Tip 661: Claims and Corroboration

From the Critical Thinking Workshops: Claims and Corroboration

Court cases require several witnesses. 

Product trials require multiple tests.

Peer review requires separate examination by scholars.

Writer C. S. Lewis expanded on an earlier proverb: “Two heads are better than one . . . not because either is infallible, but because they’re unlikely to go wrong in the same direction.” 

Wow. Good.

For Example 

Sunday evening, October 30th, 1938. You’re listening to CBS Radio and the music of Ramon Raquello. News flashes interrupt the music with reports of mysterious explosions on Mars and of a meteorite landing in Grover’s Mill, New Jersey. From the meteorite emerge Martians with a deadly heat ray. 

Whoa.

You have two choices:

You can continue to listen to the report of the invasion, or you can change the station and hear no reports of an invasion.

Wait a minute. 

Why aren’t the other stations reporting on the Martians and the heat ray? 

Because the invading Martians and the heat ray are fiction. An entertainment. A radio play broadcast by The Mercury Theater on the Air.

But some (actual numbers are disputed) remain fixed to CBS and believe the world is under siege. Had they checked other sources . . . .

Use the internet. Use the library. Do the research. Don’t be satisfied with a single report. Look for corroboration—or contradiction. Then, with this greater evidence, weigh the strength of the claim.

We love this stuff. This is fun.