your own words, explain how utilitarianism decides whether an action is morally right or wrong. Then say
how it fairs on each of the three criterion of adequacy.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________

In your own words, explain how Kantian Ethics decides whether an action is morally right or wrong. Then say
how it fairs on each of the three criterion of adequacy.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
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