Critical Thinking is a relatively new discipline to humans and it’s formalisation and development is still in progress. It has been a subject in schools in the UK since 2008. In South Africa, I am not aware of such a course at school level, although UCT offers one for first-year students and most Universities only deal with the subject under Law and Philosophy.. It is a discipline sorely lacking among the general populace, and refers to the process by which we determine logically what is or isn’t so. I think it should be a mandatory subject for everyone, starting at around age 12, providing the student with a process that they can use throughout their lives and apply to almost any subject or scenario.
In many cases, it is not the ‘content’ or ‘data’ in a statement that renders it untrue; it is the manner in which the argument is constructed that does so. People are often infuriated when I point out that their argument is invalid, irrespective of the fact that the information they have presented is correct. Below are the ten ‘bad’ arguments I come across most frequently in animal welfare and rights circles: . Continue reading “Bad Argument: Ten common errors of logic made by animal workers and activists (and others)”