Lessons In Critical Thinking
Tuesday, June 10th, 2008I was going through videos and found this video today on critical thinking. I’m always interested in videos of how the mind works and how we perceive things, so I watched it. I’m sharing it with you because I’d like to get your opinions on things.
Watch the video, and then read a few of my thoughts below.
“Beware of any product said to be based on ancient wisdom.?
While I agree that the ‘ancient wisdom’ label is applied to many gimmicks, I don’t think he supports his warning very well. The reason advertisers use that phrase – or one of the reasons – is that the ancients knew things that we don’t know. Science has yet to answer even the basic question of how the pyramids are made.
As far as not knowing much about human anatomy, I have to laugh a bit. If ancient people didn’t know much about human anatomy, then the Egyptians who performed mummification, the tribes who performed human sacrifice rituals involving taking out the heart (and sometimes other organs), and many other civilizations must have just been lucky.
Right.
He presents a lot of things people should truly think about when it comes to advertising and mystical claims, that one point leads me to be skeptical of him.
Overall, while he has some excellent points that you should heed, what amuses me most is that he uses his own advertising gimmicks. All you have to do is listen to the music in the background of the beginning of the video (when people are talking about what they believe in) to know that he wants you to laugh at these people. He wants you to think they’re silly.
What do you think?
