 |
USA Edition | Today Is Sunday, May 26, 2013 |
|---|
Socratic Warning
Newsroom Magazine
May Challenge
Or Demand
Critical Thinking
|
|---|
|
|
The intellectual roots of critical thinking date back to the Greek philosophers.
Socrates discovered, by means of probing questions, that in the exchange of competing ideas, people sometimes make confident claims based on unreliable assumptions or failed logic.
Such arguments, he discovered, were either erroneous in fact, absent sufficient foundation, or failing in logic. Instead, most arguments were based on confused meanings, inadequate evidence, or contradictory beliefs.
Socrates' contributions to critical thinking were many -- for he established new ways to think about contentious issues in terms of the quality of assumptions, facts and logic.
Thus Socrates demonstrated that persons may have passion, or power or high position but yet be deeply confused and irrational.
Good journalism, like compelling debate, is based on a clear understanding of facts and the logical construction of one's argument. And that is what the Socratic Method and The Sophist Tradition is all about.
Evidentiary Approach
The Socratic Method is the preferred way to examine issues.In the Socratic mode of questioning, postulations, ideas or arguments are examined for their clarity and logical consistency by systematic analysis of facts, assumptions and logical methodology to support a conclusion.
Socratic analysis is accomplished by means of a series of probing questions that systematically examine the quality of an argument or conclusion.
Understanding the quality of information, argument or one's conclusions, is fundamental to critical thinking -- and the goal of critical editing.
Historical Foundation
Socrates’ practice was followed by the critical thinking of Plato (who recorded Socrates’ thought), Aristotle, and the Greek skeptics, all of whom emphasized that things are often very different from what they appear to be.Only the trained mind is prepared to see through the way things look to us on the surface (delusive appearances) to the way they really are beneath the surface (the deeper realities of life.)
From this ancient Greek tradition emerged the need, for anyone who aspired to understand the deeper realities, to think systematically, to trace implications broadly and deeply; for only thinking that is comprehensive, well-reasoned, and responsive to objections can take us beyond the surface.
Means Of Analysis
The common denominators of Critical Thinking requires, for example, the systematic monitoring of thought; that thinking, to be critical, must not be accepted at face value, but must be analyzed and assessed for its clarity, accuracy, relevance, depth, breadth, and logical validity. All reasoning occurs within points of view and frames of reference.All reasoning proceeds from some goals, objectives, and has an informational base. All data, when used in reasoning, must be interpreted. That interpretation involves concepts, that concepts entail assumptions, and that all basic inferences in thought have implications, and each of these dimensions of thinking need to be monitored where problems of thinking can occur.
Questioning Chain
The result of the collective contribution of the history of critical thought is that the basic questions of Socrates can now be much more powerfully and focally framed.In every domain of human thought, and within every use of reasoning within any domain, it is now possible to question:
• ends and objectives
• the status and wording of questions
• the sources of information and fact
• the method and quality of information collection
• the mode of judgment and reasoning used
• the concepts that make that reasoning possible
• the assumptions that underlie concepts in use
• the implications that follow from their use
• the point of view or frame of reference within which reasoning takes place
Jeffrey Slee
Logician
| FTC Sees No Improvement In Online App Support For Child Privacy | Browse All Content | Egyptian IMF Stand-By Funding Arrangement Delayed | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Previous In Section | Browse DEA Section |
Next In Section |
Project Below the Beltway also consisted of numerous state and local investigations that targeted the Sinaloa and Juarez Cartels and associated drug trafficking organizations. The Sinaloa and Juarez Cartels are responsible for bringing multi-ton quantities of narcotics, including cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana from Mexico into the United States.
Washington
Project Below The Beltway Targets Sinaloa And Juarez Cartels And Affiliated Violent Street Gangs Nationwide
The Drug Enforcement Administration today announced the results of “Project Below the Beltway”, a two-year series of investigations targeting the Sinaloa and Juarez Cartels and violent street gangs as part of on-going initiative against the cartels and their distribution network in America. The series of federal, state, and local investigations began in May 2010 and culminated on December 6, 2012.
December 11, 1012
Project Below the Beltway is comprised of investigations in 79 U. S. cities and several foreign cities within Central America, Europe, Mexico, South America and elsewhere, this initiative has resulted in 3,780 arrests, and the seizure of 6,100 kilograms of cocaine, 10,284 pounds methamphetamine, 1,619 pounds of heroin, 349,304 pounds of marijuana, $148 million dollars in U.S. currency, and $38 million dollars in other assets to date.
In addition to the federal investigations, Project Below the Beltway also consisted of numerous state and local investigations that targeted the Sinaloa and Juarez Cartels and associated drug trafficking organizations. The Sinaloa and Juarez Cartels are responsible for bringing multi-ton quantities of narcotics, including cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana from Mexico into the United States. These cartels are also believed to be responsible for laundering millions of dollars in criminal proceeds from illegal drug trafficking activities. Individuals indicted in the cases are charged with a variety of crimes, including: various felony provisions of the Controlled Substances Act; conspiracy to import controlled substances; money laundering; firearms violations and other related offenses. Multiple U.S. Judicial Districts were part of Project Below the Beltway.
“We’ve orchestrated a sustained wave of coordinated, aggressive enforcement actions to weaken these cartels and their violent gang associates,” said DEA Administrator Michele M. Leonhart. “These international organized crime regimes operate without borders and our ongoing investigations in the U.S. and overseas will continue to target its members wherever they operate. Project Below the Beltway would not have been possible without the hard work and dedication of our local, federal and international partners.”
“IRS Criminal Investigation has been involved in combating drug-related crimes for some time.” said IRS chief Richard Weber. “We play a unique role in federal law enforcement’s counter-drug effort, in that we target the profit and financial gains of narcotics traffickers. And we will continue to investigate them by pursuing sophisticated, income tax, currency, and money laundering charges against these criminals.”
The DEA Special Operations Division (SOD) coordinated Project Below The Beltway and the efforts of the DEA, Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Customs and Border Protection, United States Marshals Service, the Office of Foreign Asset Control, and numerous state and local law enforcement entities.
SOD is a DEA led, multi-agency, operational coordination center whose mission is to establish seamless law enforcement strategies and operations aimed at dismantling national and international trafficking organizations by attacking their command and control communications.