Columbus State Community College critical thinking

Toassessyour ability to:

• Evaluate fallacious thinking in regard to causal claims about autism.
• Test causal claims about autism.
• Critically evaluate whether vaccines cause viral infections, developmental disability, crippling and potentially deadly medical disorders, or diseases.

Overview

In this LABassignment, you will need to construct your ownanswers based on the video links, the readings from the key points for this week, the

attached notes

, and the textbook (Chapter 9, section titled ‘From Correlation to Causal Relation’, and Chapter 10 (section titled ‘Evaluating Causal Claims: The Critical Questions’) of Battersby (2016).

Links to Learn About Vaccines

1. Vaccines Cause Autism (A little bit of humor for you through GIFs here)
2. Michael Specter: The Danger of Science Denial (19:01)
3. (1/2) Do Vaccines Cause Autism? Correlation vs. Causation (9:42)
4. (2/2) Do Vaccines Cause Autism? Correlation vs. Causation (8:09)
5. Measles Outbreak Sparks Vaccination Debate (3:00)
6. Measles Outbreak in 13 States (1:52)
7. Vaccinations, Lies and MMR. Measles, a History of Infection (13:16)
8. Science Behind the News: Influenza & Flu Vaccines (4:02)
9. Flu Shots: Why in the World Would I Get One? (2:28)
10. The Facts about Flu Shots (4:14)
11. Comic Strip Anti-Vaxxer Smack Down (comic strip)

MMR and false syllogisms(http://www.blacktriangle.org/blog/?p=425)

Action Items

1. The comic strip cartoon in the overview depicts three separate, but related arguments (each viewed horizontally from left to right) on the subject of thinking in regard to causal claims about autism. Using the Lab 3 Notes: The Vaccination Scare document (see the hyperlink in the overview above) as your model, IN YOUR OWN WORDS determine whether the thinking expressed in each of the comic strip cartoons is fallacious. Discuss whether or not we would actually have to test the causal claims about autism.
2. From your study of the LINKS TO LEARN ABOUT VACCINES in the Lab 3 Notes: The Vaccination Scare document (see the hyperlink in the overview above), set up a unified line of reasoning evaluating ONE of the causal claims (about autism, measles, or Influenza (the “Flu”)) that typically characterize observational studies about vaccines allegedly causing viral infections, developmental disability, crippling and potentially deadly medical disorders, or diseases. Specifically, critically evaluate a causal claim (in regard to autism, measles, or Influenza (the “Flu”)) by asking (and fully answering) our four basic CRITICAL QUESTIONS:What is being claimed?How good is the evidence?What other information is relevant?Are relevant fallacies avoided?
3. Complete Action Items 1 – 2 in a Microsoft Word document.