“Twelve Angry Men” – A Critical thinkers Argument analysis.
The search for truth, does the end justify the means?
Introduction.
The play and subsequent movie “Twelve Angry Men” is an examination of the dynamics at play in a jury room in the 50’s in The United States. The action revolves around the opinions, perceptions, reason and logic of twelve diverse characters that are tasked with pronouncing the guilt or innocence of a young man accused of patricide. The extraordinary element is that their finding will determine his life or death. This play was made into a movie in 1957, produced by Henry Fonda who played the lead role and Reginald Rose who wrote the original screenplay. This essay will explore some of the elements of Critical thinking found within the context of this remarkable movie, and will show that rational reason and logic when used effectively can overcome the mostly ineffective rush to judgement that can be prevalent in a population. Those elements will include:
Argument Analysis
Most effective/least effective Critical thinker
Morality (persuasion, obedience)
Manipulation
Fallacies vs Sound reasoning
Within the movie, it can be seen that persuasive argument is employed by one single juror to help sway the majority to believe his analysis of the evidence presented, He sets on a course to reach out to each juror and improve their thinking by reasonable and justified persuasion,
Chaffee (2010) tells us that we can improve our thinking in an organised and systematic way by Carefully examining our thinking process and the thinking process of others
By focusing our attention on various thinking approaches and strategies, we can learn to think more effectively
Practicing our thinking abilities. To improve our thinking, we actually have to think for ourselves, to explore and make sense of thinking situations by using our thinking abilities. Although it is important to read about thinking and learn how other people think, there is no...