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USA Edition | Today Is Tuesday, May 21, 2013 |
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Socratic Warning
Newsroom Magazine
May Challenge
Or Demand
Critical Thinking
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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
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That is immensely significant, and a stark warning to other Heads of State who are committing similar crimes, or contemplating doing so. This is the first time since Nuremberg that an international tribunal has reached judgment in the trial of a former Head of State.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay
New York
UN Human Rights Chief Welcomes Court’s Guilty Verdict In Charles Taylor Trial
New York, Apr 26 2012
The United Nations human rights chief today welcomed the guilty verdict handed down against former Liberian President Charles Taylor as a “major milestone in” the development of international justice.
“It is important to recognise that Taylor may appeal the verdict, and that his guilt is not fully established until the end of the judicial process,” the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, said in a news release. “Nevertheless, whatever the final outcome, this is undoubtedly a historic moment in the development of international justice.”
“A former President, who once wielded immense influence in a neighbouring country where tens of thousands of people were killed, mutilated, raped, robbed and repeatedly displaced for years on end, has been arrested, tried in a fair and thorough international procedure, and has now been convicted of very serious crimes,” Ms. Pil lay added.
Earlier on Thursday, the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) handed down a guilty verdict against Mr. Taylor for planning, aiding and abetting war crimes and crimes against humanity. He was on trial on 11 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including pillage, slavery for forced marriage purposes, collective punishment and the recruitment and use of child soldiers.
The charges relate to Mr. Taylor’s alleged support for two rebel groups — the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council and the Revolutionary United Front — during Sierra Leone’s decade-long civil war. He had pleaded not guilty to all charges.
“That is immensely significant, and a stark warning to other Heads of State who are committing similar crimes, or contemplating doing so,” she said. “This is the first time since Nuremberg that an international tribunal has reached judgment in the trial of a former Head of State.”
The High Commissioner noted that others leaders — namely Laurent Gbagbo and Radovan Karadžiæ — have also been charged with international crimes and are either already on trial or will be soon. As well, President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan has been indicted, while Slobodan Miloševiæ and Muammar Gaddafi were also at various stages of international proceedings at the time of their deaths.
“The days when tyrants and mass murderers could, even when they had been deposed, retire to a life of luxury in another land are over,” Pillay said. “And so they should be. Few things are more repugnant than seeing people with so much blood on their hands, living on stolen money with no prospect of their victims seeing justice carried out.”
Pillay noted that while the delivery of justice was of immense importance to victims, and a key part of the national healing process, reparations were also necessary for people to pick up their lives and move on.
“Just because their suffering is out of the headlines, it doesn’t mean it is over,” she said. “Sierra Leoneans suffered s o much during the terrible conflict that wracked their country for some ten years, and so many vicious crimes were committed. The victims, and their families, will continue to need help from the current Government and the international community for many years to come.”
The Taylor trial opened on 4 June 2007 in The Hague. It was adjourned immediately after the prosecution’s opening statement when Mr. Taylor dismissed his defence team and requested new representation. Witness testimony commenced on 7 January 2008, and ended on 12 November 2010. Closing arguments took place in February and March 2011.
The Court heard live testimony from 94 prosecution witnesses, and received written statements from four additional witnesses. The defence presented 21 witnesses, with Mr. Taylor testifying in his defence.
The SCSL was set up jointly by the Sierra Leonean Government and the UN in 2002, with the mandate of trying those who bear the greatest responsibility for serious violations of inte rnational humanitarian law and national law committed on Sierra Leonean territory since the end of November 1996.
Although the SCSL is headquartered in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, Mr. Taylor’s trial took place in a chamber of the Court sitting in The Hague for security reasons.