critical thinking unit 1 question a2 plato slide share
DESCRIPTION
Part of a set of university teaching materials called "Encouraging Critical Thinking Online" by Meriel Patrick of Oxford University, made openly available for adaptation and re-use in the Intute Virtual Training SuiteTRANSCRIPT
Encouraging Critical Thinking Online
Unit 1
Checking Facts and
Gathering Opinions
In which year was the philosopher Plato born?
• Find three websites that provide an answer
• Fill in the boxes on the worksheet for each of them
• Comment on any notable features of the sites or answers you discover
In which year was the philosopher Plato born?
• Many sources give a date around 428 or 427 BCE
• See, for example, the biographies of Plato from– The Philosopher’s Lighthouse– The European Graduate School
Extracts from The Philosopher’s Lighthouse and the EGS website
http://library.thinkquest.org/18775/plato/biop.htm and http://www.egs.edu/resources/plato.html Retrieved 6 August 2008
Extracts from The Philosopher’s Lighthouse and the EGS website
http://library.thinkquest.org/18775/plato/biop.htm and http://www.egs.edu/resources/plato.html Retrieved 6 August 2008
In which year was the philosopher Plato born?
• But it’s not hard to find sites that give dates ranging from at least 430 to 423 BCE– Bristol University course description– Australian Psychological Society
newsletter
Extracts from Bristol University course description and APS newsletter
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/philosophy/current/undergrad/pastunits/units0506/plato.html and http://www.groups.psychology.org.au/Assets/Files/paig_newsletter_1999.pdf Retrieved 6 August 2008
Extracts from Bristol University course description and APS newsletter
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/philosophy/current/undergrad/pastunits/units0506/plato.html and http://www.groups.psychology.org.au/Assets/Files/paig_newsletter_1999.pdf Retrieved 6 August 2008
In which year was the philosopher Plato born?
• Many sites will indicate that there’s some uncertainty – By preceding the date with ‘around’,
‘ca.’, ‘circa’ or similar– By giving a range of dates – e.g. 428/7
BCE
In which year was the philosopher Plato born?
• However, many sites just give an unqualified date– St Andrews University Plato summary– UsefulTrivia.com even gives a month
• Surprisingly few sites indicate the full extent of the uncertainty
Extracts from St Andrews University website and UsefulTrivia.com
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Plato.html and http://www.usefultrivia.com/biographies/plato_001.html Retrieved 6 August 2008
Extracts from St Andrews University website and UsefulTrivia.com
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Plato.html and http://www.usefultrivia.com/biographies/plato_001.html Retrieved 6 August 2008
In which year was the philosopher Plato born?
• Some sites even contradict themselves– Bookrags.com’s extract from the
Encyclopedia of World Biography – A previous version of the Wikipedia
article on Plato, online for at least several months in 2008
Bookrags.com: Extract from Encyclopedia of World Biography
http://www.bookrags.com/biography/plato/ Retrieved 4 June 2008
Bookrags.com: Extract from Encyclopedia of World Biography
http://www.bookrags.com/biography/plato/ Retrieved 4 June 2008
Wikipedia article on Plato from 2008
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plato Retrieved 4 June 2008
Wikipedia article on Plato from 2008
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plato Retrieved 4 June 2008
Further questions to consider
• What reasons are given for accepting one date rather than another?
• In your view, which date has the best claim to be the correct answer? Why is this?
Summary - key things to note
• The precise answer to a question is not always known– But sources don’t always acknowledge that
this is the case– Important qualifications can get omitted
• Caution and cross-checking of facts are vital
Why might we find conflicting answers to a question?
• There may be real uncertainty about the answer
• Authorities may disagree
• There may be multiple ways of interpreting a question
Why might we find conflicting answers to a question?
• Some sources may be more up to date than others
• Answers may vary in precision
• Some sources may simply be wrong
Questions to ask when assessing sources
• Who is the author?– An individual or an institution?– What are the author’s credentials?
• Is this a scholarly resource, or a more informal one?
• How up to date is this source?
Questions to ask when assessing sources
• Are there reasons to doubt the reliability of this source?– Does it include information I know to
be false?– Does it contradict itself or use poor
reasoning?– Is it biased towards a particular view?
Questions to ask when assessing sources
• Is the information provided confirmed by other sources?– Are references provided?– Do other websites agree? (A major
advantage of the Web is that many sources can be compared quickly and easily.)
Remember the three Ws
• WHO wrote this site? – Is the author a trustworthy source?
• WHEN was it written? – Is it up to date?
• WHY was it written?– Does the author have an axe to grind?
This slideshow is part of
Encouraging Critical Thinking Online,a set of free teaching resources
designed to develop students’ analytic abilities,
using the Web as source material.
For the full set, please visit Intute Training:
http://www.intute.ac.uk/training/