Turning the World Upside Down

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En provenance du cours de The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Reasoning Across the Disciplines

15 notes

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Reasoning Across the Disciplines

15 notes

Critical reasoning skills are a key success factor for students entering their first year of college. They must be able to think logically and form arguments. This course, designed with incoming college freshmen in mind but open to anyone, provides an essential grounding in critical reasoning skills. Faculty from multiple disciplines at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill offer guidance on applying critical thinking skills in the context of specific disciplines. By developing these skills, students will learn more, enjoy their courses more, and experience greater academic success. This course will help you understand what critical thinking skills are and why they're so important. You will also learn how critical thinking skills vary across disciplines, as well as see them applied across several fields, including, chemistry, history, psychology, law, English, and American Studies. You will develop your own critical thinking skills by working through scenarios or problems posed by scholars across these fields, and you will better understand how your college courses will differ from your earlier education.

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Think Like an Historian

In this module, you'll learn about critical thinking and history from Kathleen DuVal.

Turning the World Upside Down3:26

Understanding Columbus’s Impressions of the Tainos8:04

Understanding the Tainos’ Impressions of Columbus4:19

Rencontrer les enseignants

Dr. Ram Neta
Professor
Philosophy

One of the things that's involved in creating new knowledge

is asking new questions.

Asking questions that other people aren't asking.

And in the videos that we just saw, Thomas Friedman showed us an example of that.

The example had to do with the relationship between the universe and

consciousness.

So throughout history, lots of people who've appreciated the intricate

workings of the universe, who've understood how well-adjusted the different

parts of the universe are to the operations of other parts of the universe.

Many such people have thought that the intricate workings of the universe

were evidence of a divine creator, of a supremely intelligent creator.

Because only a magnificent intelligence like that could've created such

an intricately working piece of machinery as the universe we see around us.

But Thomas Friedman raises another possibility.

What if the intricate workings of the universe aren't evidence

of a divine creator?

They're evidence, rather,

that the universe itself is a conscious being just like we are.

If you look at conscious beings like us, for

instance, you'll notice that we work pretty intricately.

Our parts are pretty well-adjusted to one another.

And if you notice how well adjusted

to each other the different parts of the universe are,

you might think that's evidence that the universe itself is a conscious being.

Obviously, a much bigger conscious being than we are.

But maybe, the divine being, if there is one,

is not the creator of the universe, but the divine being is the universe.

That's a possibility worth keeping in mind.

That's one example of how considering new possibilities,

raising new questions can lead us to new knowledge.

Here's another example.

Consider the map behind me, right there.

Okay now, tell me.

Is that map of the Earth right?

Well, you might think, no, it's not right, it's upside down.

But why do you say it's upside down?

Well, you'll say it's upside down,

because it's upside-down relative to the other maps of the Earth that you've seen.

But why don't wethink they're upside down?

Why do you think this is upside down?

Can you think of a reason that would make one rather than the other map upside down?

Upside down relative to what?

That's an example of the way in which looking at the same body effects,

through a different lens, from a different angle,

can lead you to appreciate things that you didn't appreciate before.

In this case, that there is no privileged perspective

relative to which you could say that the Earth is upside down.

Now, in the videos that we're about to see, from my college Kathleen DuVal,

in history, we'll see other examples of how new questions and

new methods of investigation can lead us to new knowledge.

I hope you enjoy them.

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