批判性思维 (3).pdf

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1、 From August 1987 until January 2007,Alan Greens-pan was chairman of the Federal Reserve Board(“the Fed”).Because any remark he made about U.S.mon-etary policy could cause markets all over the world to fl uc-tuate wildly,he developed a complicated way of speaking that came to be known as“Fedspeak.”H

2、ere s an example:It is a tricky problem to fi nd the particular calibra-tion in timing that would be appropriate to stem the acceleration in risk premiums created by falling incomes without prematurely aborting the decline in the infl ation-generated risk premiums.*Greenspan has admitted that such r

3、emarks were not really intended to be understood.Asked to give an example by commenting on the weather,Greenspan replied,I would generally expect that today in Washington,D.C.,the probability of changes in the weather is*.Students will learn to.1.Determine acceptable and unac-ceptable degrees of vag

4、ueness in language2.Understand and identify types of ambiguity 3.Identify the problems generality causes in language4.Use definitions to increase preci-sion and clarity and to influence attitudes5.Understand the types of definitions6.Acquire skills for writing an effec-tive argumentative essay 3 Cle

5、ar Thinking,Critical Thinking,and Clear Writing 69moo38286_ch03_069-103.indd 69moo38286_ch03_069-103.indd 6912/9/10 1:32 PM12/9/10 1:32 PM70 CHAPTER 3:CLEAR THINKING,CRITICAL THINKING,AND CLEAR WRITINGhighly uncertain.But we are monitoring the data in such a manner that we will be able to update peo

6、ple on changes that are important.*This tells us nothing about the weather,of course,and was not intended to.Many times,though,we run across similarly complicated examples of speech or writing that do seem to be intended to inform us.For example,Allan Bloom,the famous American educator who authored

7、The Closing of the American Mind,which was read(or at least purchased)by millions,wrote in that book:If openness means to“go with the fl ow,”it is necessarily an accommo-dation to the present.That present is so closed to doubt about so many things impeding the progress of its principles that unquali

8、fi ed openness to it would mean forgetting the despised alternative to it,knowledge of which makes us aware of what is doubtful in it.Is this true?Wellthat s really hard to say.The problem is,you don t know exactly what Professor Bloom is asserting in this passage.Any number of problems may make a s

9、tatement unclear.Not infre-quently,people just don t say what they mean.Consider this statement made by President George W.Bush:You know,when you give a man more money in his pocketin this case,a woman more money in her pocket to expand a business,itthey build new buildings.And when somebody builds

10、a new building somebody has got to come and build the building.And when the build-ing expanded it prevented additional opportunities for people to work.(Lancaster,PA,October 3,2007)*We think he meant“presented”rather than“prevented,”but even then,the point can surely be made more clearly.Here s an e

11、xample from former Cana-dian prime minister Jean Chrtien,when asked in Parliament about old versus new money in the health care program:They say that the money we had promised three years ago to be new money this year is not new money.We have not paid it yet and it is old money versus new money.For

12、me new money is new money if paying in$5 or$10,it s the same money.*We have no clue what he had in mind.One of your authors noticed this as a tease on the front page of a newspa-per:“49ers are upset.”This probably means that somebody who was not sup-posed to beat the San Francisco football team did

13、manage to beat them.On the other hand,it could mean that the team is dismayed about something.*Broadcast on BBC World Service Interview,October 25,2007.*From The Complete Bushisms,by Jacob Weisberg,.Reported in the Globe and Mail,February 7,2003.Those who survived the San Francisco earthquake said,“

14、Thank God,Im still alive.”But,of course,those who diedtheir lives will never be the same again.U.S.s ENATOR B ARBARA B OXER (D),California If I said anything which implies that I think that we didnt do what we should have done given the choices we faced at the time,I shouldnt have said that.B ILL C

15、LINTON (reported by Larry Engelmann)moo38286_ch03_069-103.indd 70moo38286_ch03_069-103.indd 7012/9/10 1:32 PM12/9/10 1:32 PM VAGUENESS71 Although obscurity can issue from various causes,four sources of con-fusion stand out as paramount:excessive vagueness,ambiguity,excessive generality,and undefi ne

16、d terms.In this chapter,we shall consider vagueness,ambiguity,and generality in some detail and then talk about defi nitions.Also,from time to time situations arise in which we need to think criti-cally about what we write,especially when we are trying to produce an argu-mentative essay.In this type

17、 of writing enterprise,one takes a position on an issue and supports it with argument.A good argumentative essay usually consists of four parts:a statement of the issue,a statement of one s position on that issue,arguments that support one s position,and rebuttals of argu-ments that support contrary

18、 positions.Obviously,an argumentative essay is weakened by statements that are obscure,and what we say in this chapter has direct application to writing clear argumentative essays.We shall return to this subject after we discuss vagueness,ambiguity,generality,and defi nitions.VAGUENESS Perhaps the m

19、ost common form of unclear thinking or writing is excessive vagueness.Pursued to its depths,the concept of vagueness can be a knotty one,and it has been the focus of much philosophical attention in the past Wabash College student news-paper headline:Carter Swears in ChurchAs it turned out,a Judge Ca

20、rter gave the oath of office to a deputy attorney general whose last name is Church.Was this an accident,or was a headline writer at Wabash College having a bit of fun?In the MediaSay What?.You dont have to be a national political figure to put your foot in your mouth.Ordinary folks can do it,too!Th

21、e presidents energy tax wont even be noticed.Besides,it will discourage consumption.Hey,if it wont be noticed,it wont discourage consumption.Females score lower on the SAT than males,which right there proves the tests dont show anything.They also demonstrate that teachers do a better job of teaching

22、 male students,which is just what youd expect given the sexual bias that exists in the classroom.If the SATs dont show anything,then they dont show that teachers do a better job teaching males.We have to liberate discussion on this campus and not be so restrained by the First Amendment.Right.And we

23、can make people free by sticking them in jail.Once your body gets cold,the rest of you will get cold,too.On the other hand,if you can keep your body warm,the rest of you will stay warm,too.Its hard to support the presidents invasion of Haiti when the American public is so strongly against it.And bes

24、ides,hes just doing it to raise his standings in the polls.Hmmm.Hows it going to raise his standings if the public is so strongly against it?Has anyone put anything in your baggage without your knowledge?Asked of our colleague Becky White by an airport security employee.moo38286_ch03_069-103.indd 71

25、moo38286_ch03_069-103.indd 7112/9/10 1:32 PM12/9/10 1:32 PM72CHAPTER 3:CLEAR THINKING,CRITICAL THINKING,AND CLEAR WRITINGfew decades.*Fortunately,at a practical level,the idea is not difficult to grasp.A word or phrase is vague if the group of things to which it applies has border-line cases.Conside

26、r the word“bald.”It s clear that Paris Hilton is not bald.It s equally clear that Patrick Stewart is bald.But there are lots of people in between(including both your authors).Many of those between the two extremes are borderline cases:It is not at all clear whether the word“bald”should apply to them

27、it s the sort of thing about which reasonable people could disagree.For this reason,it is correct to say that baldness is a vague concept.Vagueness plays a very important role in much that we do.In the law,for example,how we deal with vagueness is crucial.Whether the word“tor-ture”applies to various

28、 types of interrogation techniques,especially including“waterboarding,”for example,has been a serious issue for several years.Many former officials have claimed that these techniques did not count as torture,but many others have disagreed.(Some,who subjected themseves to the pro-cedure,have disagree

29、d rather violently.)Possibly more relevant to us and to you personally,whether a bit of driving is“reckless”or not may determine*See,for example,Vagueness:A Reader,by R.Keefe and P.Smith,eds.(Cambridge,MA:MIT Press,1996),and Vagueness,by T.Williamson(London and New York:Routledge,1994).Man is ready

30、to die for an idea,provided that idea is not quite clear to him.P AUL E LDRIDGE Real LifeVagueness at the BorderAs the text explains,vagueness results when the scope of a concept is not clearthat is,when there are border-line cases.“Bald”is a typical example.Here,Ms.Hilton is clearly not bald,and Mr

31、.Stewart clearly is bald.But whether Bruce Willis is bald or not is a good question.He has hairalthough it seems to be on the wanebut these days,he keeps his head shaved and thus appears bald.How much hair would he have to lose to be bald whether or not he shaved his head?The fact that there is no g

32、ood answer demonstrates that“baldness”is a vague concept.Hilton Willis,with.and without Stewartmoo38286_ch03_069-103.indd 72moo38286_ch03_069-103.indd 7212/9/10 1:32 PM12/9/10 1:32 PM VAGUENESS 73whether you pay a small fi ne or a large oneor even go to jail.Consider,too,the speed limits we are aske

33、d to observe on the highways.Ideally,the offense in question would be something like“driving too fast for the circumstances”rather than driving faster than a particular speed.This is because what is safe at 80 miles per hour in one set of circumstances(midday,no traffic,clear weather,and dry roads)m

34、ight be dangerously unsafe at 40 miles per hour in another(dark,heavy traffic,rain or fog,slick roads).But we have opted for set speed limits because“driving too fast”is a vague term,and we do not want to put our fate in the hands of patrol officers and judges who are in a position to make arbitrary

35、 decisions about whether it applies in our case.So,because we are afraid of the consequences of the vague concept,we sometimes get away with driving dangerously fast under bad circumstances,and we are sometimes tick-eted for driving over the posted limit when it is quite safe to do so.Sometimes vagu

36、eness is just annoying.Suppose that it s late and you re looking for someone s house and you re given the following directions:“Go on down this street a ways til you get to the fi rst major intersection,make a sharp right,then,when the street starts to curve to the left,you ll be there.”The vaguenes

37、s in these directions is as likely to get your blood pressure up as it is to help you fi nd your destination.(How do you decide that a particular intersection is“major,”for example?)Vagueness is often intentional,used as a means to avoid giving a clear,precise answer.Politicians often resort to vagu

38、e statements if they don t want their audience to know exactly where they stand.A vague answer to the ques-tion“Do you love me?”may mean there s trouble ahead in the relationship.Vagueness occurs to varying degrees,and it is difficult to the point of impossibility to get rid of it entirely.Fortunate

39、ly,there is no need to get rid of it entirely.We live very comfortably with a certain amount of vagueness in most of what we say.“Butte City is a very small town”presents us with no problems under ordinary circumstances,despite the vagueness of“very small town.”“Darren has no school loans because hi

40、s parents are rich”doesn t tell us how much money the parents have,but it tells us enough to be useful.“Rich”and“small,”like“bald,”are vague concepts;there is no accepted clear line between the things to which they apply and those to which they don t.Nonetheless,they are valuable notions;we get a lo

41、t of good use out of them.Problems arise with vagueness when there is too much of it,as in our direction-giving example above.Similarly,if a politician claims he will“raise taxes on the wealthy,”what should we take that to mean?Unlike with the earlier example of Darren s rich parents,in this case it

42、 would be worthwhile to spend some effort trying to pin down just what our speaker means by“wealthy,”since where the borders fall here really do make a difference.So,when is a level of vagueness acceptable and when is it not?It s dif-fi cult to give a general rule,aside from urging due care and comm

43、on sense,but we might say this:When a claim is not too vague to convey appropriately useful information,its level of vagueness is acceptable.For example,if the directions we re given are not too vague to help us fi nd our destination,they pass the test.If the politician specifi es enough about his t

44、ax plan to assure us that we understand how it would apply,then we should not complain of vagueness.But when a speaker or writer does indulge in excessive vagueness,thereby making it difficult or impossible for us to fairly assess his or her claim,it is our job to hold that person accountable.Everyt

45、hing is vague to a degree you do not realize until you have tried to make it precise.B ERTRAND RUSSELLAsk a man which way he is going to vote,and he will prob-ably tell you.Ask him,however,why,and vagueness is all.BARNARD LEVINmoo38286_ch03_069-103.indd 73moo38286_ch03_069-103.indd 7312/9/10 1:32 PM

46、12/9/10 1:32 PM74CHAPTER 3:CLEAR THINKING,CRITICAL THINKING,AND CLEAR WRITING AMBIGUITY A word,phrase,or sentence is said to be ambiguous when it has more than one meaning.Does“Paul cashed a check”mean that Paul gave somebody cash,or that somebody gave cash to him?It could mean either.“Jessica is re

47、nting her house”could mean that she s renting it to someone or from some-one.Jennifer gets up from her desk on Friday afternoon and says,“My work here is fi nished.”She might mean that she has fi nished the account she was working on,or that her whole week s work is done and she s leaving for the we

48、ekend,or that she s fed up with her job and is leaving the company.If you look online,you can fi nd several collections of amusing headlines that are funny because of their ambiguity:“Kids make nutritious snacks,”for exam-ple,or“Miners refuse to work after death.”Most of the time the interpretation

49、that a speaker or writer intends for a claim is obvious,as in the case of these headlines.But ambiguity can have Asked why the desertion rate in the army had risen so much,director of plans and resources for Army personnel Roy Wallace replied,“Were asking a lot of soldiers these days.”You might at f

50、irst want to know what theyre asking the soldiers,until you see the ambiguity in Wallaces remark.In the MediaA Subtle AmbiguityA while back,when John Edwards was still a viable presidential candidate,he was asked the following question on Meet the Press:TIM RUSSERT:Why dont you support gay marriage?