Welcome to my digital garden! My intent is to - Present and explain critical thinking fundamentals - Present and explain the fundamentals of rhetoric - Explore and demonstrate how the two can be used to evaluate political language A challenging election year awaits us. Driven by advances made in artificial intelligence, many of us expect that disinformation and [misinformation](https://apnews.com/article/artificial-intelligence-2024-election-misinformation-poll-8a4c6c07f06914a262ad05b42402ea0e) will abound like never before. And given the sheer amount of information coming at us, we ourselves might feel unable to process all of it at the speed required to be informed. These are valid concerns. I share them. I'm also somewhat concerned with your run-of-the-mill advice on critical thinking: Just do it! The primary challenge of critical thinking is actually doing it, in my opinion. It's easy to convince ourselves we're engaged in the rational evaluation of arguments when we're really using heuristics, relying on biases, and unaware of our prejudices. The usual recommendations to identify your biases, employ actively listening, or learn common fallacies assume too much. Namely, they assume you can accurately identify an argument and evaluate it. But can you? **My starting point for us is learning deductive logic**. To understand one another or to identify misinformation, we need to know what exactly the argument is. Until we've done that, and done so properly, we cannot evaluate it. Starting with deductive is relatively easy because the rules are universal. A deductive argument is always true. Before we begin, I need to emphasize this isn't easy. Critical thinking is as rigorous as lifting weights. The latter is easier, though: the feedback that you're doing something wrong or you're getting tired is your body hurts. When it comes to critical thinking, we can be confident in our wrongness. So, let's begin! # 💭 Critical Thinking Fundamentals - [[Categorical Syllogism]] - [[Types of Propositions]] - [[Rules of Valid Syllogisms and Violations Of Them]] - [[TMP Digital Garden/Critical Thinking Fundamentals/Square of Opposition|Square of Opposition]] - [[Conditional Syllogisms]] - [[Hypothetical Syllogism]] - [[Disjunctive Syllogism]] - [[Inductive Reasoning]] - [[Fallacies]] # Evaluating Evidence - [[Identifying Evidence]] - [[Scientific Evidence]] # 🤝🏾Rhetoric - [[Rhetoric]] - [[Emotional Appeals]] - [[Ethical Appeals]] - [[Rhetoric Everywhere All At Once]] - [[The Ice Clone]] - [[Persuasion Dialogue]] # Related Topics [[Critical Thinking Fundamentals Applied—Marines Lack Amphibs]] [[Media Literacy and AI]] [[Resources for Media Literacy and Critical Thinking]] # Primary Sources - [Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student, 4th Edition](https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/classical-rhetoric-for-the-modern-student_edward-pj-corbett_robert-j-connors/248491/?resultid=ab54d3cf-78d8-4a00-843f-2a19546abdac#isbn=0195115422) - [Informal Logic: A Pragmatic Approach, 2nd Edition](https://www.amazon.com/Informal-Logic-Pragmatic-Douglas-Walton-ebook/dp/B001C0PTH6/ref=sr_1_2?crid=Y3JYAJ4FRIVE&qid=1705156469&sprefix=informal%20logic%20a%20pragmatic%20approach,%202nd%20edition,aps,130) - [The Art of Deception: An Introduction to Critical Thinking](https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-art-of-deception-an-introduction-to-critical-thinking_nicholas-capaldi/368527/item/662420/#isbn=0879754249&idiq=662420)