Critical Thinking Journal

At the beginning of the semester create a Google account, and then create a single Google doc titled last name Critical Thinking for all of your assignments in the course, including these journal entries.  The title of the document is up in the left hand corner.  All of your written work for the semester will be put into this document.   

Video:  Creating a Google Doc    

Each week, you will add a writing assignment to this document.   (Do not create separate documents for the different assignments).   There are detailed instructions about Google accounts and documents on the syllabus. You will have one Google doc and all of these journal entries will be added to it.  Each week, put the new one at the top of the document and give that section the whole, exact title from the instructions in bold print.  So for the first one, the title would be:  1 The Planning Fallacy.  

Grading Criteria for the Journal:  There are too many students and too many video project entries for me to give many individual comments or grades on the all of the journal entries.  I will give some feedback early in the semester, but after that, it will be up to the student to follow these instructions:

1)  All of the entries must be completed.  Any missing projects will result in a proportional reduction in the overall grade.  

2)  All of the journal entries must be completed on time.  The time and date when it was submitted is available to me in the Revision History tab of Google Docs.  Any revisions that occur after the due date will also be evident in the Revision History view.  Late assignments will not be accepted.  

3)  All of the questions in the individual projects must be addressed.  And they must be addressed specifically and thoroughly.  Copy and paste the full particular assignment directly into the document, then answer each question directly and at length.  Entries that fail to quote and answer each question will be graded down.     

4) It will vary from entry to entry, but doing a thorough and acceptable job of addressing the questions will typically take at least 300 words for the whole entry that week.  A few sentences or two short paragraphs won't be sufficient.   

5)  The entries must be completely free of spelling, grammar, and structure errors.  They must meet the standards of written college English.  Any entries that have spelling, grammar, and writing structure errors will not receive credit.  Entries that are a single block of text with no paragraphs or thesis sentence organization will not receive credit.  

6)  The entries must reflect a clear understanding of the arguments, concepts, principles, and distinctions that the philosopher in the video makes.  The entries must be long enough and detailed enough to reflect your understanding.

7) If you are in doubt, write more.  Take the opportunity to expand on the topic and questions under consideration.  Offer some of your own ideas in addition to addressing the project questions.  Entries that are only 5 sentences long, for example, will not receive credit.

During the semester, and at the end, I will review all of your entries.  The grade on this portion of the coursework will be proportional to the extent to which they meet all of these criteria.

Grades for journal entries will not appear in the Canvas Gradebook.  (The Canvas Gradebook will not reflect all of the grades for the course or your overall grade).

Note on ChatGPT and Large language models: these questions will not be adequately answered for the purposes of our course by ChatGPT or other Large Language Models.  Furthermore, the questions have been made specific in ways that will reveal the use of LLMs and their limitations.  

Here are the assignments:  

1  Making Plans

Study this lecture from Prof. McCormick:

Describe the mistake that Prof. McCormick is discussing as clearly and accurately as you can, paying close attention to the way he characterizes is.  What exactly is the mistake?   When do people commit it?  When is it exposed as a fallacy?  Given what he says about it, when would we expect people to make it?  If you were making the mistake in a situation, what would you be thinking?  What are some strategies for preventing it?  What are some examples in your life where you may have committed it?  How might this fallacy be relevant to how you are planning your work for this semester at the university? 

The title should be exactly this, in bold, at the top of your Google Doc:  1 Plans. (Please do not center justify any parts of your entries: the titles or the text.) This will be the first entry in your Google Doc that has the name last name Critical Thinking that you created according to the instructions on the syllabus and shared with mccormick@csus.edu. The due date and time for this entry is listed on the schedule.  Your essay should be 300+ words. It should be free of grammatical, spelling, and composition errors. See the Philosophy Department Writing Guidelines for guidance. Paste all of the questions from above into your document and write well-composed paragraphs around each one. Indent each paragraph.  

2 Cherry Picking

Read this article:  http://youarenotsosmart.com/2010/06/23/confirmation-bias/

Study this lecture from Prof. McCormick:

Describe and define the mistake that Prof. McCormick and McRaney are discussing as accurately and succinctly as you can, being sensitive to their characterizations.  What's different, if anything, about the way the two of them describe the problem?  How does the mistake, as they characterize it, manifest in our thinking and reasoning?  What do they think is unreliable about reasoning this way?  Give a realistic example, preferably from a real case in your life, of someone making the mistake as McCormick and McRaney have described it.  Explain how the evidence should have been gathered and evaluated in the example in a way that avoided the mistake. Give an example of a case where committing confirmation bias could cause significant harm.  Do students commit Confirmation Bias when they think about their grades in a course?  Explain the measures that you would take to avoid this mistake in that case or other instances.  What policy could a person adopt that would correct for it, being sensitive to McCormick's and McRaney's discussion. 

Put this entry at the top of your last name Critical Thinking Google doc, pushing the entry from last week down.  (Please do not center justify any parts of your entries: the titles or the text.) Make sure that you have shared the whole document with the instructor:  mccormick@csus.edu.  You only need to share the document once.  The due date and time for this entry is listed on the schedule. 

The title should be exactly this, in bold, at the top of your Google Doc: 2 Cherry Picking. Your essay should be 300+ words. It should be free of grammatical, spelling, and composition errors. See the Philosophy Department Writing Guidelines for guidance. Paste all of the questions from above into your document and write well-composed paragraphs around each one.  Indent each paragraph.

3  Finding Reasons to Believe

Study this lecture from Prof. McCormick:

Give McCormick's definition of the mistake from the video?  Why is it a mistake?  When and how could it lead us to the wrong conclusions? Why is it an unreliable or poor way to reason?  Do your feelings contribute to the mistake?  If a prosecutor or an investigator is trying to solve a crime, how could this mistake lead them astray?  Contrast the mistake here to the mistake we discussed in the second journal entry.  If someone doesn't want to accept global warming, or evolution, or the safety of vaccines, how could the mistake in this lecture cause a problem?  What could be the indicators that we are guilty of it?  What is the best way to prevent it from happening?  What is the reasoning strategy that we should adopt that would be better?  

The title should be exactly this, in bold, at the top of your Google Doc:  3 Finding Reasons to Believe.  Please also confirm that each new entry goes to the top of your document so that these are in reverse chronological order.  The due date and time for this entry is listed on the schedule. Your essay should be 300+ words. It should be free of grammatical, spelling, and composition errors. See the Philosophy Department Writing Guidelines for guidance. Paste all of the questions from above into your document and write well-composed paragraphs around each one. Indent each paragraph.

4 Secret Plots  Read this article:  "'PizzaGate' Conspiracy Theory Thrives Anew in the Tik Tok Era," and think carefully about how social media, the Internet, and people's cognitive tendencies are contributing to their belief in and promotion of conspiracy theories.  List and explain at least several critical thinking factors that you think are feeding these beliefs. Start and develop a new paragraph for each of the factors you discuss.  Include at least one wild theory that you've encountered with someone you know.  With your critical thinking issues, you should be explaining what it is about these conspiracies that are making them popular and making them spread, what is it about people's cognitive habits and dispositions that are making them prone to believe, what are the general features of conspiracy theories that are giving them traction in people's belief systems, or what general features of our political and social climate are fomenting conspiracy beliefs?  

The title should be exactly this, in bold, at the top of your Google Doc: 4 Secret Plots  The due date and time for this entry is listed on the schedule. Your essay should be 300+ words.  It should be free of grammatical, spelling, and composition errors.  See the Philosophy Department Writing Guidelines for guidance. Paste all of the questions from above into your document and write well-composed paragraphs around each one.  Indent each paragraph.

5 Suspicion  Read this article:  Suspicion makes us human,  What is the author's thesis?  What is his argument?  What are the important concepts that he utilizes in this argument?  Now read this article:  Pizzagate Conspiracy Theory Thrives Anew in the Tik Tok Era.  How do social media, the Internet, and people's cognitive tendencies contribute to their belief in and promotion of conspiracy theories?  How does van Prooijen's explanation apply to these cases.  What is it about these conspiracy theories that is making them popular and making them spread?  what is it about people's cognitive dispositions that is making them prone to believe?  What are the general features of conspiracy theories that are giving them traction in people's belief systems?  

The title should be exactly this, in bold, at the top of your Google Doc: 5 Suspicion  The due date and time for this entry is listed on the schedule.  Your essay should be 300+ words.  It should be free of grammatical, spelling, and composition errors.  See the Philosophy Department Writing Guidelines for guidance. Paste all of the questions from above into your document and write well-composed paragraphs around each one.  Indent each paragraph.

 

6  I Quit!  Listen to this podcast:  The Upside of Quitting   

The full transcript is also here:  The Upside of Quitting Transcript

What is the mistake that is being described in the podcast?  How do they argue that something that seems bad could actually be positive? Why are we prone to make the mistake?  Give some examples of cases in your life where you’ve committed the mistake?  How could a person think more clearly about the mistake?  Under what circumstances are we in a a situation where it would be better to throw in the towel?  What are the conditions that make it worth staying in a project and putting more resources into it instead of bailing out?

The title should be exactly this, in bold:  6 I Quit Put this at the top of your Google Doc, pushing the others down. (Please do not center justify any parts of your entries: the titles or the text.)  The due date and time for this entry is listed on the schedule. Your essay should be 300+ words. It should be free of grammatical, spelling, and composition errors. See the Philosophy Department Writing Guidelines for guidance. Paste all of the questions from above into your document and write well-composed paragraphs around each one. Indent each paragraph.

7  Hoping for the Best

Read this story, or listen to the podcast:  Optimism Bias and the Obesity Epidemic

Study this lecture closely:  Tali Sharot's TED Talk on the Optimism Bias

According to the article and the video, where does the mistake manifest in our lives? What exactly is the mistake as characterized by Sharot vs. the article?  What differences, if any, are there between the ways the mistake is described?  Is it possible, given the way it's been characterized in these sources, that the mistake could have a positive effect on our reasoning?  What are the negative effects that they describe?  Can you give examples from your life where you or people near you have committed it?  Should we work to avoid making this mistake?  Where would it be helpful to avoid it?  How can we identify it and then prevent it?  

The title should be exactly this, in bold, at the top of your Google Doc: 7 Hoping   The due date and time for this entry is listed on the schedule. Your essay should be 300+ words. It should be free of grammatical, spelling, and composition errors. See the Philosophy Department Writing Guidelines for guidance. Paste all of the questions from above into your document and write well-composed paragraphs around each one. Indent each paragraph.

8 Bad decisions

What is Gilbert's explanation in simple English of the formula?  How can it help us make right decisions in our lives?  What are the two sorts of errors that we make in these situations?  According to Gilbert, what sort of faulty conclusions do these two kinds of mistakes lead to?  What are his recommendations for measures should we take to reduce these mistakes?  How do comparisons lead us to make mistakes?   

The title should be exactly this, in bold, at the top of your Google Doc:  8 Bad Decisions The due date and time for this entry is listed on the schedule. Your essay should be 300+ words. It should be free of grammatical, spelling, and composition errors. See the Philosophy Department Writing Guidelines for guidance. Paste all of the questions from above into your document and write well-composed paragraphs around each one.  Indent each paragraph.

9  Memories

Study this video lecture from Prof. Elizabeth Loftus: 

How does Loftus suggest that our memories work in the video?  What could they be constructive?  According to Loftus in the talk, what's the mistaken way to view how our memory functions?  What does she explain in the lecture about misinformation and eyewitness testimony?  What are the problems here that she has identified with memory?  What specifically is a false memory in the lecture?  What implications do you see about what she says in the lecture about implanting false memories?  How do the claims that Loftus makes about memory in the lecture impact our notion of our personal histories, things that have happened to us and our family, and our accounts of who we are?  

The title should be exactly this, in bold, at the top of your Google Doc:  9 Memories  The due date and time for this entry is listed on the schedule. Your essay should be 300+ words. It should be free of grammatical, spelling, and composition errors. See the Philosophy Department Writing Guidelines for guidance. Paste all of the questions from above into your document and write well-composed paragraphs around each one.

10 Sugar pills

Read this article: The Placebo Effect by Nicholas Humphrey  then study this video: 

Listen to this RadioLab podcast.

What's the cognitive phenomena that Humphrey and the podcast are explaining?  How do Humphrey and the podcast explain the details? Give a general definition from what those sources describe that will capture the various different circumstances where we find it.  What do the article and podcast say about these questions: Is this a reasoning mistake?  Is it something that a person can think about and stop doing?  Should we try to control for or eliminate it?  Is it positive or negative?  What is the implication of these discussions when people claim that a medical remedy works?  How would we figure out what really works medically given what these sources discuss?     

The title should be exactly this, in bold, at the top of your Google Doc:  10 Sugar Pills  The due date and time for this entry is listed on the schedule. Your essay should be 300+ words. It should be free of grammatical, spelling, and composition errors. See the Philosophy Department Writing Guidelines for guidance. Paste all of the questions from above into your document and write well-composed paragraphs around each one.  Indent each paragraph.

11 Stubborn Read this article carefully: McRaney: You are Not so Smart   Give McRaney's definition of the mistake and explain it.  In what kinds of circumstances does it happen? Given that the mistake happens, what is the significance for us when we fine ourselves in a disagreement with someone, especially over political or contentious issues? What can we do about the problem in our own minds when we are considering our own beliefs and contrary evidence that we encounter from the outside? Given what he says about it, how could someone use misinformation or deliberate lies to their advantage in public debates or forums? What's the final, corrected conclusion about spanking in the article?

The title should be exactly this, in bold, at the top of your Google Doc:  11 Stubborn  The due date and time for this entry is listed on the schedule.  Your entry should be 300+ words.  It should be free of grammatical, spelling and composition errors.  See the Philosophy Department Writing Guidelines for guidance. Paste all of the questions from above into your document and write well-composed paragraphs around each one.  Indent each paragraph.

12 Astrology Read this article carefully:  Why believing in astrology is not as harmless as you think.

What are the harms, according to Dvosky, with believing in astrology?  What does the article argue are the negative outcomes of buying into it?  What does the article suggest are the positive outcomes, if any?  What's the difference according to the article between astrology and astronomy?  Why isn't astrology a science, according to the article? When people read their astrology forecast and then discover things about it that make it appear that it is accurate, what are the other mistakes and fallacies we have considered this semester that could apply?   

The title should be exactly this, in bold, at the top of your Google Doc: 12 Astrology  The due date and time for this entry is listed on the schedule. Your essay should be 300+ words. It should be free of grammatical, spelling, and composition errors. See the Philosophy Department Writing Guidelines for guidance. Paste all of the questions from above into your document and write well-composed paragraphs around each one.  Indent each paragraph.

13 The Scout Mindset.  Study this video carefully: 

How does Gaylef contrast scouts vs. soldiers, and what does it have to do with a particular mindset in the video?  What are the important differences between them?  What does Gaylef say are the various different aspects between the two approaches?  Which one is better for good critical reasoning?  Why?  How do emotions play a role in achieving good judgment, according to Gaylef?  

The title should be exactly this, in bold, at the top of your Google Doc: 13 Scout Mindset  The due date and time for this entry is listed on the schedule. Your essay should be 300+ words. It should be free of grammatical, spelling, and composition errors. See the Philosophy Department Writing Guidelines for guidance. Paste all of the questions from above into your document and write well-composed paragraphs around each one.  Indent each paragraph.


14  I knew it!   Read this article carefully:  http://www.spring.org.uk/2012/06/the-hindsight-bias-i-knew-it-all-along.php  Define and explain the mistake being presented in the articlee.  According to the article: How does it emerge when we form judgments?  What’s problematic about it?  Give examples.  What is significant about the way that new business owners thought about their chances for success before and then after they started their businesses?  What's wrong with inevitability and foreseeability?  Think of some cases where you've made the mistake.  What could a careful thinker do about it?  

The title should be exactly this, in bold, at the top of your Google Doc:  14 Knew It All Along The due date and time for this entry is listed on the schedule.  Your essay should be 300+ words. It should be free of grammatical, spelling, and composition errors. See the Philosophy Department Writing Guidelines for guidance. Paste all of the questions from above into your document and write well-composed paragraphs around each one. Indent each paragraph.