1. Critical Thinking
Thinking logically is something we all can do. We find ourselves so often taken in by fallacious arguments, though. How can we identify them in others' arguments and our own thought?
1.1. Tools for Critical Thinking
I've been collecting some tools for correct thought.
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English Prime (
![[WikiPedia]](/wiki/mentat/img/moin-inter.png)
E-Prime) is perhaps best understood as a "derivative" of English that forbids any form of the verb "to be." Most fallacies involve some form of the verb "to be." An introduction I found useful was ![[WWW]](/wiki/mentat/img/moin-www.png)
"E and E-Prime" by R.A.Wilson. You can read many articles at http://time-binding.org/library/etc/#is
Alfred Korzybski, one of Frank Herbert's big influences, first suggested omitting "to be" from English.
I do not necessarily advocate the use of E-Prime at all times, but when looking for mistakes in reasoning, zooming in on the "is"s can make analysis easier.
Here's a CGI script that highlights "to be":
http://www.manifestation.com/neurotoys/eprime.pl
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Algebraic Term Logic This tool is orthogonal to the use of E-Prime, since term logic necessarily entails the use of the "to be" copula, at least implicitly.
http://www.fredsommers.com/atl/logicteaching.html Fred Sommers
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Pittsburgh Wiki Forum: A wiki designed to formalize Internet discussion, making logical dependencies clear.
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Truth Mapping - an online tool for creating argument maps.
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Arguments Graphs discussed in more details.
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Theory of Constraints The TOC Thinking Processes of Eliyahu Goldratt (See for example the novel Critical Chain) are mainly concerned with finding problems in industrial situations, but the diagramming techniques offer ways to clarify whether conditions are necessary, and sufficient, what other consequences of the conditions may be, and expose the assumptions. Evaporating Cloud diagrams are used for resolving conflicts (where a goal requires one of two conditions to be true, but preconditions for those conditions contradict.
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Psychology of Intelligence Analysis - this is a substantial book published for free by the CIA; it has a number of chapters on logical thought and how common cognitive biases can come up with the wrong answers.
