The Benjamin Franklin Effect « You Are Not So Smart#more-1459
The Misconception: You do nice things for the people you like and bad things to the people you hate. The Truth: You grow to like people for whom you do nice things and hate people you harm. Benjamin Franklin knew how to deal with haters. Born in 1706 as the eighth of 17 children to a Massachusetts soap and candlestick maker, the chances Benjamin would go on to become a gentleman, scholar, scientist, statesman, musician, author, publisher and all-around general bad-ass were astronomically low, yet he did just that and more because he was a master of the game of personal politics. Like many people full of drive and intelligence born into a low station, Franklin developed strong people skills and social powers. All else denied, the analytical mind will pick apart behavior, and Franklin became adroit at human relations. Franklin’s prospects were dim. At 17, Franklin left Boston and started his own printing business In Philadelphia. What exactly happened here? Let’s start with your attitudes.
Strategy and Structure: Chapters in the History of the Industrial Enterprise - Alfred Dupont Chandler
Semantic Challenges to Realism
First published Thu Jan 11, 2001; substantive revision Tue Feb 1, 2011 According to metaphysical realism, the world is as it is independently of how humans take it to be. The objects the world contains, together with their properties and the relations they enter into, fix the world's nature and these objects exist independently of our ability to discover they do. Unless this is so, metaphysical realists argue, none of our beliefs about our world could be objectively true since true beliefs tell us how things are and beliefs are objective when true or false independently of what anyone might think. Many philosophers believe metaphysical realism is just plain common sense. Anti-realists deny the world is mind-independent. I proceed by first defining metaphysical realism, illustrating its distinctive mind-independence claim with some examples and distinguishing it from other doctrines with which it is often confused, in particular factualism. 1. Are there moral values? What about Yeti? 2.
Common Behavioral Biases
Critical and Creative Thinking
The imparting of knowledge (content) and the development of thinking skills are accepted today as primary purposes of education. The explicit teaching and embedding of critical and creative thinking throughout the learning areas encourages students to engage in higher order thinking. By using logic and imagination, and by reflecting on how they best tackle issues, tasks and challenges, students are increasingly able to select from a range of thinking strategies and use them selectively and spontaneously in an increasing range of learning contexts. Activities that foster critical and creative thinking should include both independent and collaborative tasks, and entail some sort of transition or tension between ways of thinking. The learning area or subject with the highest proportion of content descriptions tagged with Critical and Creative Thinking is placed first in the list. F-6/7 Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS) 7-10 History 7-10 Geography 7-10 Civics and Citizenship The Arts English
Library for Everyone
Library for Everyone Our Library of Publications for Everyone provides digital access to the entire online library published by the Foundation for Critical Thinking. This includes all of the educational materials published by the FCT. See the links below to gain access to articles, select portions of each title in the Thinker's Guide Library, as well as posters and laminated cards. Thinkers Guides All of our Thinker's Guides are now published by Rowman and Littlefield Publishers. From the journal Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum About Critical Thinking Fundamentals of Critical Thinking Documenting the Problem Higher Education Instruction K-12 Instruction Strategies and Samples The Questioning Mind Issues in Critical Thinking For Students General Trade Books Handbooks Transparencies/PowerPoint Slides Posters/Other Materials Critical Thinking: What Every Person Needs to Survive in a Rapidly Changing World Top ▲
Identify a Lie with 6 Simple Questions
post written by: Marc Chernoff Email We all fall victim to at least a few lies during the course of our lifetime. A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.- Mark Twain How do you know this? If you enjoyed this article, check out our new best-selling book. And get inspiring life tips and quotes in your inbox (it's free)...
The Meaning of Life: How Shall We Live? – Steve Pavlina
How shall we live? What shall we live for, if anything? How can we decide right from wrong? Is there any reasonable way to answer these questions that doesn’t require us to fall back on blind faith? Let’s Ask the Old Greeks People have been striving to answer these questions literally for thousands of years. For example, there’s a story where Socrates met a young man who was going to court to charge his father with impiety. Another philosopher who made a significant dent in the question of how to live was Aristotle (384-322 BC), who studied under Plato (Plato studied under Socrates). Aristotle’s best answer for how one should live was the concept of eudaimonia. Aristotle was interested in finding a right way to live, if such a thing could be said to exist. The main problem I see in Aristotle’s insightful attempt to answer this question is that his solution is somewhat circular. After Aristotle many others addressed the question of how to live. Choosing Your Own Context Living the Virtues
Who Do You Want to Be When You Die? – Steve Pavlina
“How shall we live?” is a challenging question. But an interesting variation is to ask: What kind of person do you want to be when you die? When I think about the kind of person I want to be when I die, the question that is most pressing to me is this: Did I do my best? To me this means two things: 1) Given my current strengths and weaknesses, knowledge and skills, and internal and external resources, do I consider myself at this moment to be the best human being I am capable of being? Those two questions have helped me handle the mortality conundrum. Whenever my life reaches the point where I cannot honestly answer yes to both questions, I know I’m off track. Whenever I can answer yes, I know I am at peace with the possibility of death at any time. At this particular moment, I feel I can honestly answer yes. “Doing your best” is not a static destination. In any situation the greatest good you can do is your best.
