Encouraging Critical Thinking Online

Unit 1

Checking Facts and

Gathering Opinions

In which year was the philosopher Plato born?

• Find three websites that provide an answer

• Fill in the boxes on the worksheet for each of them

• Comment on any notable features of the sites or answers you discover

In which year was the philosopher Plato born?

• Many sources give a date around 428 or 427 BCE

• See, for example, the biographies of Plato from– The Philosopher’s Lighthouse– The European Graduate School

Extracts from The Philosopher’s Lighthouse and the EGS website

http://library.thinkquest.org/18775/plato/biop.htm and http://www.egs.edu/resources/plato.html Retrieved 6 August 2008

Extracts from The Philosopher’s Lighthouse and the EGS website

http://library.thinkquest.org/18775/plato/biop.htm and http://www.egs.edu/resources/plato.html Retrieved 6 August 2008

In which year was the philosopher Plato born?

• But it’s not hard to find sites that give dates ranging from at least 430 to 423 BCE– Bristol University course description– Australian Psychological Society

newsletter

Extracts from Bristol University course description and APS newsletter

http://www.bristol.ac.uk/philosophy/current/undergrad/pastunits/units0506/plato.html and http://www.groups.psychology.org.au/Assets/Files/paig_newsletter_1999.pdf Retrieved 6 August 2008

Extracts from Bristol University course description and APS newsletter

http://www.bristol.ac.uk/philosophy/current/undergrad/pastunits/units0506/plato.html and http://www.groups.psychology.org.au/Assets/Files/paig_newsletter_1999.pdf Retrieved 6 August 2008

In which year was the philosopher Plato born?

• Many sites will indicate that there’s some uncertainty – By preceding the date with ‘around’,

‘ca.’, ‘circa’ or similar– By giving a range of dates – e.g. 428/7

BCE

In which year was the philosopher Plato born?

• However, many sites just give an unqualified date– St Andrews University Plato summary– UsefulTrivia.com even gives a month

• Surprisingly few sites indicate the full extent of the uncertainty

Extracts from St Andrews University website and UsefulTrivia.com

http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Plato.html and http://www.usefultrivia.com/biographies/plato_001.html Retrieved 6 August 2008

Extracts from St Andrews University website and UsefulTrivia.com

http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Plato.html and http://www.usefultrivia.com/biographies/plato_001.html Retrieved 6 August 2008

In which year was the philosopher Plato born?

• Some sites even contradict themselves– Bookrags.com’s extract from the

Encyclopedia of World Biography – A previous version of the Wikipedia

article on Plato, online for at least several months in 2008

Bookrags.com: Extract from Encyclopedia of World Biography

http://www.bookrags.com/biography/plato/ Retrieved 4 June 2008

Bookrags.com: Extract from Encyclopedia of World Biography

http://www.bookrags.com/biography/plato/ Retrieved 4 June 2008

Wikipedia article on Plato from 2008

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plato Retrieved 4 June 2008

Wikipedia article on Plato from 2008

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plato Retrieved 4 June 2008

Further questions to consider

• What reasons are given for accepting one date rather than another?

• In your view, which date has the best claim to be the correct answer? Why is this?

Summary - key things to note

• The precise answer to a question is not always known– But sources don’t always acknowledge that

this is the case– Important qualifications can get omitted

• Caution and cross-checking of facts are vital

Why might we find conflicting answers to a question?

• There may be real uncertainty about the answer

• Authorities may disagree

• There may be multiple ways of interpreting a question

Why might we find conflicting answers to a question?

• Some sources may be more up to date than others

• Answers may vary in precision

• Some sources may simply be wrong

Questions to ask when assessing sources

• Who is the author?– An individual or an institution?– What are the author’s credentials?

• Is this a scholarly resource, or a more informal one?

• How up to date is this source?

Questions to ask when assessing sources

• Are there reasons to doubt the reliability of this source?– Does it include information I know to

be false?– Does it contradict itself or use poor

reasoning?– Is it biased towards a particular view?

Questions to ask when assessing sources

• Is the information provided confirmed by other sources?– Are references provided?– Do other websites agree? (A major

advantage of the Web is that many sources can be compared quickly and easily.)

Remember the three Ws

• WHO wrote this site? – Is the author a trustworthy source?

• WHEN was it written? – Is it up to date?

• WHY was it written?– Does the author have an axe to grind?

This slideshow is part of

Encouraging Critical Thinking Online,a set of free teaching resources

designed to develop students’ analytic abilities,

using the Web as source material.

For the full set, please visit Intute Training:

http://www.intute.ac.uk/training/