Archive for Podcast

Critical Voter - Podcast 6 - Arrangement

September 9, 2012 Argumentation, Arrangement, Blog, Negative Ads, Podcast No comments

Note: There was a problem with how this week’s episode appeared in iTunes which I expect to be cleared up Monday night. In the meantime, you can listen to the podcast by clicking on the podcast link below.

this week’s episode This week, we take a close look at one of the first major speeches of the campaign: Mitt Romney’s acceptance of the Republican nomination, through the lens of Arrangement – how an argument is organized.

Arrangement is one of the Five Canons or Rhetoric which (along with Invention, Memory, Style and Delivery) makes up what classical thinkers felt was the essence of the key critical thinking subject of argumentation. Many of the things we have been discussing during this critical thinking podcast fall into one or more of these categories/canons, which is why we’ll be focusing just on Arrangement as a way to break down a political argument into specific components, including an Introduction, Statement of Facts, Division, Logical Proof, Refutation and – everyone’s favorite – the Peroration (that emotional climax meant to drive an audience to its feet to cheer the hero and follow him or her into battle).

We take a couple detours this podcast to (1) clear up a misperception I might have created regarding the value of Aristotle’s syllogism to understand real-world arguments; and (2) take a look at heroes and villains, sidekicks and romantic interests, as we look at political persuasion through the lens of the Hollywood blockbuster movie.

This week’s resources include:

Critical Voter - Arrangement - Quiz

Critical Voter - Arrangement - Lesson Plan

Note: One of the assignments in this week’s lesson plan involves reviewing the following videos:

Romney RNC Convention biography video

Obama DNC Convention biography video

Background on the Canons of Rhetoric

Doing Fine – A negative ad dissected during this week’s podcast

Obama Press Conference – The origin of the quote used in the Doing Fine negative ad

Critical Voter - Podcast 6 – Arrangement [ 28:47 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Critical Voter - Podcast 5 - Rhetorical Devices

September 2, 2012 Blog, Podcast, Rhetorical Devices No comments

When many modern people consider the term “rhetoric,” the first thing that comes to mind is the phrase “mere rhetoric,” implying that rhetoric consists of nothing but words, phrases and techniques designed to make political and other sorts of statements sound right or good, even if they are bad and wrong.

As I discussed during my first podcast, this is part of a two-century old trend to marginalize ancient wisdom (including the study of classical subjects like rhetoric), in favor of the many new and important topics that today make up modern school curricula. And it’s a short step from de-prioritizing a subject to dismissing it as irrelevant or even morally questionable.

The phrase “mere rhetoric” implies that there is something superior to prose that has been carefully crafted using language tools that have historically been simply called “rhetoric,” possibly a form of discourse that is pure and honest, one that no longer requires fancy phrasing and standard structures to get our points across.

But given that we have not yet entered such a realm of pure and honest discourse (and given that such a language nirvana may not actually exist), we may have put ourselves in a position where the tools of rhetoric are at the disposal of those who wish to persuade us (such as politicians and advertisers), while the rest of us have chosen to be ignorant of what these tools are (or of the fact that they even exist).

This week’s podcast will help rectify that situation with an introduction to rhetorical devices: what they are, how they work, and how they can be used to either get other people to do what you want or, at the very least, prevent others from bypassing your critical thinking skills in order to get you to do what they want.

This week’s resources include:

Critical Voter - Rhetorical Devices - Quiz

Critical Voter - Rhetorical Devices - Lesson Plan

List of rhetorical devices/figures of speech

Critical Voter - Podcast 5 – Rhetorical Devices [ 28:53 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Critical Voter - Podcast 4 - Argumentation

August 26, 2012 Argumentation, Blog, Podcast No comments

Monty Python Argument Sketch

Some of the things that tend to drive us the craziest during a Presidential campaign, such a negative TV and “debates” where the candidates seem to talk past each other, are best understood (and maybe even appreciated) once you understand the concept of argumentation.

While we tend to label every type of loud or uncomfortable disagreement an argument, in the context of critical thinking an argument is actually a cooperative activity where participants are trying to achieve a common goal (even if they want to go about it in different ways).

This week’s podcast focuses on argumentation and includes a description of what an argument is and how you can tell an argument from a fight. We also take a look at different types of arguments (forensic, demonstrative and deliberative) and see how arguments can often contain “broken” logic in the form of fallacies.

Finally, we review how argumentation can be diagramed in a way that can help you make sense of even the most complex arguments.

References made during this podcast include:

Monty Python’s Argument Sketch

List of fallacies

Venn Diagrams

Toulmin diagrams described in the podcast

Toulmin analysis of a negative TV ad

Educational material associated with this week’s podcast include:

Critical Voter - Argumentation - Quiz

Critical Voter - Argumentation - Lesson Plan

Critical Voter - Podcast 4 - Argumentation [ 29:26 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Critical Voter - Podcast 3 - Modes of Persuasion

August 19, 2012 Blog, Logos, Pathos and Ethos, Podcast No comments

This week’s podcast covers Aristotle’s three modes of persuasion: logos, pathos and ethos.

Every argument, including every campaign speech, commercial or debate performance, will include attempts to persuade the audience using logic (logos), emotion (pathos) and authority (ethos), which means that an understanding of these three concepts will be central to our ability to think critically about the US election.

While these three elements were created in the past (in ancient Athens) and are relevant in the present (during this year’s election campaign), they also have something to say about the future. This includes the fictional future of Star Trek where we can see logos, pathos and ethos play out in the themes and characters of one of television’s most popular science fiction shows.

References made during this podcast include:

Links to suggested sources for further study of Aristotle and ancient philosophy can be found on the Resources page

Educational material associated with this week’s podcast include:

Critical Voter - Modes of Persuasion - Quiz

Critical Voter - Modes of Persuasion - Lesson Plan

Critical Voter Podcast 003 – Modes of Persuasion [ 28:34 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Critical Voter - Podcast 2 - Bias

August 12, 2012 Bias, Blog, Podcast 4 comments

This week’s podcast covers the subject of bias.

I wanted to start out the main “meat” of these lessons with this subject since, unless you are able to recognize and address bias, it becomes much more difficult to learn and apply any of the other critical thinking skills we’ll be talking about between now and Election Day.

As this week’s podcast describes, bias is not something we should either deny or be embarrassed by since it is part of the human condition. We are all subject to certain types of cognitive biases, thanks to the way our brains are wired. In fact, if you look at the list linked below you’ll discover that there are over 100 cognitive biases that can impact our ability to perceive, analyze and judge correctly.

But the prevalence of bias does not mean we should surrender to it, especially when making important decisions (such as how to interpret information relating to the upcoming US election). For even if you find yourself inclined to favor one candidate over another, too much hardened bias could cause you to damage the very candidate and causes you believe in.

References made during this podcast include:

Cognitive illusion example

A list of cognitive biases

Daniel Kahnaman’s Thinking Fast and Slow (Review)

Kevin deLaplante’s Critical Thinker Academy

Educational material associated with this week’s podcast include:

Critical Voter - Bias - Quiz

Critical Voter - Bias - Lesson Plan

Critical Voter Podcast 002 - Bias [ 28:36 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Critical Voter - Podcast 1 – Welcome

August 5, 2012 Blog, Podcast One comment

Welcome to the first Critical Voter podcast, a brief introduction to the critical thinking skills we will be studying during the 2012 presidential election campaign.

This podcast looks at why the 2012 election is such a good time to study critical thinking skills such as bias, argumentation, logic and rhetoric.

The welcome podcast also provides an overview of resources available on the Critical Voter web site including a critical thinking curriculum, critical thinking blog and other educational materials.

Future podcasts will include support materials for teachers who want to use the Critical Voter curriculum, podcast or other materials for teaching critical thinking located on this site for classroom use. This will include lesson plans, suggestions for in-class projects, quizzes, exercises and other learning resources. Since we are just introducing the subject during this week’s podcast, this material will not be necessary until we get to next week’s podcast/theme of the week which will be bias.

Check the home page of the Critical Voter site for regular updates to a blog that will include new material related to the current week’s theme (and other subjects of interest). And you can follow us on Twitter and Facebook, or send a message via the Contact page.

 

 

Critical Voter Podast 1 - Welcome [ 16:18 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
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