Responding Positively to Objections

I’m working on a Philosophy exercise and need support.

In addition, watch the video The Value of Critical Thinking in Daily Life (Links to an external site.) (displayed below).

One of the advantages of learning logic and critical thinking is that it can benefit all areas of one’s life. The ability to research all sides before arriving at a position on an issue, the humility to consider opposing points of view in a fair-minded way, the wisdom to evaluate the quality of reasoning for and against positions, the capacity to recognize and avoid logical fallacies, and the skill to be able to construct effective reasoning all can benefit us by helping us to arrive at positions that are most justified by the evidence (and therefore most likely to be true). These habits, when applied, can also help us to make decisions based on a more comprehensive understanding of different points of view, to better appreciate other people’s perspectives, to be more clear and persuasive in our reasoning, and to avoid making decisions that are not rationally justified. The discussion this week is designed to assist us in this process of applying critical thinking to our daily lives.

Prepare: Read Chapter 9 of the course text, paying special attention to the sections “Confronting Disagreement by Seeking Truth,” and “Case Study: Interpretation and Criticism in Practice,” including all sub-headings of each. Watch the following video about the value of learning from opposing arguments.

https://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_h_cohen_for_argum…

Reflect: Consider what it means to be open-minded (rather than dogmatic). How do you tend to react when people argue against your own strongly (e.g., political and religious) held views? Is it the most productive response?

Write:

1. Provide an example of a good argument for a position with which you disagree or share an example of when you have learned from an opposing argument in the past.
2. Explain your initial reaction to encountering evidence for an opposing view and illustrate how you might learn from the counterargument.
3. Rather than trying to prove it wrong, demonstrate what you might learn from this point of view, and model how you might respond positively, with the shared goal of learning and discovering truth (rather than being right).