INTRODUCTION TO
CRITICAL THINKING
“There are multiple decisions which you
have to make entirely by yourself. You
can’t lean on anybody else. And a good
commander, once he issues an order,
must receive complete compliance. An
indecisive commander cannot achieve
instant compliance. Or one who is
unable to make up his own mind and
tries to lean on his subordinates will
never achieve instant compliance
either.”
General Curtis LeMay, from
Mission With Lemay
CLASS OVERVIEW
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History of Critical Thinking
Fundamentals of Critical Thinking
Skills Needed to Think Critically
Critical Thinking - Defined
Intellectual Standards and Elements of
Reasoning
• Common Fallacies
• Case Study (optional)
HISTORY
• The Beginning: Socrates
• Early Years: Plato, Aristotle
and other Greek philosophers
• Middle Ages: Francis Bacon
• Today: Albert Einstein, Mark Twain,
Harry Houdini and Carl Sagan
FUNDAMENTALS
• The Essence of Critical Thinking is:
- The ability to assess reasoning;
- The ability to take apart thoughts to
draw logical conclusions.
CRITICAL THINKING
DEFINED
A logical process that makes the
decision making of leaders more
manageable.
COMMUNICATIONS SKILLS
• Critical Listening:
Listening to
maximize the
accurate
understanding of
what others say
COMMUNICATIONS SKILLS
• Critical Reading:
An active,
intellectually
engaged process
of reading,
interpreting and
understanding text
COMMUNICATIONS SKILLS
• Critical Writing:
Arranging our
ideas in a logical
order to express
ourselves in a
disciplined
manner
IN THE END . . .
• Critical Thinking is:
The art of thinking
about your thinking
while you are
thinking in order to
make your thinking
better
INTELLECTUAL STANDARDS
1. Clarity - A gateway standard relevant to all
others
- A statement or question must be
clear to determine accuracy,
relevance, logicalness
INTELLECTUAL STANDARDS
2. Accuracy - A statement may be clear but
not accurate
-- Ask questions to determine
truth, source legitimacy
INTELLECTUAL STANDARDS
3. Precision - A statement may be clear
and accurate, but nor precise
-- Precision is achieved by
asking for more details or
specific explanations
INTELLECTUAL STANDARDS
4. Relevance - A statement may be clear,
accurate, precise, but not relevant to a
discussion or issue
-- Probe how the stated
position connects to the
question or bears on the issue
INTELLECTUAL STANDARDS
5. Depth - A statement can have clarity,
accuracy, precision, relevance –
but is superficial
-- Ask yourself how you are
addressing complexities of an
issue
-- Consider if you are addressing
the most significant factors
INTELLECTUAL STANDARDS
6. Breadth - A line of reasoning may be clear,
accurate, precise, relevant and
deep, but one-sided
-- Ask if there is another point of
view; another way to look at the
question; a differing perspective
INTELLECTUAL STANDARDS
7. Logicalness - A combination of thoughts
that is mutually supporting
and makes sense in
combination
-- Ask if your thoughts
make sense, or if, and
how, they follow from what
you said
INTELLECTUAL STANDARDS
8. Significance - Concentrating on the most
significant and important
information
-- Address: what is the most
significant information; how it is
important in context; and which
questions/ideas are most
significant/important
INTELLECTUAL STANDARDS
9. Fairness - Justifying thought by thinking fairly in
context
-- Many questions to consider:
What justifies your thinking?
Are you considering all evidence?
Is your purpose fair?
What is my “agenda?” Is it an obstacle?
ELEMENTS OF REASONING
1. Purpose - Reasoning has an end, or
objective
-- Ask yourself about clarity of
purpose, and how it’s stated
-- Is the purpose significant?
Achievable? Realistic? Justifiable?
ELEMENTS OF REASONING
2. Question at issue – Is it the right question
and are there other relevant
questions?
-- Probe what are the fundamental
issues, the precise question(s), its
complexity and why it’s so
-- Ask if there are other questions
needing to be explored
ELEMENTS OF REASONING
3. Point of View – a frame of reference
-- You should ask, from which point
of view do you start?
-- Are you “locked” to a view,
allowing no inclusion of other views
in your thinking?
-- Are there multiple views to
consider?
ELEMENTS OF REASONING
4. Information/Data - probing veracity,
significance
-- Ask if your data is accurate, clear,
fair
-- Ask what data is most important,
and if sources are reliable
-- Ask if you have avoided personal
bias
-- What are alternate, valid sources
of information?
ELEMENTS OF REASONING
5. Concepts, Theories and Ideas – these
contribute to depth of thought
-- Determine most fundamental
concept to consider
-- How does it connect to key
concepts in your life?
-- How might clarity of your
concepts be altered to change
your point of view?
ELEMENTS OF REASONING
6. Assumptions - reasoning starts with having
a certain assumption(s)
-- You should ask if your assumptions are
justifiable or should be questioned.
-- What are you taking for granted?
ELEMENTS OF REASONING
7.
Implications/Consequences understanding decision implications
-- Tracing logical
consequences in advance.
-- Considering most significant
implications of a decision.
-- Affecting whom, when,
where and how?
ELEMENTS OF REASONING
8. Inferences - reasoning proceeds by steps
-- Perceiving a situation, reviewing facts,
and coming to a conclusion, or
inference
-- Who makes the inference?
-- Is there more than one inference that
can be made?
-- Can you conclude your inference is
sound in your reasoning?
FALLACY
• What is a fallacy?
An argument that appears sound, at first
glance, but contains a flaw in reasoning
which makes it unsound
EXAMPLES OF FALLACIES
• Burden of Proof (a.k.a. Appeal to
Ignorance)
Example: “Two wrongs make a right”
FALLACIES
•Hasty generalization
(Example: A pair of shoes I bought wore out quickly; I
conclude that all shoes of this brand are shoddy.)
•Post hoc reasoning
(Example: I walk under a ladder and soon after I have
an accident; I conclude that walking under a ladder is
bad luck.)
FALLACIES
• Band Wagon (peer pressure)
• Guilt by Association
SUMMARY
•
•
•
•
•
History of Critical Thinking
Fundamentals of Critical Thinking
Skills Needed to Think Critically
Critical Thinking - Defined
Intellectual Standards and Elements of
Reasoning
• Common Fallacies
• Case Study (optional)
CONCLUSION
Critical Thinkers:
• Use elements of reasoning to take
apart thought and draw logical
conclusions
• They examine reasoning by applying
intellectual standards
• Intellectual standards help them
reach just, reasonable conclusions
Critical Thinking
Judge
Decide
Solve a problem
Whenever one must figure out what to believe or what to do, and do so in a
rational and insightful way