Core Concepts in Critical Thinking

http://www.kcmetro.cc.mo.us/longview/ctac/corenotes.htm


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Peddlers and Consumers of Statements

In real life, people sometimes make statements just to be speaking the truth. But frequently they make statements, not primarily (and maybe not even secondarily) to be speaking the truth, but primarily in order to get other people to accept them as true. Then we call this peddling the statement, and we call the those who peddle it the peddlers of it, and those whom they want to accept it the consumers of the statement. The context of this human interaction is called a "context of persuasion", or sometimes "the propositional marketplace" (since there's no such word as "statemental".)

Being a skilled critical thinker will require, in the long run, knowing a lot about the propositional marketplace and the various devices a peddler may use (deliberately or not), which ease the consumer into accepting the statement being peddled. For now, just remember this key feature of the propositional marketplace: somebody (the peddler) wants somebody else (the consumer) to believe something (a statement).

Note that we are not necessarily speaking here of professional roles. You are a peddler every time you say something with the purpose of getting someone else to believe it- regardless of whether you're paid to do this or not (in other words, usually not). Likewise, you are a consumer every time you are the target audience of someone's peddling attempt. So most normal people alternate between these functions many times every day.

Interestingly, you can even peddle statements to yourself, in the privacy of your own mind. Down there in that internal forum (in foro interno), with no outsiders paying attention to the process, you very rarely think just one isolated thing. Have you ever noticed that? You think- or notice, or pay attention to- one thing, and then on the basis of that you think some additional thing. For example, you might think "I've got a logic exam this Friday!", and right away one or more additional thoughts attach themselves, like


• a) "I'm in trouble deep!" or

• b) "I'd better do some serious studying," or maybe even

• c) "A potentially very satisfying thing will happen on Friday."


That's you the peddler talking. You the consumer usually just sits there and accepts these additional thoughts without critique or resistance. But your internal peddler is capable of being just as crafty as any external peddler may be. So if it's your internal consumer who's in charge of investing your life energies into some picture of the truth, then that consumer had better pay the same close attention to this internal process of persuasion as to an external one.

The sign of a top-notch, first-class critical thinker is this tendency to apply to persuasion processes in foro interno the same standards and attitudes that are appropriate to ones in the external forum.


Things Peddlers Do


What a peddler does in order to gain acceptance for his (or her) statements can include all sorts of crazy things:


• a) shout, scream, yell and generally be emphatic

• b) threaten, bullyrag, terrorize, and generally be obnoxious

• c) cry, whimper, sulk, and generally be pathetic

• d) smile, shake hands, look receptive, and generally be real friendly

• e) carry or wear symbols of power, wisdom, and authority, and generally present themselves as a fountainhead of truth

• f) etc., etc., etc.


All of these techniques are effective to some degree - some more with some people than with others, some more in one context than in others. Some rely for their effectiveness on good qualities in the consumer (like sympathy, or trust); some rely on bad qualities (like fear, or ignorance). But exactly none of them have anything to do with the truth of the statement being peddled - they'd work just as well with lies as with the truth.

So here's the big question: is there anything a peddler could provide that would show the consumer that the statement being peddled is true? Then the consumer could accept it because she sees that it's true, and just disregard all the accompanying song-and-dance.

The answer to that question is yes, with certain qualifications:


• Qualification 1: For any very interesting statement, the most that could be shown is that it's true in view of certain other things the consumer already accepts as true.

• Qualification 2: In many cases, even with qualification 1, the most that can be shown is that it is probably true, in view of certain other things the consumer already accepts as true.


Political and Philosophical Peddlers


You are fortunate if you encounter a peddler who is interested in getting you to agree with a statement by showing you that it is true. We refer to such peddlers as philosophical, because of their orientation toward the truth (philosophical means "loving wisdom"). Peddlers who just want to get you to agree, regardless of truth, we refer to as political, since power and control are their main concerns.

So we see that a philosophical peddler will try to point out to you facts that you already accept as true, and show you that in view of these the peddled statement is true (or at least probably true). When you consider that facts are expressed by statements, you see that this peddler's essential pitch consists of a collection of statements:


• a) the target statement you're being asked to accept

• b) the "supporting" statements which

• b1) at least aim to be ones you already accept as true and

• b2) supposedly convey their truth to the target statement.


So, to summarize:


• a. questions, commands, sentences which refer to a probability of an event, statements about fictional characters are not statements.

• b. a statement is a sentence or a part of a sentence which is true or false (it has a truth value).

• c. Truth of a statement can be established by:

• personal experience,

• internal consistency, and

• consistency with the body of established fact (things we know are true already).


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Etc.