Introduction to Critical Thinking
For the FIRST question, please first review the following:
Douglas Adams (1952–2001), author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, compared humans to a puddle of water as a way of illustrating anthropocentric thinking, or what he called “the vain conceit” of humans.
He wrote: “Imagine a puddle waking up one morning and thinking, “This is an interesting world I find myself in, an interesting hole I find myself in. It fits me rather neatly, doesn’t it? In fact, it fits me staggeringly well. It must have been made to have me in it.” Even as the sun comes out and the puddle gets smaller, it still frantically hangs on to the idea that everything is going to be all right; that the world was made for it since it is so well suited to it.”
Are humans, in fact, a lot like the puddle in Adams’s analogy? Support your answer, using examples from your own experience. Discuss how this type of anthropocentric thinking shapes or distorts our interpretation of the world.
For the SECOND question, please watch the “Milgram Experiment” video clip and post your response to the following question.
Imagine that you are a participant in Milgram’s study of obedience. What would you have done if you protested and the experimenter in charge answered, “The experiment requires that you continue”? Discuss your answer in light of the stages of cognitive development. Discuss also what you might do to make it less likely that you would obey an authority figure in a situation such as the Milgram study. The link is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kzd6Ew3TraA&;feature=youtu.be
And here is additional information:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dItUGF8GdTw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_3fD9jufXI&;feature=emb_title
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqq3hWzmvX4&;feature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnJ1bqXUnIM
