THINKING SKILLS
In the school Newlands, we have a new subject called thinking skills, where we study Critical thinking. The skills required to analyse and evaluate arguments are taught in this subject. The term argument consists to convence people about something specific,they may have indicators words.To support a certain point of view or a particular belief, we need evidence, if not the argument is not reliable. Moreover, we ought to make a judgement about the credibility of the evidence in each argument.
In order to do this judgement, we need to focus on the
source, which is where the evidence comes from. The source might be an
eyewitness, a TV Programme or an article in a magazine and etc. Furthermore, we
must use a credibility criteria. This criteria can be divided as it follows:
Neutrality : It consists of a source which is impartial and which does not have a motive to distort
evidence for its own benefit.
Vested Interest: When a source takes a side and manipulates
or selects certain parts of the evidence for its own benefit. However, the
existence of a vested interest does not mean that evidence will be distorted or
that individuals will lie.
Bias: having a vested
interest may lead to bias, which means having a preference for something or
supporting a particular point of view. Biased viewpoints reduce the credibility
of a source
Expertise: Consists of evidence which is highly credible due
to the fact that it is provided by an expert. Nevertheless, expertise is only
credible if it fits the situation.
Reputation: It consists of the position of a source. The
higher the reputation of a source, the more credible it is seen to be.
Nonetheless, a reputation does not mean that the source provides accurate
information.
Observation and eyewitness accounts: Eye witnesses are very
credible as they have seen the events. However, many times their credibility is
lost since ,by retelling the story that they saw, they tend to forget many
details.
Corroboration: This makes reference to pieces of evidence
which support each other. In general, corroboration increases the credibility
of evidence.
Selectivity and representativeness: Many campaign groups
only select evidence which supports their views. This one-sided election of
evidence is seen to reduce their credibility as sources. Moreover, the presentation
of unrepresentative information can weaken the credibility of a source.
Context: it makes
reference to the setting or situation in which evidence is produced. When
assessing credibility, its important that we analyse the whole context since
there might be factors which can affect the evidence provided.
To conclude with this Unit,we can say that a evidence didn`t
have to be true in order to be credible and the credibility isn´t synonymous of
truth.
This images represent this subject
