Critical Thinking Journal1 entry

1a) In the case of Michael, he claims to reason out capital punishment as a deterrent to murder and other violent crimes. However he’s becomes angry with his findings because it appears that he holds a personal belief in the use of capital punishment. His denial leads to his anger, both of which present a barrier to critical thinking. His comment on still being in favor of capital punishment because you still need to punish criminals is a lack of critical thinking because his barriers are preventing him from creative critical thinking and trying to find other ways to stop criminals from committing violent crimes.

1b) With Maria I think the barriers are very similar to that of Michael.  She appears to be struggling with her position on the issue of a woman adopting a husband’s last name in marriage analysis showing it to be nonsexist. She is engaging in resistance not critical thinking.  Maria seems to struggle with taking a tentative stand on the issue; rather she angrily accepts her research.

1c) Pete’s issue is that he is caught up in doublethink. He agrees and supports two arguments, one being that he believes that all cultures and cultural practices are equally valid and that people do not have the right to say that particular cultures practices are wrong.  He also believes its part of our Western culture to impose its beliefs and practices and that it is wrong to do that. His absence of analyzing any of the arguments about the issue might have left him in an unwittingly state of double standards.

1d) The issue that some people find it revolting to eat animals such as dogs, cats, or seagulls but see no harm in eating cows or chickens falls under ethnocentrism.  These people clearly show a lack of knowledge of other cultures and rely only on their personal opinions.  I could also make a case for ignorance as I feel it goes hand and hand with ethnocentrism in this case. We in the West consider a dog as, “man’s best friend” The perfect household pet. We are a culture feed on beef and red meat.  Cows and chickens serve as a source of food for us but in other cultures like India, cattle is considered sacred. I would personally find it unpleasant to eat dog meat but by no means would I find it revolting if another culture does. A perfect example being around my Italian family and eating lambs head, as it is considered a delegacy in Sicily. (It actually tastes pretty good too)

2) At first this question threw me of a little because I didn’t think there was anything wrong with the student’s critical thinking.  The student collected information, checked the syllabus, asked the teacher questions, took in the teachers point of view, and finally determined that the teacher was correct in lower his grade due to his poor attendance. So at first this was a bit of a puzzle to me, then I considered what got him in this position in the first place. The student clearly displayed a lack of understanding in the teacher’s initial reason for lowering his grade due to his absences. He should have a degree of logic that would enable him to understand both the teacher’s attendance policy and that by missing excessive classes it might have a negative effect on his grade.