On Thu, 20 Jan 2011 13:26:25 -0700, Patrick Elliott wrote:

> On 1/19/2011 8:56 PM, Jim Henderson wrote:
>> On Wed, 19 Jan 2011 20:28:07 -0700, Patrick Elliott wrote:
>>
>>> Why hedge the matter and say "some would say".
>>
>> Because while you believe there is no difference, some believe there
>> is. Who am I to say they're (or you're, or - for that matter - I'm)
>> wrong?
>>
> Its called "critical thinking". Apparently a practice that isn't taught
> too well in colleges (never mind it should start in grade school:
> 
> "After the full four years, 36 percent had shown no development in
> critical thinking, reasoning and writing, according to the study, which
> forms the basis of the new book "Academically Adrift: Limited Learning
> on College Campuses.""

Sure, it's critical thinking, but just because people don't employ it the 
same way you do, that doesn't make it wrong.  There's nothing wrong with 
having a system that works for an individual to organize one's thoughts 
in a way that lets you think about them.

> If you don't know how to interpret facts in the first place, you can
> hardly, in the case of those people with the opinion there "is" some
> huge difference, whine about someone else pointing out that there isn't
> any. Right?

Sure.  But at the same time, if you use a tool to help you organize facts 
so you can interpret them, that puts you in a position of being able to 
talk about the different interpretations, or seeing that there isn't any.

Jim

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