Inferences:Fertile Ground for Critical Thinking

October 5, 2009 was the first day for Justice Sototmayor in the U. S. Supreme Court. Two cases were argued that day before the Court. Justice Sotomayor was very assertive during the arguments.

Several commentators observed that Justice Stomayor asked more questions of the advocates on her first day than Justice Thomas has asked during his entire time on the Supreme Court.

Therefore, __________.

One thing about which we can be relatively certain, most humans will never allow such a fact to just sit.  We will make meaning from that fact. The event occurred, and the result is simply too juicy, too rife with possibility for us to simply observe that one Justice almost never says anything during Court proceedings, and the other will apparently say a lot.

Assumptions will go to work, and soon enough, an inference will appear. I know mine went to work immediately upon hearing the observations of the commentators.  I refuse to think: “indecipherable reality.” I want to place this event into a pattern of meaning, and I will.

Because we have this tendency to infer, and to not be all that careful at times about the quality of the inference, we can almost always upon encountering an inference, issue a CT alert.