critical thinking blog #4

Susan Jacoby's novel entitled The Age of American Unreason chapter 9, entitled "junk thought" is about the rationalization of scientific bases that are divulged into the public. Is also Jacoby's way of stating that through a junk thought explanation, the public is able to grasp the rationalization behind the scientific community and the means in which things are happening. Unfortunately this also means that it is a downgrade of the level of intelligence of the language towards he public, put short it is an oversimplification of the scientific language. in my opinion of this interpretation of junk thought, it only shows the lack of faith in understanding towards the public by the scientific community towards the public capabilities to understand advanced forms of science. I agree with Jacoby that with this interpretation the public is better able to grasp the rationalization of the scientific community better, especially in fields of study that they are just not capable of understanding, like advanced quantum physics in spacial dimensions, now that's a hard field of study if i do say so myself. The concept of junk thought though is in itself a completely strange way to define the simplification of scientific language, if it should be called anything in a rational term it should be called simplified science, very fit if i do say so myself, its straight to the point and allows no other means of interpretations about the definition of the term itself. I will say this though about junk thought, it is a pretty interesting term that is able to show the lack of depth in intelligence that the modern day American represents and learns throughout his/her life or scholarly forms of education.

pre-reading blog #4

What is “junk thought”? Is it thinking that is worthless? What is that, exactly? What examples can you find in your experience? In your opinion, how does it influence people? Please end your blog with at least one good critical question.
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"Junk thought" I suppose could be categorized as a line of thought that leads to a false or ignorant idea, such as thinking that the holocast never occurred during World War II, that is what I believe "junk thought" to be. I would'nt consider "junk thought" to be worthless, just mis-leading and wrong, there is no such thing as a worthless thought, only those that don't think are truly worthless. A "junk thought" that I can think of from my life is probably the "false" thought that cheese companies used to have in their comercials about the moon being made out of cheese, it may be false, but it is still a funny thought to give to child, to allow them to believe and think that anything is [pssibnle if the moon is made out of cheese, makes you think "what is the planet mars made out of? Orange Juice?" that is the false "junk thought", and each indivividual thought can be called worthless, but only in the stance that it is untrue, each "junk thought" influences those that hear and makes them think from that thought, "is that true or false?" This thought approach could be conisedered the foundation that the scientific method is based off, trial and error through experimentation. So my critical question to you the reader is this, if "junk thought" could be linked with the thought of thinking all reason, and scientific reason especially, does that mean that all "junk thought" could be considered to be the most important thought humans have, or could it be condsidered the worst only because that thought makes absolutly no sense, just like this question? Think and learn, or learn to think, that is true wisdom (how very gnomic of me).

Critical Thinking Blog #3

Consider the current youth popular culture compared to those of the past. What movements do you have in your youth culture? How are you a part of your youth culture?
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the youth culure in the past compared to the current culture is very different. From what I remember from when i was a kid, the youth culture was alot more strict and held back, were as in todays youth culture it is alot more open. I will say that i never once when I was a kid saw a kid that was 12 wearing what i would have identified with an adult, such clothing will go unnamed due to how should I say a PG rating. In my youth culture the greatest movement that I had was, and I will honestly saw, was cartoons, card games, video games and youth sports (such as baseball and football). I am part of my youth culture because a good amount of what I grew up with is still with me today, like i still find myself playing video games and playing sports, but I outgrew what would become associated with child play.

Pre-Reading Blog #3

How do you perceive your popular culture? What does popular culture consist of in your world? Music? TV? The Web? Fashion? What attracted you to this particular section of popular culture? Why do you like it? How do you understand its history? Please end your blog with at least one good critical question.
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My popular culture I would consider to be the backbone of everything in my life. It is the way in which I live my life everyday, and determines the actions in which I commit myself to each and everyday. In my world, popular culture determines what shows I watch on TV (anime, ‘Bones’, ‘House’, Lie to Me’), which movies I buy on Blu-Ray or DVD (which I usually buy anime, action, drama and adventure movies), what books I read (sci-fi and fantasy), and what music I listen to (alternative or classical). Fashion and the internet have never really been that important to me, but I do buy some brand name items every now and then, and I do use the internet for information and whatever else I have need of it for. The main reason that I became attracted to each topic that I like is not because it is popular culture, but because I honestly just came to it naturally. The Blu-Ray movies and games for PS3 and Xbox 360 is the closest thing to following popular culture. I like it because it makes me happy and it keeps my interest active and constantly thinking rather than doing nothing. I understands limited amount of history for each topic that I like, I just care about the here and now and what is to come, I tend to ignore the past. Is ignoring the past and looking to the future showing my complete ignorance? Or is it showing my capacity for the wish for something to succeed based off of the actions of the presence and what they are doing in the future rather than what they have done in the past?

Critical Thinking Blog #2

This is always a tricky discussion, but Jacoby presents some sharp arguments about the debate between evolution and creationism. For this blog, create your own discussion about this debate. Where do you stand and why? What critical criteria have you used to consider this issue (if at all -- maybe it's the first time you've thought about it)? Where does this issue stand among the issues of the day?
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The constant battle between evolution and creationism has been raging for more than a century. Unfortunately though there has been numerous pseudonyms under which they have battled with; social Darwinism, eugenics, fundamentalism, pseudoscience, philosophy of evolution. I stand with the natural scientist school of thought, evolution. I stand with the natural science, evolution, line of thought because their arguments are based off of logic and intellectualism. The pseudoscience of social Darwinism is flawed and is based off of passion and emotion instead of logic, since any form of thought that is based off of emotion is constantly changing based off of the emotion it is a fallacy. William Sumner taught his students at Yale university individual social Darwinism that believed in absolutes, which any person that believes in an absolute is ignorant to the truth. Any theory based off of absolutes is flawed in their line of thinking and is unable to think logically, because as the saying goes “nothing is absolute in life” and whether its evolution or creationism any of there theories that is based off of absolutes is flawed. It is my personal belief that any pseudoscience is flawed, and science based on absolutes is flawed, any religion that believes in absolutes is flawed. I actually debate this argument all the time at work with my colleagues and some of my classmates in my social philosophy class. The issue of evolution and creationism stands among the most unpublicized arguments of the day. Every week there is some argument that involves the battle between evolution and creationism that is just ignored by the main stream press due to the fact that it is a hot topic that could suffer in loses of viewers if they were to air it. I think that by holding back on the severity of the issue in today’s time all that the press is doing is fueling the fire without realizing it. In court, school, church, clubs and YMCAs the effects are noticeable enough that society is being fractured, even if it is slowly. So in conclusion without realizing the impact of self-ignorance and lucidity that Americans are creating to themselves they essentially showing their stupidity and overall failure to grasp the situation between creationism and evolution that is going on in the United States.

critical thinking blog 1

Part 1:
Critical thinking is the human developed skill that allows oneself to judge a subject in a in-depth manner rather than in a simple manner. One situation in which I thought critically through was when I graduated high school I had to thihnk to myself was it better to go straight to Stanford University (SU) for my political science and law degree or should i just go to a regular community college to get all of my GE(general education) material over with. I had to think about the advantages to each coursse of action. Going straight to would be costly but would be more educational and academically acknowledged in the world. But if I went to a community college it would be cheaper, but not as educational. So I was forced to think through the matter to weigh the pro's and con's of each matter. Obviously I choose to go with the community college route, not just becasue it was cheaper but because of the fact that Sierra College actually had a good academic program, and was cheap and affordable. One situation throughout my life in which I did not use critical thinking was when I moved to California I was so upset about moving that I allowed my anger to rule over my emotions and guide my actions rather than reason. For my first-year of high school out here I was a complete ass to everyone and I made myself out to be the person to hate and to avoid. Needless to say I regret that action that I made and have since been trying to act in a manner that is judged as logical and gentlemenly.

Part 2:
When I think of the word "intellectualism" I think of a scholar or an individual who pursues a life of knowledge. Intellectualism provides positive connotations for myself. I look at a person a person who pursues a life of intellectualism to be a rare and noble person. It is an extremly difficult path to follow and I commend any individual that decides to pursue this course throughout his/her life. When I think of "logic" and "reason" I think of a monk or a spiritual affiliated individual and an scholar. I honestly have mixed feelings about my interpretation. I was raised by a catholic family so I look toward the church as a symbol of reason and logic, but I am also an advent believer in scientology so I commend scholars in multiple fields of study. Over the years I have become split minded about my interpretation and have since become confused. I am not sure if that is a common dilemma facing people or if I am just a unique case. I suppose that I am still going to have to think about my interpretation of logic and reason for a while yet. I can only hope that it doesn't take my whole life, because I know that it is a serious issue in modern day society to assimilate both scientolgoy and theology together.

pre-reading blog #1

Honestly I am unsure how college is working out for me. Sure I am getting good grades in all of my classes and I know why I am in college, I just don’t know on an absolute level how it is working for myself at this point in time. I believe education to be a important matter in modern day society. Because of globalizations effect on the education level across the world it is important to have knowledge that pertains to many different fields rather than a single one. I seek to gain knowledge in the fields that I am interested in pursuing as a career and to increase my skills in areas that I feel pertains to that area of study. I enjoyed my high school education. I felt that it was enlightening to learn of so many different fields of education rather than just the basics that I learned in middle school and elementary school. Why has it become important in modern-society to have an educated background?

Rationalism: Is the human thought that believes in reason rather than something that is of divine religious doctrine to regulating human conduct.

Anti-Rationalism: There was no college dictionary definition for this term so I am going to define it with my own words. It is the human thought that believes in the unreasonable and illogical methods to be determined as truth.

Fundamentalism: Is the interpretation that every word in the bible is taken as literal truth.