A couple more grouping of classic "arch-villains" of critical thinking:

*   relativistic thinking
    *   relativism - the view that truth is a matter of opinion
    *   here are two popular forms of relativism:
        *   subjectivism - the view that truth is a matter
	    of INDIVIDUAL opinion

        *   cultural relativism - the view that truth is a matter
            of social or cultural opinion

    *   usually, relativists claim that not ALL truth is relative,
        BUT that truth is relative in SOME important domain(s)

        e.g., moral relativism 
	*   ALSO comes in the 2 forms noted above:
	    *   moral relativism - the view that what is morally
	        good and right for an individual A is whatever
		A believes is morally right and good.

            *   cultural moral relativism - the view that what is
	        morally good and right for an individual A
		is whatever A's society or culture believes is
		morally good or right

         *   these can have some serious problems:
	     *   makes it impossible to criticize other cultures'
	         customs and values -- even those that may seem
		 intuitively terribly wrong
             *   ...and even to criticize one's OWN society's
	         customs and values;
             *   and more...

*   wishful thinking - believing something not because you have
    good evidence for it but simply because you wished it were
    true

*   NOW that we have read and discussed
    some about WHAT we mean by critical thinking,
    why it might be considered worthwhile,
    and some "arch-villains" of critical thinking,

    let's proceed to RECOGNIZING ARGUMENTS (Chapter 2)

==============
CHAPTER 2 - RECOGNIZING arguments
==============

*   critical thinking is OFTEN involved with REASONS --
    identifying them,
    evaluating them,
    giving them;

    in critical thinking, passages that present reasons
    for a claim are called ARGUMENTS.

    *   the concept of an argument in critical thinking
        *   and how to distinguish arguments from NON-arguments

*   PART 1 - we're going to see that an argument in CS 100 terms
    is a GROUP of STATEMENTS that meet a particular criteria;

***************
    SO, we FIRST need to define the critical thinking
    version of a STATEMENT

    *   A statement is something that can be viewed as
        (arguably) true or (arguably) false
***************

    some examples:
    *   Teal is a color.
    *   Roses are red.
    *   Roses are made of adamantium.
    *   Canada is in South America.
    *   The Easter Bunny does not exist.
    *   Trolling is morally wrong.

    *   an rule of thumb for judging whether something is
        a statement:
	CAN it be reasonably prefaced by:

	"It is true that..."
	or
	"It is false that..." 

    *   note that there are statements that do not look
        like statements perhaps in a first glance --
	two classic categories of that:

	*   RHETORICAL QUESTIONS
	
	    "Don't you know that smoking is bad for you?"

	    ^ has the grammatical form of a question,
	      BUT is meant to be UNDERSTOOD as a statement,
	      asserting that smoking is bad for you;

        *   OUGHT IMPERATIVE - 

            "Don't read beauty magazines -- they distort ideas
	    about true beauty."

	    ^ has the grammatical form of an imperative or command,
	      BUT is intended to assert a value or ought judgement
	      about what is good or bad or right or wrong

            *   MAY depend on context -- 
	        "Eat your vegetables"
		may JUST be a command, OR may be saying
		"It is true that one ought to eat one's vegetables"
		depending on the context

*   examples of things that often are not statements:
    questions (that aren't rhetorical), greetings,
    commands, requests, proposals, instructions, exclamations

*   an ARGUMENT is  group of statements
    *   one or more are intended to SUPPORT the argument --
        PREMISES
    *   one is what the argument is intended to convince 
        or persuade -- CONCLUSION