Unit1:Truth and Credibility

At school we have a subjet call thinking skills,in which we analyse and evaluate arguments.The arguments consists of a reason or many reasons that support a conclusion.To support this belief,we need evidence,without evidence,the argument is not reliable.
Later on,we start makeing judgement about the credibility of the evidence in each argument.To do this judgement,we need to focus on the source,which could be a tv programme or an article in a magazine, or many other things.Apart from this,we need to use a credibility crteria,which can be divided:

• Neutrality:Is a source which doesn't have a motive change evidence for its own benefit.

• Bias:It means having a preference for something, or supporting a point of view.Biased poin of view reduce the credibility of a source.

• Vested Interest:Is when a source takes a side and manipulates certain parts of the evidence for it own benefit.

• Expertise:Is when a evidence is highly credible because it is provided by an expert.

• Reputation:The higher the reputation of a source, the more credible it is.however,a reputation does not mean that the source provide accurate information.

• Observation and eyewitness accounts:Eye witnesses are very credible because they have seen the events.But many times the credibility is lost,because they tent to forget many details when they retell the story.

• Selectivity and Representativeness:Many campaigns group select evidence which support their own view.This selection of evidence reduce the credibility of the source.

• Corroboration:Is when some pieces of evidence support each other.Corroboration increase the credibility of evidence.

• Context:Is the setting in which an evidence is produced.It is very important to analysethe whole context because there might be factors that can affect the evidence provided.

To conclude,the evidence does not have to be true in order to be credible.

Credibility and truth:Credible means beliavable,not true.True mean correct.Evidence not always have to be true.So, credibility and truth are not equals.