每个人都有捍卫自己观点的倾向，甚至为此吵个面红耳赤。我们家聚会比较多，酒足饭饱之后，小伙伴们总是免不了聊聊些政治、经济、科技、军事等等，有时候往往不欢而散。每到这个时候，就会说，哎呀，我们为什么总是要互相伤害呢?我们每个人都应该反思，“我的观点有多少证据？” “这些证据可靠吗？” 哈哈，欢迎继续互相伤害。
每日五词(今天两章，10个词）
1.drool
对…过分痴迷;对…垂涎欲滴；Todrool oversomeone or something means to look at them with great pleasure, perhaps in an exaggerated or ridiculous way.
Fashion editors drooled over every item...
时尚编辑们兴奋地注视着每一件东西。
2. inalienable
不可剥夺的;不能让与的；If you say that someone has aninalienableright to something, you are emphasizing that they have a right to it which cannot be changed or taken away.
He said the republic now had an inalienable right to self-determination.
他说共和国现在拥有不可剥夺的自决权。
3. gas guzzler
高油耗汽车；“油老虎”；If you say that a car is agas guzzler,you mean that it uses a lot of fuel and is not cheap to run.
They say gas guzzlers are contributing to air pollution.
他们说高耗油汽车是造成空气污染的原因之一。
4.breathalyzer
a device used by police for measuring the amount of alcohol in a driver's breath
呼吸测醉器。
5.out of/from/thin air
if something appears from thin air, it appears suddenly in a mysterious way
I can’t just make money appear out of thin air.
6. by/in virtue of
because or as a result of
因为; 由于
8. plague
（plagues, plagued, plaguing）［with obj.］
cause continual trouble or distress to
折磨, 烦扰, 打扰：
he has been plagued by ill health
他一直被病魔折磨着
9. stratify
Stratify means to divide into layers or classes. Announcing pay raises for only half of the employees in a company would be a quick way to stratify the office.
10. nit-picking
挑剔;(尤指)吹毛求疵；If you refer to someone's opinion as nitpicking, you disapprove of the fact that it concentrates on small and unimportant details, especially to try and find fault with something.
Summary
Chapter 5 How good are your opinions?
Chapter5 helps us focus on opinions. In the context of critical thinking, the term opinion refers to expressions of judgement rather than to expressions of taste. However, opinions vary from informed to uninformed. Critical thinking helps us identify the best one.
Opinions Can Be Mistaken
Evidence shows that many opinions held by people can be mistaken. Sometimes these errors are caused by subtle consideration.
Opinions on Moral Issues
Opinions about moral issue may be correct or incorrect just like other opinions. However, we could use three most important criteria to increase our moral judgments, obligations, ideals and consequences.
Even Experts Can Be Wrong
Experts can be wrong. The author gives various examples from one hundred year ago till our time to illustrate it.
Kinds of Errors
There are four broad kinds of errors for opinion.
If an opinion is based on consideration of the evidence, then it could be considered informed. Therefore, when expressing an opinion, give more supporting details.
Chapter 6 What is Evidence?
After reading chapter5, we have known more about opinion. To state an opinion is to tell others what we are thinking about something; to present evidence is to show others that what we think makes sense.
Most people tend to express opinions only with the flimsiest of evidence. However, as critical thinker, we must take extra time reviewing our evidence before expressing an pinion. In other words, critical thinkers have the habit of checking the quality and quantity of the evidence before forming an opinion.
To evaluate your own and other people’s evidence, you will need to know the value and limitations of various kinds evidence and how to ask appropriate questions.
The most important kinds of evidence arepersonal experience, unpublished report, published report, eyewitness testimony, celebrity testimony, expert opinion, experiment, statistics, survey, formal observation, and research review.
See below chart for questions to evaluate various evidence.
The purpose of evaluating evidence is to discover the truth, and the only way to do so is to evaluate fairy. Although you may not be able to eliminate your biases, you can identify and control them.
In addition, three guidelines will help us decide whether the evidence is sufficient. If the evidence does not show one view to be more reasonable than competing vies, you’d better withhold judgement until sufficient evidence is available.
感悟：
擦亮你的眼睛，明辨是非。有图也未必有真相。目击证人也会主观臆断！
几年前有个帖子特别火，讲述了一个外国老太太如何正义凛然地在北京街头怒斥违章行驶的出租车。事发经过恰好被一个摄影师拍下来了，于是这位摄影师用图文向大家讲了一个关于正义的故事。故事一出了，言论一边倒，外国老太太多么有正义感，外国人的价值观如何如何好，我们要学习人家，大家纷纷向老太太表示敬意。后来，此事还登上了China Daily。
然而，这个老太太恰好是我同事。莫名其妙成了榜样，老太太很紧张地问我原帖中到底写了什么？当我一张图片一张图片告诉她目击者是如何描述事发进过的时候，她一直摇头，皱眉头，说完全不对呀。事实跟正义完全无关，事实是一辆出租车右转碰到了骑自行车的她，因此她拦下出租车，要求出租出司机道歉。一个每天都会发生的再普通不过的交通争执，被媒体误导，上升到一个西方人有更高的价值观的层面。想想实在好笑。