May 2012

From an interview in The Humanist with New Jersey congressman Rush Holt:

The Humanist: How do you define critical thinking?

Rush Holt:  Let me define instead what I like to call “thinking like a scientist.” It’s asking questions that can be answered based on evidence; it’s expressing questions in a way that allows someone to check your work. If you don’t have both of those elements, it’s too easy to fool yourself or to get lazy in your thinking. I wouldn’t say that critical thinking is hard thinking, because I don’t want to discourage people from doing it, but like anything else, it’s easier if you practice.

Third graders, for example, are often very good at thinking like scientists. Like scientists, they know that if you ask how something works, what something means, or how something happens, you should do it in a way that allows for more than just pure thinking. There should be some evidence, something empirical. You should form your question so that it allows someone else to ask that same question and observe the evidence to see if they get the same answer as you do. And that’s the essential part of critical thinking. If you say, “I’ve been thinking about this deeply and, by golly, now I understand it,” but then you try to explain it to someone else and can’t, then you probably don’t understand it … or it’s not very reliable knowledge.

I keep trying to get science taught in a way that, even if you can’t remember a single Latin term or are a klutz at solving equations, you’ve learned how to frame questions and sift evidence. I talk about verification but another way of putting it is: be ready for the cross-examination. Prepare to explain yourself.

Prepare, indeed. Read the complete interview. Needless to say, New Jersey 12th district voters take great pride in sporting their "My congressman IS a rocket scientist" bumper stickers. More scientists in congress, please - rocket or other varieties.

There are so many reasons that Benjamin Franklin was chosen as the namesake for the Franklin College - and every one of them accrues to our benefit as well as feeds our ambitions for what the College should be. None of the noble epithets with which we connect Franklin demonstrates that more than the unfinished autobiography he worked on but purposefully left unfinished so as  'to immerse his reader in the formal and textual atmosphere of a deliberately "unfinished" life.'

A new book by the Sterling-Goodman Professor of English at UGA Douglas Anderson on the Franklin autobiography explores and elucidates this and other points about the great man's life, work and ideas on both:

In presenting Franklin's autobiography as an exemplary formal experiment in an era that its author once called the Age of Experiments, The Unfinished Life of Benjamin Franklin veers away from the familiar practices of traditional biographers, viewing history through the lens of literary imagination rather than the other way around. Anderson's carefully considered work makes a persuasive case for revisiting this celebrated book with a keener appreciation for the subtlety and beauty of Franklin's performance.

 

The Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases is a UGA-wide, multi-disciplinary center establshed in 1998 to bring together research, education and service resources in parasitology, immunology, cellular and molecular biology, biochemistry and genetics. The Franklin College has been one its core institutional partners from the beginning, recognizing that facilitating expertise from a wide-range of disciplines is the key to fighting diseases in the developing world - often treatable diseases that ravage the lives of millions of people.

One of these is toxoplasmosis, one of the most common parasitic infections in the world:

Now, thanks in part to a five-year, $1.8-million grant from the National Institutes of Health, University of Georgia researcher Silvia Moreno has identified a potential target for new therapies against toxoplasma infection, which may help to protect people with compromised immune systems, developing fetuses and other sensitive populations from serious harm.

Toxoplasma works by invading healthy cells within the body, and once it has taken over, the cell's membranes protect the parasite from the immune system. However, as it replicates and fills the cell, some parasites must venture out to find new cells to attack. It is during this process, when toxoplasma is outside the protective walls of the host cell, that Moreno sees an opportunity to combat the parasite.

"We are interested in knowing how the parasite is able to survive long enough to find another host cell," said Moreno, professor of cellular biology in the UGA Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases and the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.

The dean of an arts and sciences college of the size and dimensions of the Franklin College really has his or her hands full. Outside of the extraordinary administrative duties of the position and alongside the constant fundraising responsibilities and appearances, the dean is our ambassador and spokesperson; introducing speakers and addressing graduates with an eloquent and memorable message could itself be a full-time occupation. Interim dean Hugh Ruppersburg has proven adept at all of the above duties, but he has truly excelled in this latter one. Here are his introductory remarks for the 18th Andrea Coley Lecture on April 6:

On behalf of the Franklin College and the University I welcome you to the 18^th Andrea Carson Coley lecture. This is always an important event on the spring semester calendar for Women’s Studies. In memory and honor of Andrea Coley, a young woman who came out as a lesbian and suffered hostility and non-acceptance that led to her suicide, the Coley lecture seeks to foster understanding and acceptance of people who are different. It speaks for the spirit and practice of fairness, tolerance, appreciation and equity for all people. This year in particular seems particularly relevant. The current political campaign, as surly and uncivil as I can ever recall a campaign having been, has focused unfortunately on a very narrow and singular definition of what it means to be an American, of what it means to be human. Those who don’t fit that definition are regarded by some as suspect, second-rate, undeserving of full status as human beings. Not only do we witness attacks on gays, lesbians, transgendered, and others who are different. We are also witnessing attacks on women in general, on the fundamental concept of difference and self-empowerment. We recently heard a young woman lambasted on a national radio program for the mere fact of her testimony before Congress. And we have seen in Florida how a teenage boy with dark skin, who behaved and dressed in what one observer interpreted as a suspicious manner, ended up dead on the lawn of a small-town neighborhood. These are extremist attacks, extremist acts, extremist views, you might say, but the current political climate demonstrates all too well how fast extremes can become the middle ground. In this environment, where the gains of the last fifty years are cast into doubt and sometimes even scorn, the importance of programs that highlight, study, teach, and promote issues of gender, race, and difference becomes all the more clear.

I am so pleased to see everyone at this important event today. Thank you to the staff, students, and faculty of Women’s Studies for all that you do. Since the Institute was established 35 years ago, more than 10,000 students have completed Women’s Studies courses. These students – and thousands of others who experience a first-class liberal arts and sciences education – are equipped to enter the public discourse with tolerance and generosity: the wisdom, justice, and moderation that are the pillars of the UGA Arch. Thank you to Kathy and Andrew Coley for endowing this event in honor of their daughter. I cannot imagine a more powerful legacy for Andrea, than fostering those crucial values for our students, faculty, and community. And thank you in advance to my friend and colleague, Tricia Lootens, for the talk she is giving today. As a teacher, scholar, and citizen, she has had a tremendous and beneficial impact on her department, this institute, and the University. I look forward to her remarks. Thank you.