Joel Berger
June 17,2005

Journal Week 2


1) One paragraph summary of the key idea summarizing the topic of the week.

The key idea of this week was Reason. Reason is the process in which we use what we know to make a conclusion. We studied the process of knowing as well. These are Perceiving, Categorizing, Evaluating, Symbolizing, and Testing. We also studied the five common thinking errors. They are Non Sequiturs , Vague and False Premises, Ad Hominem , Begging the Question, and Red Herring. Another thing we learned about was the five steps to critical thinking. These are Know the Facts, Remember the Principle of Contradiction, Define your Terms, Be Intellectually Humble, and Look for Different Perspectives.

2) List and explain three of the most important ideas you want to remember from this week.

a) The five common thinking errors. These errors are things like Non Sequiturs, making a false conclusion; Vague or False Premises, coming to the right conclusion but the premises used to come to that conclusion are either false or vague; Ad Hominem, instead of attacking the person's argument you attack a certain quality of the person not related to the argument; Begging the Question, trying to demonstrate a certain point is true, but in the process already assuming it is true; and Red Herring, saying something off topic to distract your audience from the real argument.

b) The three types of knowing. The first is experience, which comes from your personal experience of events in your life. The second is authority, which comes from a person, younger or older, who tells you something that you did not previously know. The third is reason is to think is a way that we can come to a conclusion from facts that we know.

c)The Five steps to critical thinking. The first is to know the facts. You need to be informed about what you are talking to another person about. The second is to remember the Principle of Contradiction. You need to know that no one thing can be two things at once. It is either one thing or the other, no middle ground. The third is define your terms. When talking to someone you need to be able to define everything you talk about. The fourth is be intellectually humble. This means that you need to be open to learning new things when someone tells you are wrong. The last is look for different perceptions. This means that you need to ask people about something so that you can be informed of other opinions other that just yours.

3) One image of that reminds you of the topic. Attribute, link, your source.




Picture Link

I think that all people need to think about what we say. We should examine what we say to see if we are making errors. We also need to think before we open our mouth to talk so that we do not just blurt something out that we did not mean to say.

4) One good question you should keep with your to ponder.

What does it mean to be human?

5) What should you try to do to make you a better person, a more faithful person, from this study.

I should try and look at what I say. I need to find the common thinking errors that I commit while I am arguing with someone.