Anyone who takes a college critical thinking course learns about the fallacies or common errors in reasoning. One fallacious form of scientific reasoning is confirmation bias. That is, when someone collects evidence, they immediately interpret it in a way that confirms their prior beliefs or theories. Many of us are prone it, but what is
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In the aftermath of Trump’s shocking victory, the English Department at the Ivy League University of Pennsylvania called a meeting of its students to discuss the election. This might seem a little odd in itself. What, one wonders, has the election to do with the studying of literature at college? One might see how the
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Demarco Webster Jr. didn’t like going outdoors, his father said. Sadly, it’s not hard to see why. In October, the 14-year-old was gunned down while trying to help his father, who was moving, tie a mattress onto a vehicle. Webster was one of more than 700 homicides in Chicago this year, NPR reported Wednesday,
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Have you had this happen to you? The topic of racism comes up in casual conversation. Some white person defensively says that he has black friends. He is immediately (and implausibly) denounced. The thinking is that the claim that “some of my best friends are black” is an old canard to cover up…racism. The accused
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The end of another year is always a great opportunity to look back and reflect. But as many have already noted, 2016 is not the happiest year to look back and reflect upon. In spite of the year’s challenges, we at Intellectual Takeout are thankful for the opportunities we had to discuss the ideas and
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After the deaths of George Michael and Carrie Fisher, a Daily Beast headline declared, “We have lost our Prince and Princess.” It is a declaration that says a lot about our culture. The first thing to take note of about such a headline is that it indicates that these two celebrities were seen as members of some
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