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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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These Cay Clubs executives lined their pockets with millions of dollars that they told investors would be used to develop five-star resort properties. They continued to defraud investors as Cay Clubs collapsed.
Eric I. Bustillo, Director, SEC Miami Regional Office
Washington
SEC Charges Real Estate Executives In Florida-Based $300 Million Investment Scheme
Washington, D.C., Jan. 30, 2013 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged five former real estate executives who defrauded investors into believing they were funding the development of five-star destination resorts in Florida and Las Vegas when they were actually buying into a Ponzi scheme.
The SEC alleges that Cay Clubs Resorts and Marinas raised more than $300 million from nearly 1,400 investors nationwide through a network of hundreds of sales agents, marketing seminars, and podcasts that touted the profitability of purchasing units at Cay Clubs resort locations. Investors were promised immediate income from a guaranteed 15 percent return and a future income stream through a rental program that Cay Clubs managed. But instead of using investor funds to develop resort properties and units, the Cay Clubs executives used new investor deposits to pay leaseback returns to earlier investors. Meanwhile they paid themselves exorbitant salaries and commissions totaling more than $30 million, and investor funds also were misused to buy airplanes and boats. While still advertising itself as a profitable venture, Cay Clubs eventually abandoned its operations. Many investors’ properties went into foreclosure.
“These Cay Clubs executives lined their pockets with millions of dollars that they told investors would be used to develop five-star resort properties,” said Eric I. Bustillo, Director of the SEC’s Miami Regional Office. “They continued to defraud investors as Cay Clubs collapsed.”
The SEC’s complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida charges the following former Cay Clubs executives:
- Fred Davis Clark, Jr. – president and CEO
- David W. Schwarz – chief accounting officer
- Cristal R. Coleman – manager and sales agent
- Barry J. Graham – sales director
- Ricky Lynn Stokes – sales director
According to the SEC’s complaint, the scheme began in 2004. Clark, Coleman, Graham, and Stokes solicited investors with promises of guaranteed income, instant equity in undervalued properties, historic appreciation, and at least $30,000 in upgrades to the units they purchased at Cay Clubs resort locations in Florida and Las Vegas. The representations about investors’ profitability and instant equity were false because the purported triple-digit returns resulted from undisclosed insider transactions with Cay Clubs by Coleman, Graham, and Stokes. Their actions made it appear that Cay Clubs units had enormous rates of appreciation over a short period of time when in fact the transactions were merely part of an insider flipping scheme. Further, Stokes wrote letters directly to potential investors claiming that the leaseback payments and profits were “guaranteed” and that Cay Clubs was a “very stable financially healthy company worth BILLIONS.”
The SEC alleges that Cay Clubs continued to solicit new investors despite the fact that the company’s financial condition had deteriorated so significantly that it did not have sufficient funds to make the “guaranteed” leaseback or rental payments to investors. Clark, Coleman, and Schwarz misappropriated millions of dollars in investor funds using the multitude of bank accounts they controlled. Besides purchasing airplanes and boats, they misused investor money for unrelated business ventures including investments in precious metals and a liquor distillery that produced Pirate’s Choice Rum. After Cay Clubs abandoned its operations in 2008, Clark and Coleman (who are now husband and wife) moved to the Cayman Islands and continued to dissipate assets and funnel at least $2 million to offshore accounts.
The SEC’s complaint seeks financial penalties from Clark, Coleman, and Stokes and the disgorgement of ill-gotten gains plus prejudgment interest by all five executives. The complaint also seeks injunctive relief to enjoin them from future violations of the federal securities laws as well as an accounting and an order to repatriate investor assets.
The SEC’s investigation was conducted in the Miami Regional Office by Senior Counsel Linda S. Schmidt and Senior Regional Accountant Fernando Torres under the supervision of Assistant Regional Director Jason R. Berkowitz. Senior Trial Counsel Amie R. Berlin will lead the SEC’s litigation.