CPT: Progress report for October

Here’s a progress report on the state of “Clear and Present Thinking”

As progress on the project continues, its final shape becomes easier to see. Like any writing project, this textbook might end up looking slightly different than what it was originally planned to be. But there’s an easy way to see how it is changing: simply compare the proposed table of contents as it appears on the KStart page, to the table of contents I’m posting below, right here.

You’ll notice that in this updated table of contents, some items have a checkmark beside them. that indicates a section which is done, or close to being done. Items without a checkmark are still in the planning stages.

This gives you a chance to send me a suggestion or two about other topics that you think should be covered which aren’t mentioned here. Or, you could ask me questions about how I’ve covered items that I’ve indicated are done, or mostly done.

Take a look, and let me know what you think!

…

1. Questions, World Views, and Other Basics
What is thinking? ✓
Why is good thinking important? ✓
Is logic difficult? ✓
Where does thinking happen? ✓
The Intellectual Environment ✓
Questions and Problems ✓
What is a World View? (Schweitzer) ✓
Evaluating Different World Views ✓
Value Programs (McMurtry) ✓
World Views, Civilization, and Conflict (Huntington) ✓

2. Habits of Good and Bad Thinking
Self-Interest ✓
Saving Face ✓
Peer Pressure ✓
Stereotyping and Prejudice
Excessive Skepticism ✓
Relativism (Personal and Cultural)
Willed Ignorance ✓
Curiosity
Self-Awareness
Courage
Healthy Skepticism ✓
Autonomy
Simplicity; Ockham’s Razor ✓
Precision; Crafting Good Definitions ✓
Subtlety
Consistency
Open-ness; Principle of Charity ✓

3. Basics of Argumentation
Propositions ✓
Other Parts of Arguments ✓
Modus Ponens ✓
Modus Tollens
Standard Syllogism
Hypothetical Syllogism
Disjunctive Syllogism ✓
Adjunction
Constructive Dilemma
Destructive Dilemma
Inductive Generalization
Statistical Syllogism
Induction by shared properties
Induction by shared relations
Scientific method (short version) ✓

4. Reasonable Doubt
Its definition, and circumstances that warrant reasonable doubt ✓
Contradictory claims ✓
Bias and Self-deception ✓
Lack of evidence / Weak or Inconclusive Evidence ✓
Conspiracy Theories ✓
Believing and/or Doubting the Experts ✓
Personal experiences / Doubting One’s Own Eyes and Ears ✓
Scams, Frauds, and Confidence Tricks ✓
Disinformation and Propaganda
Special matters related to the news media.
Special maters related to advertising and and mass-persuasion.

5. Fallacies
Definition of a fallacy; faulty Premises; faulty Inferences; fallacies of Irrelevance
Appeal to authority
Accident
Amphiboly
Composition
Division
Red Herring
Straw Man
Ad Baculum / Appeal to Force
Ad Misercordiam / Appeal to Emotion or Pity
Ad Hominem
Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc / False Cause
Non Sequitor
Appeal to Tradition / Novelty
Undistributed Middle
Naturalistic Fallacy
Complex Question / Loaded Question
Equivocation
Appeal to Ignorance
Appeal to popularity
Appeal to Authority
Q Begging
False Dilemma
Hasty Generalization
Faulty Analogy

6. Games, Paradoxes, and Strategic Reasoning
What Games Are
Prisoner’s Dilemmas

7. Thinking about Ethics
Arguments that include moral propositions ✓
Utilitarianism ✓
Deontology (Kant) ✓
Distributive Justice (Rawls) ✓
Virtue ✓
Professional issues (‘best practices’, etc.)

8. Thinking about Religion
Why reasoning about religion is important
Some definitions: animism, polytheism, monotheism, atheism, etc. ✓
Some bad arguments for why God(s) exist: (q-begging fallacy, appeal to authority fallacy, etc.)
Some better arguments for why God(s) exist: (the Ontological argument, Pascal’s Wager, etc)
How to recognise, and avoid, a cult!

9. Thinking about politics
What is power? ✓
Hard power, soft power ✓
What is Left, Right, and Centre?

10. Thinking about Economics
The capitalist cycle (investment -> product -> consumer sale etc) ✓

11. Thinking about Science
Scientific Method explained again ✓
Paradigms and Paradigm Shifts (Kuhn) ✓
Epistemic Values (Popper) ✓
How Scientists Negotiate With Each Other

12. Thinking About The Arts

13. Glossary