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Toulmin and Consistency – 2
When we last left off, we had just diagrammed the central argument President Obama presented in his recent ABC interview using the Toulmin method for argument mapping. If you recall, that method lets...
View ArticleThe Second Debate and the Fight for Ethos
You’ll be hearing from people far more qualified (and better paid) than I telling you who “won” and who “lost” last night’s second Presidential debate. But from the perspective of the critical...
View ArticleResource: Jay Heinrichs’ Daily Figure
If you liked this week’s interview with Jay Heinrichs and can’t wait until the next edition of Thank You for Arguing comes out, I suggest you visit his Daily Figure web site in which he serves up...
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Critical Voter – Podcast 12 – Fallacies and Interview with Simon Critchley
This week, we are joined by Simon Critchley, Professor of Philosophy at New York’s New School and moderator of the New York Times’ philosophy column The Stone. The Stone has run a number of columns...
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Third Presidential Debate Predictions
In a pre-debate piece at the Huffington Post, I decided to go out on a limb and make some actual Presidential debate predictions regarding what the candidates will do during tonight’s final exchange....
View ArticleRhetoric and the Third Presidential Debate
Let’s start by highlighting the biggest prediction I got wrong in this piece and this one that tried to use the critical thinking principles (particularly those involving rhetoric) to anticipate what...
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Resources: Dream of Reason
As mentioned during the latest podcast, there are different “onramps” for learning more about some of the philosophy and history of philosophy you’ve gotten a taste of during the course of listening...
View ArticleSteven Pinker – Red and Blue
I’m hoping anyone who was not already an avid Stone reader (the New York Times column moderated by the guest on this week’s podcast) is now becoming a regular visitor to the site. Personally, I’m...
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Critical Voter – Podcast 13 – Facts and Interview with ProCon President Kamy...
Presidential candidates can no longer make a statement during a speech, debate or TV ad without hundreds of fact checkers immediately descending to determine whether that statement is true or false....
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Facts of Life
I may just need to take today off. But tune in tomorrow to see if Hurricane Sandy will pick the next President! And before the power goes out (again), stay tuned (and dry). The Critical Voter The post...
View ArticleHurricane Sandy and the 2012 Election – Frames
This week’s storm got me thinking about a little parody I penned during the last Presidential election that went something like this: “It’s been six days since the Reticulan battle fleet entered Earth...
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Resource: ProCon.org
If you listened to this week’s podcast, you got a taste of what the non-partisan, informational web site ProCon.org has to offer with regard to well-researched information on both sides of 43...
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Election 2012 and Civility
This is the republication of a piece I wrote for Huffington Post on Election 2012 and civility. With less than a week to go until the election (and just two podcasts left in the Critical Voter...
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Critical Voter – Podcast 14 – Critical Thinking About Political Issues
One of the few election artifacts we’ve not yet taken a look at are actual campaign issues, partly because we have been analyzing rhetoric the candidates use to avoid direct discussion of those...
View ArticleAAA Ethos
During this week’s podcast, I made mention of the only MA voter initiative we didn’t analyze in depth (a ballot question requiring automobile diagnostic and repair information now available only to...
View ArticleThe Election and Reason
As we prepare for the vote and (more importantly) the results, I came up with a little thought experiment regarding the election and reason. In it, I ponder what might have happened if, during a...
View ArticleCritical Thinking – Ending the Argument
One good thing about an election (or any legally-enforced decision) is that it requires argumentation to end and a choice to be made. I suppose court decisions are more definitive regarding who is...
View ArticleTech Talk: Computers and the 2012 Election
That technology and politics piece I mentioned (republished from the Huffington Post): One of the first jobs I had after college was as a freelance journalist, covering elections in the US and UK from...
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Critical Voter – Podcast 15 – Aftermath and Conclusions
With the election behind us, this concluding episode takes a look at what it means to settle an argument, such as the one that took the form of a national election for President. Since this is the...
View ArticleCritical Thinking Podcast
Each Critical Voter podcast provides a weekly critical thinking lesson on a specific subject, such as bias, logic and persuasive speech (rhetoric). Each lesson will draw examples from the presidential...
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