Do PIPA and SOPA threaten to reverse legal burden of proof in the US? Clay Shirky argues they do. I don’t know enough about the legal system, or the proposed legislation. However, this is a serious allegation with implications far beyond the US.
Archive for the ‘Teaching’ Category
Burden of proof and intellectual property
Posted in Connections, Discussion, Rhetoric, Teaching, tagged Black Label Movement, dance, dance your phd, explanation, explanations, John Bohannon, Michael Gilbert, visual argument on January 19, 2012 | 1 Comment »
New Addition to the Resources Page
Posted in Announcements, Critical Thinking, Teaching, tagged Mark Battersby, Reason in the Balance, Sharon Bailin on January 6, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Mark Battersby and Sharon Bailin have created a blog to supplement their excellent textbook, Reason in the Balance. I have added it to the RAIL Resources page. You can also have a look at it here. Reason in the Balance presents students with a novel, inquiry-based approach to critical thinking. If you haven’t had a [...]
Does Teaching Critical Thinking Include Challenging Students’ Beliefs?
Posted in Critical Thinking, Discussion, Teaching, tagged college students, dialectic, fact-value distinction, Inside Higher Ed, Peter Boghossian, philosophy, teaching critical thinking on December 23, 2011 | 6 Comments »
This past term I had a rather unpleasant experience in my critical thinking class. I was confronted with a subset of students who walked in the door assured that I had nothing to teach them about critical thinking. I learned this because they vocally resisted absolutely everything with which they did not personally agree. Unfortunately, [...]
Philosophy matters (for critical thinking)
Posted in Teaching, News, Informal Logic, Critical Thinking, tagged philosophy, critical thinking, teaching critical thinking, Lee McIntyre, Academically Adrift on December 12, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
A new article in the Chronicle of Higher Education on the decline of philosophy in the academy stresses again (see my previous post) the importance of philosophy in providing critical thinking education. I’m pleased to see the props the author (Lee McIntyre) gives to feminist philosophers for their attention to pressing issues of our time, [...]
Dancing an Explanation
Posted in Connections, Discussion, Rhetoric, Teaching, tagged Black Label Movement, dance, dance your phd, explanation, explanations, John Bohannon, Michael Gilbert, visual argument on December 3, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Some readers of RAIL may already with John Bohannon’s brilliant competition Dance your PhD. In the video below, given at a TED event in Brussels, Bohannon generalizes the point that Dance your PhD essentially makes: Explanations can be effectively delivered in any number of ways. Though the suggestion that dancers might replace the ubiquitous and [...]
Name-dropping
Posted in Critical Thinking, Discussion, Informal Logic, Teaching, tagged critical thinking, Informal Logic, symbolic logic, teaching philosophy on November 22, 2011 | 4 Comments »
This article from the Denver Post stresses the usefulness of philosophy, including how “emphasis on informal and symbolic logic” helps with computer science. In accounts of philosophy curricula, unfortunately, reference to informal logic is typically just name-dropping, as the textbook authors are mostly not scholars in the field, and instructors rarely have any relevant training. [...]
CFP: Nineteenth International Workshop on Teaching Philosophy
Posted in CFP, Teaching, tagged CFP, improving student learning, instructional techniques for philosophy, interdisciplinary study, interdisciplinary teaching, nineteenth conference on teaching philosophy, teaching conferences, teaching philosophy, teaching strategies on August 31, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
ANNOUNCEMENT AND CALL FOR PROPOSALS The American Association of Philosophy Teachers THE NINETEENTH INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP-CONFERENCE ON TEACHING PHILOSOPHY St. Edward’s University, Austin, Texas July 25 – July 29, 2012 Proposals for interactive workshops and panels related to teaching and learning philosophy at any educational level are welcome. We especially encourage workshops and panels on the [...]
Point of Inquiry Interview with Hugo Mercier
Posted in Argumentation, Connections, Discussion, Teaching, tagged argument theory of reasoning, argumentation theory and cognitive psychology, biases and heuristics, Chris Mooney, communication theory, confirmation bias, conversational analysis, Dan Sperber, deliberation, Hugo Mercier, interactional analysis, motivated reasoning, Point of Inquiry, reason-based choice, reasoning on August 16, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
An interesting phone interview with Hugo Mercier popped up today on Point of Inquiry, the blog for the Center for Inquiry. The role of the confirmation bias, disagreement, and polarization are covered in this interesting discussion. There are some very familiar themes here for argumentation theorists. It’s well worth a listen. The clear and economical [...]
“Baby Logic”, Critical Thinking, and the Liberal Arts
Posted in Teaching, Connections, Critical Thinking, tagged Teaching, Informal Logic, critical thinking, teaching logic, liberal arts, baby logic, Chronical of Higher Education, American universities, colleges, general education, formal logic, teaching critical thinking, Donald Lazere, education, education in America, critical thinking education on July 8, 2011 | 2 Comments »
Don Lazere’s short but punchy piece in the Chronicle on the beleaguered state of critical thinking education in the American academy is well worth a read. While I find myself agreeing with much of what he says, I think he misses one of the principal actors in the play: the increasing role of corporate influence [...]
A Fallacies Concept Map
Posted in Teaching, Informal Logic, Fallacies, tagged Teaching, logic, fallacies, infographics, concept map, philosorapters, fallacy files on February 23, 2011 | 4 Comments »
Here’s a lovely graphical representation of the family of fallacies via The Fallacy Files. (Note: I found out about this infographic first via the Philosorapters blog, which gives advice on job hunting mostly but also occasionally on teaching philosophy.) I think many readers of RAIL will find this way of cutting the cake rather interesting, [...]
-
RAIL on Twitter
- Just in case you're puzzled about why the #Hendricks photos were problematic: http://t.co/dygZ5yHy #sexism #philosophy 13 hours ago
- CFP: #COMMA2012 http://t.co/G3HXIRK3 #logic #computation #argumentation 18 hours ago
- Women in #logic http://t.co/M79ng2Am #VincentHendricks #sexism #powerfuljerkmove 19 hours ago
- Clements, Dowker, & Wallden: Modus Ponens in #Physics http://t.co/b4Au5qOI 2 days ago
- #CFP: OSSA 2013: Virtues of #Argumentation http://t.co/wgQaAtUm #informallogic #rhetoric #computation #fallacies #nonclassicallogic #ossa 2 days ago
Archives
- February 2012 (6)
- January 2012 (7)
- December 2011 (14)
- November 2011 (8)
- October 2011 (5)
- September 2011 (3)
- August 2011 (5)
- July 2011 (4)
- June 2011 (7)
- May 2011 (9)
- April 2011 (3)
- March 2011 (4)
- February 2011 (11)
- January 2011 (8)
- December 2010 (2)
- November 2010 (4)
- October 2010 (2)
- September 2010 (3)
- August 2010 (4)
- July 2010 (9)
- June 2010 (1)
- May 2010 (1)
- April 2010 (8)
- March 2010 (7)
- February 2010 (8)
- January 2010 (13)
- December 2009 (12)
Categories
- About RAIL (2)
- Announcements (27)
- Argumentation (13)
- CFP (72)
- Computation (9)
- Connections (52)
- Critical Thinking (9)
- Discourse Analysis (4)
- Discussion (51)
- Fallacies (5)
- Guest Posts (1)
- Humor (2)
- Informal Logic (19)
- Job Openings (1)
- Logic (2)
- News (13)
- Pragma-dialectics (6)
- Rationality (16)
- Rhetoric (20)
- Seminar (1)
- Seminar/Workshop/Program Announcements (15)
- Teaching (21)
- Workshops (1)
Meta
