Resources

Some people have the good fortune to study and even teach aspects of critical thinking skills (in the form of philosophy, computer programming and even – gasp! – critical thinking as its own standalone subject).

But the good news is that one doesn’t need to dedicate one’s life to studying the topic in order to apply key (and easy-to-learn) critical thinking skills to important everyday tasks (such as the every-four-year job of selecting a President).

When thinking about why I’ve zeroed in on some critical thinking tools and not others in this run up to the Presidential contest, a parallel that comes to mind is the teaching by Mr. Miyagi in the original 1984 Karate Kid (not the recent - and probably better - version with the one-and-only Jackie Chan).

During that film, the young protagonist (played by Ralph Machio) received a crash course in martial arts by his elderly mentor Miyagi (played by Pat Morita of Happy Days fame).  These lessons included learning a few key motions extremely well, not by kicking and punching, but by repeating mundane tasks which included “Paint the Fence” and the legendary “Wax On, Wax Off” maneuvers. 

Once he realized that these activities had created “muscle memory” that translated directly to certain karate moves, he inquired of his sifu if this gave him what he needed to compete against far stronger and more experienced rivals.  Quality, he was told, can trump quantity of knowledge, strength, experience, (and even a willingness to cheat); a lesson demonstrated when Miyagi’s young charge proceeded to kick the ass of one opponent after another.

In the same way, familiarity with critical thinking skills (such as how the contents of an argument can be analyzed for logos and pathos, or knowledge of fallacies or rhetorical devices) gives all of us the tools needed to review the persuasive speech that comes at us during a political campaign (in the form of formal speeches, debate performances, and political ads). And these same tools can help us review media inputs for accuracy and bias.

The fact that there are over a hundred types of fallacies, or that rhetorical devices can be divided into dozens of schemes and tropes does not mean we need to memorize long lists of Greek and Latin names in order to have these concepts at our fingertips when needed.  In fact, once we start doing some analysis of this candidate’s speech or that candidate’s debate performance, we can reference information on the pages linked above to name concrete examples of this fallacy or that word scheme and analyze their effectiveness.

All that said, some people might prefer a more comprehensive understanding of the tools of persuasion before we enter the campaign season in earnest.  And since I’ll only have your attention a few minutes each week, I wanted to pass on a resource for those who have the time to dedicate a few hours to this subject over the coming months.

For many years, I’ve taken to listening to audio-based college courses during my morning and afternoon commutes. Some of these have been downloaded from iTunes University (which are pretty hit or miss, especially since I’m not fond of recorded classroom lectures that include interaction with students I’m not sitting next to).  But two companies: The Teaching Company and Modern Scholar, provide course on CD (as well as Internet download) that have helped me catch up on a range of subjects I missed in college (especially in areas of ancient history and philosophy). 

These too have been hit or miss (although with a higher hit rate than iTunes, especially since they were created with the commuting listener in mind), and I just completed a Modern Scholar course entitled “Way with Words: Writing Rhetoric and the Art of Persuasion” by Professor Michael Drout of Wheaton College.  Drout is a medieval history/sci-fi/fantasy/language dweeb (a set of fixations I wholeheartedly endorse), who manages to pack a solid presentation of many of the topics we’ve been touching on into less than eight hours of lectures. 

While this course was probably intended for students trying to improve their writing, most of the lectures are applicable to any form of communication (including the aspects of persuasive speech we’ll be seeing during the upcoming campaign).  Given that this and other courses are available for the grand total of $0 from many libraries, if you’ve got some free time between now and the conventions, you could do worse than to dedicate a few hours to this highly efficient way of learning.