enlightenment.articles

The key terms for this section of the course are: enlightenment, rationality, reason (vs. emotion and faith), evidence, bias, argument, and interpretation. These should be linked to public advocacy, the public sphere, and citizenship. //Andrew brown on civilization: - day one quotation // "Civilization is a process of extending tradition by argument"


 * Enlightenment section of the course - evidence and its evaluation **

NYT 2013 write-up of massive academic fraud in the netherlands. perfect to teach enlightenment principles of evidence

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/28/magazine/diederik-stapels-audacious-academic-fraud.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

how the enlightenment spread http://rationalist.org.uk/articles/4194

the importance of being wrong and revising earlier conclusions: fallibilism http://nautil.us/issue/2/uncertainty/why-its-good-to-be-wrong

great, quick distillation of scientific principles of experience over authority and debate over dogma

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22105898

great bias example - a company that gets paid big bucks to write positive reviews of new novels on Amazon

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/26/business/book-reviewers-for-hire-meet-a-demand-for-online-raves.html?_r=4&pagewanted=all

the current value of transparency - open the slaughterhouses, install web cams so everyone can see the meat industry http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/09/opinion/open-the-slaughterhouses.html?_r=0

secret societies during enlightenment helped fuel science, democracy http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/11/ff-the-manuscript/all/

Online Library of Liberty [] rise of humanistic enlightenment values [] colin powell on what went wrong with iraqi intelligence [] what is skepticism? 2 examples on its value. 1. why do monkeys groom each other? the answer seems obvious: to clean one another. but, without skepticism about obvious or common sensical answers, we wouldn't know that they do it for gossip/info sharing purposes. Robin Dunbar’s “Grooming, Gossip, and the Evolution of Language,” said primates groom each other not to pick out nits, which do not really trouble them, but as a form of gossip, a way of exchanging social information—who grooms who for how long tells who’s up and who’s down. This primate grooming and the “gossip” that it entails actually produce brain-opiates; they’re our monkey junk. See [|http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2012/05/can-science-explain-why-we-tell-stories.html#ixzz1vbpgZgFK] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">2. if someone fills out a customer comment card negatively, what is the sensible conclusion a market researcher for that company might draw? that this is a dissatisfied customer. in fact, the opposite is true. really dissatisfied customers fill out nothing. dedicated, but slightly disappointed, customers fill out cards; these people are loyal enough to criticize. this kind of conclusion only comes by looking at a bit of data and entertaining as many different conclusions as possible and testing their liklihood. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">skepticism is knowing how to ask the right questions: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">http://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2012/05/19/just-ask/k9PATXFdpL6ZmkreSiRYGP/story.html?camp=id

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">great example of contemporary pre-enlightenment thinking leading to a strangled public sphere <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">anti-enlightenment: google wont' be transparent about what it currently knows about us <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">enlightenment evaluation of evidence - //Chimamanda Adichie: The danger of a single story// <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice -- and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">making policy based on evidence - even possible?

superstitions in the world http://www.slate.com/articles/life/foreigners/2013/01/fan_death_korean_moms_think_that_your_electric_fan_will_kill_you.html

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">pre-enlightenment thinking: vampire burials

http://slatest.slate.com/posts/2012/06/06/vampire_graves_bodies_with_iron_rods_nailed_through_their_chests_discovered_in_bulgaria_.html

the durability of superstition in a rational age http://laphamsquarterly.org/essays/very-superstitious.php?page=all

pre-enlightenment thinking - killing elephants en masse to market "magical" ivory http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2012/10/ivory/christy-text

From //The God Makers// by Ed Decker and Dave Hunt: e.g., how before we're born we're all gods floating around in space, only when we get crammed into our baby bodies—"the infant tabernacle"—our brains get banged around and we can't remember our divinity. Or Joseph Smith's belief that the moon is inhabited by really tall Quakers who live to be a thousand years old. Or Brigham Young's claims that people live on the sun. Or polygamy?

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; display: block; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">Read More [|http://www.gq.com/news-politics/politics/201208/mitt-romney-wells-tower-gq-august-2012#ixzz21eTcjSZB]

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">possible course segment idea: have the class debate the idea of an objective "fact" <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">see: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">The Lifespan of a fact <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Unspun: Finding Facts in a World of Spin <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Manjoo – True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Do facts exist? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">rise of fact checkers

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444301704577631470493495792.html

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">great article on battle between right and left (read: scientists and businesses) on climate change

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-06/battle-over-climate-change?single-page-view=true

half life of facts - review of new book on facts http://reason.com/archives/2012/10/02/half-of-the-facts-you-know-are-probably

Steven Pinker on the decline of violence since the Enlightenment http://www.thegatesnotes.com/Personal/A-Conversation-With-Steven-Pinker-Has-the-World-Become-More-or-Less-Violent-over-Time

correlation CAN imply causation http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2012/10/correlation_does_not_imply_causation_how_the_internet_fell_in_love_with_a_stats_class_clich_.html

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Mcwhorter on meaning of language and decline into inflammatory pol culture <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">[]
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Citizenship **

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Orwell on language essay read it first class <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">then read this alongside it about the weasel words politicians use

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/weasel-words-that-politicians-use-to-obscure-terrible-truths-8210302.html

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Lawrence wright – Pulitzer winner on the politics of language essay - [] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Orwell matters <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">[]

orwell on why he wrote http://orwell.ru/library/essays/wiw/english/e_wiw

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Who will teach argument? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">@http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2011/03/29/midmorning1/ <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Bad writers, worse tyrants <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Kadafi paid for US PR <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Links: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">list of possible debate topics: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">http://debates.juggle.com/debates'

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">wild geraldo/oreilly debate <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">daily show report on public civility <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">The use of stories as evidence <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">We think we know but we have no idea – science in modern world <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">[]

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">center for democracy and citizenship – U. Minnesota <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">teaching kids democracy - [] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Government plan for citizen participation <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">@http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/12/06/seeking-your-input-us-open-government-national-action-plan

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Mill’s On liberty - key Enlightenment resource <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">[]

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">answer to mill - democracy is not a truth machine <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Anti- public sphere - example <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">anti-public sphere example - slavery in mauritania <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">http://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2012/03/world/mauritania.slaverys.last.stronghold/index.html <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Religion debate <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">[|http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoCFTddNedk&feature=player_embedded#]! <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">9/11 debate <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Argumentative bias <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">[|http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/12/i-was-wrong-and-so-are-you/8713/#] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Article for a response assignment or in-class argument evaluation assignment <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">should google help stamp out conspiracy theories <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">[] //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Too many kids go to college // <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">colleges exist for minds, not jobs <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">http://theamericanscholar.org/the-disadvantages-of-an-elite-education/'

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">college is waste of time

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/09/09/megan-mcardle-on-the-coming-burst-of-the-college-bubble.html

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">we need to revive liberal ed <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">http://chronicle.com/article/College-at-Risk/130893/

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">[] //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Internet debate – what is the internet doing to our brains? // [|//http://www.pri.org/stories/science/how-the-internet-is-rewiring-our-brains5861.html//] //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Confirmation bias – evidence interpretation // <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">[] <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">good for propaganda analysis <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Debunking the paranormal – evidence exercise <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">evidence assessment for enlightenment principles - this guy defected from scientology <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">[] <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">the climate debate – segment from this American life useful for evidence and science <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">[]