The Philosopher's Toolkit: How to Be the Most Rational Person in

257 Pages·2013·2.41 MB·English

by  Patrick Grim

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Philosophy & uS tb opic
Intellectual History Modern Philosophy
The Philosopher’s Toolkit:
How to Be the Most Rational
Person in Any Room
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Professor Patrick Grim
tS ate nU iev rsity o f eN w oY r k at tS ony Brook
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Copyright © The Teaching Company, 2013
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Patrick Grim, B.Phil., Ph.D.
Distinguished Teaching
Professor of Philosophy
State University of New York at Stony Brook
rofessor Patrick Grim is Distinguished
Teaching Professor of Philosophy at the
PState University of New York (SUNY) at
Stony Brook, where he has taught since 1976.
Having graduated with highest honors in both
Anthropology and Philosophy from the University of California, Santa
Cruz, Professor Grim was named a Fulbright Fellow to the University of
St. Andrews, Scotland, from which he received his B.Phil. He received
his Ph.D. from Boston University with a dissertation on ethical relativism
and spent a year as a Mellon Faculty Fellow at Washington University. In
addition to being named SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor, he has
received the President’s and Chancellor’s awards for excellence in teaching.
Professor Grim was named Marshall Weinberg Distinguished Visiting
Professor at the University of Michigan in 2006 and Visiting Fellow at the
Center for Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh in 2007.
He also has been a frequent Visiting Scholar at the Center for the Study of
Complex Systems at the University of Michigan.
Professor Grim has published extensively in computational modeling and on
such topics as theoretical biology, linguistics, decision theory, and artifcial
intelligence. His work spans ethics; philosophical logic; game theory;
contemporary metaphysics; and philosophy of science, law, mind, language,
and religion.
Professor Grim is the author of The Incomplete Universe: Totality,
Knowledge, and Truth and the coauthor of The Philosophical Computer:
Exploratory Essays in Philosophical Computer Modeling (with Gary
Mar and Paul St. Denis); Beyond Sets: A Venture in Collection-Theoretic
Revisionism (with Nicholas Rescher); and Refexivity: From Paradox to
Consciousness (also with Nicholas Rescher). He is the editor of Mind and
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Consciousness: 5 Questions and Philosophy of Science and the Occult and
a founding coeditor of more than 30 volumes of The Philosopher’s Annual,
an anthology of the best articles published in philosophy each year. He has
taught two previous Great Courses: Questions of Value and Philosophy of
Mind: Brains, Consciousness, and Thinking Machines. ■
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION
Professor Biography ............................................................................ i
Course Scope .....................................................................................1
LECTURE GUIDES
LECTURE 1
How We Think and How to Think Better .............................................4
LECTURE 2
Cool Rationality and Hot Thought .....................................................13
LECTURE 3
The Strategy of Visualization ............................................................22
LECTURE 4
Visualizing Concepts and Propositions ............................................30
LECTURE 5
The Power of Thought Experiments .................................................40
LECTURE 6
Thinking like Aristotle ........................................................................48
LECTURE 7
Ironclad, Airtight Validity ...................................................................60
LECTURE 8
Thinking outside the Box ..................................................................71
LECTURE 9
The Flow of Argument .....................................................................78
LECTURE 10
Simple Heuristics That Make Us Smart ............................................87
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Table of Contents
LECTURE 11
Why We Make Misteaks ..................................................................95
LECTURE 12
Rational Discussion in a Polarized Context ....................................103
LECTURE 13
Rhetoric versus Rationality ............................................................. 111
LECTURE 14
Bogus Arguments and How to Defuse Them ................................119
LECTURE 15
The Great Debate ...........................................................................128
LECTURE 16
Outwitting the Advertiser.................................................................134
LECTURE 17
Putting a Spin on Statistics .............................................................141
LECTURE 18
Poker, Probability, and Everyday Life .............................................148
LECTURE 19
Decisions, Decisions ......................................................................156
LECTURE 20
Thinking Scientifcally .....................................................................165
LECTURE 21
Put It to the Test—Beautiful Experiments .......................................173
LECTURE 22
Game Theory and Beyond ............................................................183
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Table of Contents
LECTURE 23
Thinking with Models ......................................................................192
LECTURE 24
Lessons from the Great Thinkers ...................................................201
SUPPLEmENTaL maTERIaL
Glossary .........................................................................................209
Bibliography ....................................................................................231
Answers ..........................................................................................244
Answers for some sets of Questons to Consider and Exercises can be found
in the “Answers” secton at the end of this guidebook.
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The Philosopher’s Toolkit:
How to Be the most Rational Person in any Room
Scope:
hinking is one of the things we do best. Wouldn’t it be great if we
could do it even better? This course, The Philosopher’s Toolkit, gives
Tyou a set of thinking techniques designed with that goal in mind:
tools for conceptual visualization, critical analysis, creative thinking, logical
inference, rational decision, real-world testing, effective reasoning, and
rational argument. The course uses interactive engagement to introduce a
range of conceptual methods and perspectives: mind-stretching philosophical
puzzles, mental exercises by example, thought experiments on which to test
your powers, and deep questions to ponder.
You’ll learn “hands on” the simple heuristics that make us smart; the
basic strategies of decision theory and conceptual modeling; and how to
handle everyday probabilities, track a train of thought, outwit advertisers,
and detect a spin in statistics. The course also emphasizes rationality in
the social context: how to use the wisdom of crowds; how to analyze the
fow of thought in a debate; and how to defuse fallacious reasoning, defate
rhetoric, and break through opinion polarization. You can apply your new
tools of analysis in evaluating arguments on both sides in a “great debate.”
Decision theory, game theory, probability, and experimental design are all
introduced as part of the toolkit, but with a philosophical examination of
their limitations, as well as their strengths.
In order to think better, we also have to understand why we make mistakes—
the systematic ways in which our thinking goes wrong. You’ll be surprised
to fnd how poor we are at noticing continuity changes in both movies and
in everyday life; in fact, we are “change blind.” Our memories, however
vivid, are created in large part by things that happened after the event: what
questions were asked, how they were asked, and how the story was retold.
Our estimates of risk and danger often have more to do with the vividness of a
mental picture than with any clear-headed consideration of the probabilities.
This course draws lessons from a wide range of literature in psychology and
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cognitive science in exploring the systematic conceptual biases that mislead
us all—and how we can compensate for those biases. It also focuses on
questions in philosophy of mind regarding the role of emotion in thought,
individual and social rationality, and the comparative powers of gut instinct
versus systematic analysis. Is emotion the enemy of rationality or a force we
need to better understand as a conceptual resource in its own right?
All of the techniques in the course are outlined with the history of philosophy
and science as a background. The power of visualization is introduced using
insights in the history of thought from Pythagoras to von Neumann. The
power of thought experiments is illustrated with examples from Galileo,
from Einstein, and from contemporary philosophy of mind. Important
perspectives and approaches are traced to Plato, Schopenhauer, Hobbes,
Pascal, and Descartes. Concepts important for analyzing empirical data are
drawn from the work of philosophers Karl Popper, John Stuart Mill, and
Charles Sanders Peirce but are illustrated using Newton’s experiments in a
darkened room, R. A. Fisher’s “Lady Tasting Tea” experiment, and Richard
Feynman’s experiment with a glass of ice water during televised hearings on
the Challenger disaster. The history behind gambling and probability theory,
game theory and the Cold War, and the strange tale of Aristotle’s manuscripts
all form part of the story.
The Philosopher’s Toolkit is a perfect introduction to applied philosophy,
designed for application in everyday life. The emphasis throughout is on
practical conceptual strategies that are useful in any area of application,
with interactive examples of logic in action taken from business, the
media, and political debate. What are the advertising tricks that we all
have to watch out for? What are the standard forms of bogus argument?
How can we manage empirical data and statistical information without
being misleading and without being misled? How can we have a rational
discussion in a polarized environment? From these lectures, you’ll gain a
wide set of useful new thinking skills, methods, and techniques but also
a deeper psychological, philosophical, and historical appreciation for the
thinking skills you already have.
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Scope