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9 Replies, 7 Unread

9 Replies, 7 Unread

Discussion Topic: Discussion 2 – Thesis Statement PracticeDiscussion 2 – Thesis Statement Practice

After reading the 2 Readings for this week and watching the lecture, read the article below and then formulate a thesis statement that answers the question: Is it worthwhile to go to college in this day and age? (Imagine you are writing an essay with this prompt. State the topic of the imaginary essay, take a position on the topic, offer a few reasons to support your position [provide a roadmap of main points you would make in this imaginary essay].)

Once you have submitted your thesis statement, respond to another student’s post answering the following:

Is the topic of the thesis statement clear?

Is the position on the topic sufficiently stated?

Is there a roadmap provided (i.e., it is obvious what the main points of the argument/essay would be)?

Is the thesis statement a single sentence?

How could the thesis statement be improved?

Is college worth it? Poll finds only 36% of

Americans have confidence in higher

education

By JOCELYN GECKER

Updated 5:00 AM PST, July 8, 2024

Americans are increasingly skeptical about the value and cost of college, with most saying

they feel the U.S. higher education system is headed in the wrong direction, according to

a new poll.

Overall, only 36% of adults say they have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in

higher education, according to the report released Monday by Gallup and the Lumina

Foundation. That confidence level has declined steadily from 57% in 2015.

Some of the same opinions have been reflected in declining enrollment as colleges

contend with the effects of the student debt crisis, concerns about the high cost of tuition

and political debates over how they teach about race and other topics.

The dimming view of whether college is worth the time and money cuts across all

demographics including gender, age, political affiliation. Among Republicans, the

number of respondents with high confidence in higher education has dropped 36

percentage points over the last decade far more than it dropped for Democrats or

independents.

Its so expensive, and I dont think colleges are teaching people what they need to get a

job, says Randy Hill, 59, a registered Republican in Connecticut and a driver for a car

service. His nephew plans to do a welding apprenticeship after graduating high school.

You graduate out of college, youre up to eyeballs in debt, you cant get a job, then you

cant pay it off. Whats the point?

The June 2024 surveys overall finding that 36% of adults feel strong confidence in higher

education is unchanged from the year before. But what concerns researchers is shifting

opinion on the bottom end, with fewer Americans saying they have some confidence and

more reporting very little and none. This years findings show almost as many people

have little or no confidence, 32%, as those with high confidence.

Experts say that fewer college graduates could worsen labor shortages in fields from

health care to information technology. For those who forgo college, it often means lower

lifetime earnings 75% less compared with those who get bachelors degrees, according

to Georgetown Universitys Center on Education and the Workforce. And during an

economic downturn, those without degrees are more likely to lose jobs.

It is sad to see that confidence hasnt grown at all, says Courtney Brown, vice president

at Lumina, an education nonprofit focused on increasing the numbers of students who

seek education beyond high school. Whats shocking to me is that the people who have

low or no confidence is actually increasing.

This years survey added new, detailed questions in an effort to understand why

confidence is shrinking.

Almost one-third of respondents say college is too expensive, while 24% feel students

are not being properly educated or taught what they need to succeed.

The survey did not specifically touch on the protests this year against the war in Gaza that

divided many college campuses, but political views weighed heavily on the findings.

Respondents voiced concerns about indoctrination, political bias and that colleges today

are too liberal. Among the respondents who lack confidence, 41% cite political agendas as

a reason.

Among other findings:

More than two-thirds, or 67%, of respondents say college is headed in the wrong

direction, compared with just 31% who feel its going in the right direction.

Generally when people express confidence in higher education, they are thinking of four-

year institutions, according to Gallup. But the survey found that more people have

confidence in two-year institutions. Forty-nine percent of adults say they have a great

deal or quite a lot of confidence in two-year programs, compared with 33% of

Americans who feel that way about four-year colleges.

California college student Kristen Freeman understands why.

Its about saving money. Thats why I went to a two-year. Its more bang for your buck,

says Freeman, 22, a sociology major at Diablo Valley Community College with plans to

transfer to San Jose State University for the final two years of college.

Freeman understands the concerns about indoctrination and whether college prepares

students for life and work but also feels the only way to change structural problems is from

the inside. I am learning about the world around me and developing useful skills in critical

thinking, Freeman says. I think higher education can give students the spark to want to

change the system. Reading Responses are a chance for you interact with the reading and contemplate the material before we discuss it in class. Your response here will help facilitate our discussions questions and lectures assessments. Below are some possible questions to help you approach the assignment, but it is your thoughts I am interested in.

In about 1 page (double-spaced), what is your reaction to the reading? Is there something specific that really connects with you? Is there something surprising that you have never thought of before or caused you to change your thinking on a certain topic? Does a given passage relate to your life or your beliefs on a given matter? Is there anything you vehemently disagree with?

Payne 11-20 and/or How to Write a Thesis Statement 1-13 and/or Levin 1-10

i attached a pdf

transcrpt for lecture: Hello. Last week we discussed what philosophy is. But this is not just a regular philosophy class. It is critical thinking and writing in philosophy. So today we’re going to discuss what do we mean by critical thinking. And then also detail how to begin the writing process. But before we get into writing, let’s discuss what do we mean by critical thinking. Let’s do so. We need to start at the beginning. So as human beings, we are born into this world. And as infants, we know nothing. We. Have certain needs, though, that we need to fulfill, and this requires us to seek out things that are beneficial to us, things that improve our lives and allow us to survive and avoid those things that are detrimental, the things that harm us or kill us off. So being able to understand the good from the bad, beneficial from the detrimental, is an essential quality that we need to instill within ourselves to be able to succeed in our environment. Luckily, we have had millennia of people. Figuring these things out. And so we’ve developed certain technologies. Uh, technology isn’t just cell phones and computers, but it’s basically anything that we invent. So writing, um, science crafts such as clothing, shoes, these are all different technologies. So because writing and science is part of that, we’ve learned a lot of different things about the things that are beneficial and the things that are detrimental and allow us to basically say, we want more of this in our lives and less of that, but we have also a lot of falsehoods. And so being able to understand the things that we’ve been told that that are accurate and true, those are the things we want to seek out and avoid the things that are misled. So we have a lot of beliefs about how the world is and when our beliefs accurately portray how the world is. We say that this, that those beliefs are true. Um, so when our beliefs conform to reality, we say this is a true fact. There are different interpretations, different theories as to what counts as truth, but we can use this definition as basically conforming to reality as, uh, the basis for what we mean by something that’s true. Uh, in philosophy, many times we define knowledge as a justified true belief, so we know something is true. We know it is accurate when we have a belief that conforms to how reality actually is. So we want to have beliefs that basically accurately represent the world around us, and then reject those beliefs that are going to lead us astray. But it is only a representation that we create, and it is a representation that we basically utilize to navigate the world around us, to seek out the good things and avoid the bad things. But.

It is only a representation. So there is a dichotomy, a distinction between our perceptions of the world, the way that we represent it to ourselves and the world in and of itself, the world as it actually is. Uh, many times you’ll see this term ding an sich, which comes from a Immanuel, Kant, which, uh, is German for the world in and of itself as it actually is, or as the stated in the reading. There is a subjective realm. The realm that we experience the world. The realm where we have feelings and sensations and ideas, the internal realm within our own minds. And then there is the objective realm, the world that we interact with but is outside and independent of ourselves. So as subjective beings, we have a certain experience of the world that we necessarily. See the world in our own particular way. But. This isn’t necessarily how the world actually is. We assume that the world appears in these certain ways, but we don’t have a guarantee that that’s how the world is beyond our perceptions because of the makeup of our bodies and our minds. We have some preconditions that have to that basically determine how we’re able to perceive certain things. Some of these preconditions are we view things as being in space and time. Um, that it’s possible that the world is either two dimensional or four or 5 or 11 dimensional, but the way that we’re able to process things is only in three spatial dimensions. And then one dimension of time, and we’re unable to be to break away from those, uh, different dimensions. You can’t think of things in a four dimensional or five dimensional way, because our brain just doesn’t have the ability to do that. Uh, same thing that things are colored a certain way. We have this image up here where we have a flower that we see as yellow. But if you look at it under UV light, you notice these different patterns. And this is the image that a bee would see. Uh, many times we’ll see a flower and it kind of has um, like one way, uh, in um. Patterns that basically allow the bee to say, hey. This is where the pollen is. Um, these are things that we do not see ourselves, but a, bee does. So when we’re thinking about the world as actually is, we don’t know if it is a yellow flower that we’re seeing, or it is a white and pink one. We just have our own ability to see certain wavelengths, and that’s the only way that we’re able to see them. Same thing with certain shapes here. This looks like a impossible triangle, but from a different perspective. You can see that it is a open shape, but. It is the only way that we’re able to perceive things that we say everything was, have a certain type of shape, have certain extension, certain preconditions that we necessarily view the world from, that we’re not 100% that that’s actually how the world is. That’s simply a modality of how we sense and perceive the world.

So because we only have access to our own subjective perceptions, the way that we see the world as being in three spatial dimensions one, uh, temporal dimension, having certain colors, not having the ultraviolet or the infrared, um, or any other of the electromagnetic spectrum, um, having certain extension colors or, uh, shapes. We basically have this idea of what the world is and the way we perceive it then allows us to create this representation of. Particular objects such as this one pin. And then we’re able to basically construct a map around us, and we’re able to have a representation of the world in general around us. But this is only a representation. It is our best guess as to what the world is in and of itself. So I think I know a lot about this pen because I’m able to touch it and see it. But it’s possible that there are some scientific theories like string theory. Like says, it’s likely that reality has 11, 12, 13 different dimensions, and we just are unable to perceive a lot of these other ones. So it’s possible that this pen is a lot more different than I think it is, but I represent it to myself in a certain particular way.

But that’s okay. Even if we don’t know exactly how the world is beyond our perceptions, we’ve been able to do pretty well. We’ve. Our species has existed for quite a long time. We’re able to navigate the world accurately enough. We’re able to manipulate objects. We’re able to grow crops, uh, hunt animals, build shelters, do all these things that allow us to survive. And so, because we’re able to succeed in the world, we have a pretty good idea that our representations of the world are accurate enough. But when we come to instances where we are trying to look at things very small on a atomic level or looking outside the world, such as, uh, in astronomy, or for looking at metaphysical investigations, what is the world beyond what physics tells us? This is when we start to question what the world is in and of itself, uh, as opposed to just our perceptions of the world. So we have certain arguments that we can make that says the world appears to us this way, but it’s actually this way. Um, but no matter what our theories are, no matter how we think we perceive the world, there’s no guarantee that we will critically view the world as it actually is, or see it. Truthfully, we don’t know that our perceptions correspond accurately to the objective world, the world beyond our subjective and, uh, interpretation of it. As a good example, anytime you see images from space, most of the time it is a artistic representation like we see at the bottom here, where we have gargantuan from the movie interstellar, we have a black hole, and it looks amazing that our best scientific theories say it probably looks like this, but we have a artistic representation here, as opposed to an image that we actually took of a black hole where it’s not quite the same. We think these things correspond pretty well, but you can tell that this and this are not quite the same. And so our representations of the world. Don’t necessarily accurately portray how these things are beyond our perception.

So not only do we have some issues with how we’re able to perceive and represent the world, but there’s also another layer of, uh, complexity. Um. Um, you know, things that make it harder to uncover what the truth of the world is. And that’s shitty people out there. Uh, there’s some agents that try to convince us that what they’re saying is true. Even though they might be lying to us, they may have unscrupulous motivations that they’re trying to get something out of us. Uh, maybe I say agents, because maybe there’s some AI programs that are trying to confuse us in certain ways. Um, and basically give us false information. When we’re trying to seek out what the world is supposed to actually be. Um, so you can think of an instance of going to a used car dealership and you’ll have some scummy guy saying, hey. Buy this car. It’s, you know, it’s really cool. Uh, gets great gas mileage, but come find out it’s actually lemon and, uh, something you do not want. So there are bad actors out there that will, will, will like to be able to basically get things that they want at our expense. And this is where critical thinking comes in. So luckily we have some tools that we’ll be learning throughout the semester to try and parse the things that we can trust and things that we should be wary of. And one of the things, one of the means that people try to convince us is by providing arguments. Um.

Argumentation is the basis of. Critical thinking. And it’s the, uh, basically the realm in which we’re able to utilize these tools. But what do we mean by an argument? Let’s get a handle on this. We have a little video.

From Monty Python’s. I’d like to have an argument. You know, is this is my first time I see. Do you want to have a full argument, or were you thinking of taking a course? Well, uh. Well, uh, what would be the cost? We get it by. It’s a 1.45 minute argument, but only ?8 for the course of ten. Well, I think we’ll get it off with. What would you like to see from that? Okay, fine. I’ll see you three at the moment. Uh, Mr. Dubik is free, but he’s a little bit conciliatory. Yes, ma’am. Well, thank you, thank you.

What do you want? What do you want?… [Content truncated to 3000 words]