Extracts from Murder in the Climate Assembly
The novel is set in a university and lecturers are encouraged to include critical thinking in their teaching. The protagonist, Iris Tate, Professor of Moral Philosophy does so several times e.g. here some extracts from her lectures:
Extract 1
What’s more important? The process or the outcome?…. Some of you are finding it hard to decide. Consider – have I pushed you into a false dichotomy? [Ref critical thinking] The classic playbook of manipulative argument is to force your opposition into an unnecessarily extreme, either/or position. You may argue that the process and outcome are not alternatives but intrinsically connected, in that certain processes are more likely to lead to certain outcomes.
Extract 2
An argument is only as strong as its weakest link. It doesn’t matter how convincing one particular point is if it has no logical connection to the causal link you are trying to make. This kind of smoke and mirrors is a key tactic of those who spread misinformation. Someone may make a proposition that you agree with. You feel that dopamine buzz of recognition. You warm towards them and what they’re saying as it touches upon your own personal experience. You feel validated. And then they say something else as if it’s causally related to the first point, and in the flood of goodwill you accept it without question. You may fully agree with the oneness of one and heartily concur with the twoness of two, but it doesn’t mean that one plus two equals four. Philosophy, dear students, is mathematics in words. Therefore, precision in language is something I encourage you to strive towards. You can all aspire to the razor-sharp reasoning of Sherlock Holmes – it’s a question of mental training. Logic by itself can’t answer questions of morality and values, but at least you’ll be focussing your attention in the right place.
