Lecture 4 - Finding the Truth and Plagiarism

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Finding the Truth

Why is it reasonable to hold to one set of beliefs over another?

The only thing worth believing in is the truth.

So how does one go about picking a worldview or picking a religion?

Some clarifications:

1. The idea of faith versus reason

2. The ideal of having religious certainty

The standard view of faith and reason

Two common mistakes about faith:

1. People think faith is a religious word, and that it has nothing to do with
everyday life.
2. People think that faith has no relationship to knowledge, and that the two
are completely separated, and indeed hostile to one another
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How faith and knowledge always work together

Faith is even a requirement for knowledge

The myth of religious certainty.

Proper confidence versus absolute certainty.

Lecture 4 - Finding the Truth and Plagiarism
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Four things to look for in a worldview:

1. Consistency
2. Sufficiently Evidenced
3. Completeness
4. Liveability

1. Consistency

• Does what you believe in one area match up with what you believe in
another area?

2. Sufficiently Evidenced – your beliefs should ultimately touch with reality at some
point.

• The difference between sufficiency and necessity

3. Completeness – your worldview really should be a worldview.

• The problem of evil – only a problem for religious folk?

Finding the best explanation to all questions

4. The “liveability” of a worldview.

• Seeing a worldview from the inside, not the outside

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Plagiarism
Definition: Plagiarism is when the words, ideas, diagrams or data of another are
passed off as your own, without the original source being cited or referenced (from
“What is Plagiarism?” at
http://sydney.edu.au/student_affairs/plagiarism_whatis.shtml)

Why students plagiarise

• Don’t know what it is

• Time pressure from other assignments – plagiarising is quick and easy.
• Excellent answers can be found on the internet or in the library, answers that
are already written
• This class is so big, it will be easy to hide
• There is a low likelihood of being caught

The consequences

• You don’t grow up – you will never truly learn how to form your own opinion
– being able to read and respond intelligently is part of intellectually maturing
for the college student.
• Degrees are an earned qualification – not a borrowed qualification.
• If you do get caught, you will be punished severely.

The key to understanding plagiarism is that it is not limited to direct quotation.

Plagiarism involves any time when you quote, paraphrase, summarise another
person’s work, even down to the point of using words, phrases or sentences.
Crucially, you cannot simply list a “used” item in a bibliography at the end – you
must cite the resource within the paper
(http://www.lib.usm.edu/legacy/plag/whatisplag.php).

Types of Plagiarism (Go to

http://www.library.usyd.edu.au/elearning/learn/plagiarism/index.php to follow along)

The following points are taken from the University of Sydney presentation. Please
click through the presentation to find the relevant point.

If you want to use an exact quote from a book, journal article or even the Internet, you
must add quotation marks and the author’s details.
Lecture 4 - Finding the Truth and Plagiarism
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Paraphrasing means to present a thought or idea from something you have read but in
your own words. Importantly, paraphrasing means you need to reword the whole
paragraph, not one or two words

Additional info on top of the University of Sydney presentation

If you only change one or two words, then you are essentially quoting, and are not
demonstrating your ability to think about the ideas. The same point is true with
summaries – if your summary is simply a small selection of the words used by the
author, it is still copying.

Sometimes you don’t need to reference at all, if the information is deemed to be

common knowledge. A good test for whether certain knowledge is common is
whether it is such a well-established fact that you could find it in five or more sources.
Common sayings and proverbs and generally recognised historical dates, places and
events are all legitimate.

Additional information on top of the University of Sydney presentation

Borrowing from other people’s work (previous students, fellow students).

Paid someone else to write the essay for you;

Mentioned the source in the Bibliography but not referenced it properly in the text of
the assignment, so that the assessor cannot know which words are your own;

Can you demonstrate that you know what you are talking about?

When give your own conclusion, which might be a synthesis based on the ideas of
other, you do not have to acknowledge their influence again, having acknowledged
these readings in the body of your essay.

If in doubt, cite!