TFY Ch. 7 Summary - Evaluations

This chapter is about evaluations and how people come to them and what purpose they serve. The word evaluate comes from the Latin “ex”, from, and “valere”, to be strong, to be of value. So evaluate means to appraise the value of something. To determine it’s worth. People are evaluating all of the time, even when they don’t realize they are. A good example from the chapter was if a person grabs you and throws you down, your snap judgement would be that that person is trying to rob you. But a few seconds later you realize he just saved you from being hit by a car. Then of course you realize that person isn’t a hoodlum. This is an example of a premature evaluation and we do it all of the time. Something else to realize is that evaluations are not facts. They are another variety of an opinion. We must also realize that expectations and emotions affect our evaluations. Skilled evaluations are evaluations made by an expert in a field and they can be important and sought after. A doctor may give an evaluation on someone’s injury at a trial. A person may get an evaluation from an attorney regarding a legal matter. People must evaluate for themselves and not let someone else or something else do their thinking for them. That is what propaganda does. Propaganda is the manipulation of public opinion through use of images, slogans and symbols for the benefit of the propagator, which a lot of times is the individuals in power. To be an effective critical thinker, you must recognize propaganda when you see it and always think for yourself.