Exam 5: Constructing Knowledge

The author identifies four parts of our thought system as constituting a belief.What are the four parts?

In the spring of 1989, a vigorous prodemocracy movement erupted in Beijing, China in the historic Tiananmen Square.On June 4, 1989, the Chinese government acquiesced to the demands of the demonstrators and thus started the first real inroads to a more democratic government.

The ____________of eyewitness testimony are notoriously unreliable.

As you form and revise your beliefs, based on your experiences and your reflections on these experiences, it is important to make them as ________as possible.

In the area of evaluating the evidence that we use to determine the quality of our beliefs, the author offers us four areas we might question for accuracy.The first of the four areas is authorities.The other three areas are___ , ______and ___________.

Choose any topical issue and think about it critically by applying the three stages of knowing: (1) the Garden of Eden, (2) Anything Goes, and (3) Thinking Critically.How is the third stage a synthesis of the first two?

A ________represents an interpretation, evaluation, conclusion, or prediction about the nature of the world that we endorse as true.

If authorities are not infallible and we cannot trust their expertise, then no one point of view is ultimately more valid than another.This is an example of what philosophical view?

Uncritical thinkers generally adopt beliefs without thoughtful scrutiny or rigorous evaluation, allowing these beliefs into their thinking for superficial and illogical reasons.

Imagine you were in Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989.What would your perceiving lens be that would affect how you would write about this event? Could you be unbiased?

In the spring of 1989, a vigorous prodemocracy movement erupted in Beijing, China.The protesters and authorities clashed with each other in a famous area called__________ .

"You can believe what is not so, but you cannot know what is so."

What is the one major goal of social institutions, including family, the school system, and religion?

In critically examining the beliefs of others, you should pursue the same goals of accuracy and breadth that you seek when examining beliefs based on your personal experience.

___________are people who have specialized knowledge in a particular area, based upon special training and experience.

People in the stage of thinking called__________ tend to see the world in black and white;right and wrong.

Determining the accuracy and justification for your beliefs is_________ .

People in the "Garden of Eden" stage of thinking tend to see the world in terms of

No matter how much you have experienced in your life, no one person's direct experience is enough to establish an adequate

Most people in our culture are socialized to believe that knowledge and truth are absolute and unchanging.One major goal of institutions is to enculturate all its members into one common mind set.