Transcript How Do We Know What We Know?

How Do You Know What You Know?
Q1.
What % of the dots in this grid are black?
a. 25%
c. 50%
b. 33.33%
d. 100%
Q2.
Where is the red dot located?
a. in the front of the box
b. In the back of the box
Q3.
What do
you see?
Q4.
What do
you see?
Q5.
How many
cubes?
Q6.
What kind of animal?
Q7.
True or false?
A man walked on the moon.
What did you learn
from this exercise?
As Anaïs Nin said,
“We see
things not as
they are but
as we are.”
In other words…
Who you are and what
you have experienced
shape how you interpret
the world.
You should keep this in mind as
you go through this year learning to
think like a historian.
• You will need to ask questions of the evidence
you examine about where your sources came
from.
• You will need to realize that when you debate
with people, they aren’t necessarily wrong or
stupid because they don’t agree with you—they
just see things in a different way. You have to
challenge yourself to see what they see, not only
because it makes you more open-minded, but
also because it may help you defend your own
position more effectively.
So let’s go back to the original
question…
True or false?
A man walked on the moon.
Questions to Ponder:
• Why are there no stars in the sky?
(Surely stars could be seen if you were standing
on the moon…)
• Why is the flag waving?
(There’s no gravity on the moon…)
• Wait, wasn’t there a lot at stake in the landing
on the moon?
(Because it was the height of the Cold War, the
U.S. was under a lot of pressure…)
As historians, we always need to be
asking questions and evaluating sources.
Speaker
Who created the source and what are their
qualifications?
Occasion
When and where was the information generated?
What was going on at the time that might have
prompted the source’s creation?
Audience
Who read or looked at the source? Would the
speaker try to appeal to his audience?
Purpose
What was the purpose of the source? Was the author
trying to persuade his audience?
Subject
What is the source saying?
Tone
What is the source’s tone? Should it be read literally?