What is critical thinking?
These notes are based on three books:
Beyond Feelings: A Guide to Critical Thinking, by Vincent Ruggiero.
Critical Thinking, by Richard Paul.
Pumping Ions: Games and Exercises to flex Your Mind, by Tom Wujec.
Who are you? What is your "conceptual framework"?
You have been shaped, to a great extent, by your environment...
- your culture
- your society
- the fact that you are human
- the fact that you live now in history
From your home (your "tribe"), you probably got your
- national origin
- political views
- economic level
- attitudes toward others
If this is so, can YOU think? Or, do you only react as you have been taught?
(discussion here of Pavlov's dogs and B.F. Skinner--conditioning).
In other words, do you have free will?
Our society, particularly the educators, believ that you can rise above your
background and become an INDIVIDUAL.
This implies OBJECTIVITY (ie., to get beyond your own subjective viewpoint,
to go beyond your conditioning).
CRITICAL THINKING is the process of thinking as an individual, of thinking rationally.
More specifically, it is the process of thinking used commonly by educated
But you don't have to be educated to use it. You can learn critical thinking
as a separate skill.
However, education, when done well, results in people arriving at a way of
dealing with questions and issues that we call critical thinking.
Critical thinking usually involves the following:
- Knowing your own tendencies and weaknesses so that you can take
them into account.
- Asking appropriate questions (refusing to accept conclusions
without basis... this includes demanding appropriate evidence for statements
made by others)
- Carefully considering the validity and sufficiency of evidence.
- Evaluating the evidence. Is it reasonable? What are its
ramifications and consequences if true?
- Taking responsibility for your judgments.
Some examples of appropriate questions (Ruggiero):
Thought: "Professor Vile cheated me in my composition grade. He weighted some
themes more heavily than others.
- Appropriate thought: "Did he grade everyone on the same standard?
Were the different weightings justified?"
Thought: "Before women entered the work force, there were fewer divorces. That
shows that a woman's place is in the home."
- Appropriate thought: "How do you know that this factor, and not
some other (or several others), is responsible for the increase in divorces?"
"Critical thinking is distinguishable from other thinking because the
thinker is thinking with the awareness of the systematic nature of high
quality thought, and is continuously checking up on himself or herself,
striving to improve the quality of thinking...
"Critical thinking is based on two assumptions: first, that the quality of
our thinking affects the quality of our lives, and second, that everyone
can learn how to continually improve the quality of his or her thinking"
The following are characteristics of critical thinking (from Paul):
- "It is thinking which is responsive to and guided by INTELLECTUAL
STANDARDS, such as relevance, accuracy, precision, clarity, depth, and
- "It is thinking that deliberately supports the development of
INTELLECTUAL TRAITS in the thinker, such as intellectual humility,
intellectual integrity, intellectual perseverance, intellectual empathy,
and intellectual self-discipline..." (Paul)
- "It is thinking in which the thinker can identify
the ELEMENTS OF THOUGHT that are present in all thinking
about any problem... the critical thinker will routinely
ask himself or herself questions such as these:
- What is the purpose of my thinking?
- What precise question am I trying to answer?
- Within what point of view am I thinking?
- What information am I using?
- How am I interpreting that information?
- What concepts or ideas are central to my thinking?
- What conclusions am I coming to?
- What am I taking for granted, what assumptions am I making?
- If I accept the conclusions, what are the implications?
- What would the consequences be, if I put my thought into action?
- "It is thinking that is ROUTINELY SELF-ASSESSING,
SELF-EXAMINING, and SELF-IMPROVING.
"If students are not assessing their own thinking, they are not
thinking critically" (Paul, 21-22).
"..the critical thinker is aware of the full variety of ways
in which thinking can become distorted, misleading,
prejudiced, superficial, unfair, or otherwise defective.
The thinker strives for wholeness and integrity as
fundamental values" (Paul).
- "It is thinking that YIELDS A PREDICTABLE, WELL-REASONED
ANSWER because of the comprehensive and demanding
process that the thinker pursues... Good thinking
produces good results" (Paul).
- "It is thinking that is responsive to the social
and moral imperative to not only enthusiastically
argue from alternate and opposing points of view, but
also to SEEK AND IDENTIFY WEAKNESSES AND LIMITATIONS
IN ONE'S OWN POSITION. When one becomes aware that there
are many legitimate points of view, each of which--when
deeply thought through--yields some level of insight,
then one becomes keenly aware that one's own thinking,
however rich and insightful it may be, however carefully
constructed, will not capture everything worth knowing
and seeing" (Paul, 23).
What is truth?
Is there a truth?
Can we know THE truth? Can we know reality?
- We can be mistaken in what we perceive (eg., hearing vs. a dog whistle).
- Our information can be incorrect or incomplete.
- It's easy to be mistaken. What's true today is
often proven false tomorrow.
The Dragon Story...
In ancient China, in a small village, there once lived
an old man who had a dream... He had hear legends about
villages which had...
...the moral of the story is that Critical Thinking isn't
called "critical" for nothing. It can make your life
happier, more successful, more fulfilling... it can even
save your life.
Processes Mistaken for Knowing
Assuming is taking something for granted; holding an idea
or opinion without trying to verify it.
Guessing is answering questions or coming to conclusions based
on a hunch.
Speculating is making a guess based on partial evidence,
but not enough evidence.
Story: A woman meets a politician at a party. She says,
"I've heard a great deal about you." The politician,
without thinking, says, "Possibly, but you can't prove
Story: Turkey tales (see Pfeiffer)
An essential element in becoming a critical thinker is
a knowledge of the mistakes you can make. These are
technically known as FALLACIES. These are covered
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