
One important skill of critical thinking is distinguishing facts from “factoids.” An example of the latter is the oft-repeated statistic that “50 percent of American marriages end in divorce.” That’s been repeated so often that most people believe it, but it’s actually been debunked. We’re all familiar with debunking. But what happens when, ironically enough,
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There’s no denying that ADHD is on the rise. In the eight years between 2003 and 2011, the number of ADHD diagnoses in the U.S. rose from 7.8 to 11.0 percent. But as the number of ADHD diagnoses has risen, so have concerns about the way in which ADHD is often treated. In essence, many
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A few months ago, we wrote how a humanoid robot named “Sophia”—dubbed the world’s most advanced android—announced during an interview that she wanted to destroy humans. Sophia returned to the internet in early June, speaking to the Wall Street Journal in an interesting Q&A exchange that touched on several subjects. Most of Sophia’s responses were
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The death a few days ago of Muhammad Ali, an icon of boxing as well as racial equality, reminds me and others of something that you too may have noticed: how violent language is increasingly being used to describe disagreement. One public figure criticizing another is “attacking” or “bashing” the other. When somebody’s reasoning is
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In November 2012, I attended a conservative State Policy Network (SPN) conference the week after President Obama had won reelection. As you might imagine, the mood among the conservative think-tank attendees was rather somber. In spite of all their efforts over the past four years, the more liberal presidential candidate had defeated the more conservative
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A couple of months ago, when I first began writing for Intellectual Takeout, I wrote a piece about the difference between arguing and quarreling. I referred to G. K. Chesterton’s quip, concerning his relationship with his brother, that they were always arguing but they never quarreled. Chesterton’s point is that arguing is good, whereas quarreling
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