The Elusive Truth – Critical Thinking – Precise Meaning
PRECISE MEANING
People who talk to each other in English aren’t always speaking the same language. Ordinary words have different meanings for different people. For example, words that tell how one feels about something have personal meanings.
“Coffee tastes better than tea.”
“Cocoa Village is cooler than downtown Melbourne.”
“Hockey is more exciting than football.”
What do you mean by “better,” “cooler,” and “more exciting” is different from what other people mean, and no one else in the world has exactly the same taste as you.
WORDS
- words don’t have any meaning by themselves
- words carry meaning from one person to another
- the meaning the speaker intends is not necessarily the meaning the listener hears
- in order for the meaning to be transmitted successfully, key words often need to be discussed and defined
SYMBOLS
- words or objects that represent ideas
- examples: a heart represents love;
- a skull and crossbones to represent death
- some symbols have different meanings to different people
STEREOTYPES
- a fixed mental image of a person, place, idea, or event
- not a picture of what something actually is, but a picture of what we expect that something to be
- the less we know about something, the stronger the stereotypes tend to be
- stereotypes are difficult to avoid
- in order to make sense of the world, our minds tend to standardize what we see
- they let us know what to expect
- yet, stereotypes never correspond exactly with reality
- some are more accurate than others
- all are oversimplifications which tend to block out individual differences, contradictions, and nuances
- at their worst, stereotypes block out reality
- stereotypes are difficult to change
- we tend to notice what fits our stereotypes and avoid evidence that doesn’t fit
- because we all use stereotypes, we should constantly be aware of their weaknesses
- stereotypes are not what reality is but what we think reality is
- stereotypes tend to oversimplify complex facts and ignore individual differences
- stereotypes resist change
APPEALS TO EMOTION
- they come from many sources
- most common are advertising/marketing and political speech
- clever use of vocabulary (often very descriptive) to influence your emotions
EUPHEMISM
- a nice way of saying something unpleasant
- “Steve is no longer with us” vs. “Steve died”
- “Your paintings sure are different” vs. “Your paintings are ugly”
- sometimes used to protect people’s feelings
- sometimes used to make unpleasant news more bearable
- but they can also be used to make ordinary facts seem exciting or to cover up the truth
- Nazis referred to their death camps as “relocation centers”
- the mental torture of American POWs during the Korean War was referred to by the North Korean communists as “reeducation”
JARGON
- most common meaning: unintelligible or meaningless talk or writing
- words/language used by writers when they want to impress you rather than communicate with you
- can also mean: the language particular to a trade, profession, or other group
- your academic major or area of interest may have its own jargon
- this special language can also be used to obfuscate real meaning
- jargon should always be defined according to the audience for your writing
INDEFINITE NUMBERS
- words like
- several
- many
- most
- often
- it was commonly believed
- may be used by authors to disguise the fact that they don’t have much information about a subject
- specific numbers provide a stronger argument
- Example: From the colonial period on, many Americans believed in expansionism.
- How many? Three? Sixteen? Twenty thousand? Forty percent of the population?
- It is not clear
IMPRESISE MEANING is a common tool of propaganda and those with weak or no evidence to support their arguments.
AUTHOR’S NOTE: Many thanks to Philip Roden and his short text, The Elusive Truth. Though long out of print, it is still an exceptional resource for introducing the basics of critical thinking and message analysis.
Kip Koelsch Author 