Asking the Right Questions
Chapter 1
UI100 62 & 78
Asking the Right Questions
 We
are constantly bombarded with
information
– What do you do with it?
– How do you process it?
Asking the Right Questions

If you hear
something on the
news or read
something in a
magazine, do you
– always believe it?
– think about it
skeptically?
– never believe
anything you hear
on the news?
Asking the Right Questions
 What
can help
us to make
sound
decisions?
–Critical
thinking
Asking the Right Questions
 Critical
Thinking:
– Consists of an awareness of a set of
interrelated critical questions, plus the
ability and willingness to ask and answer
them at appropriate times
Asking the Right Questions

Two different thinking styles
– Sponge Approach
 Most
commonly used thinking style
 Encourages “absorbing” as much
information as you are able
 Does not require strenuous mental effort
 Provides no method for deciding which
information to believe and which to reject
Asking the Right Questions
– Panning-for-Gold Approach
 Requires
you to ask frequent questions
 Reflect on the answers
 Requires active participation
 Requires a question-asking attitude
Asking the Right Questions
 Turn
to page 4 in your textbook
 We will read the gun-control
argument
Asking the Right Questions
 If
you apply the sponge approach,
what would you learn?
 If you apply the panning-for-gold
approach, what would you learn?
– What does author mean by
“overwhelming majority” or by “typical
murderer?”
– Were statistics provided accurate?
Asking the Right Questions
– What possible benefits of gun control
are not mentioned?
– Have important studies that disagree
with the author’s position been omitted?
– Is it legitimate to assume that because
some famous people own guns, then
owning guns is desirable?
– How many people are killed each year
by handguns who would not have been
killed were such guns not available?
Asking the Right Questions
 Meet
the Press video clip
Asking the Right Questions
 The
“Right Answer”
– With human behavior is there always a
right answer?
– Do you think that a right answer for me
may be a right answer for you?
– Why?
– Why not?
Asking the Right Questions
 Most
of you already have opinions
about personal and social issues.
– Abortion
– Gun control
– Welfare
 You
bring these initial opinions with
you to what you hear and read
Asking the Right Questions
 You
need to use your critical
thinking skills to
– defend or
– evaluate and revise your initial beliefs
Asking the Right Questions

Weak-sense critical thinking:
– When you approach critical thinking as a
method for defending your initial beliefs.
– You use weak-sense critical thinking if
you are unconcerned with moving toward
truth or virtue.
Asking the Right Questions

Strong-sense critical thinking:
– Requires us to apply the critical questions
to all claims, including our own.
– Does not force you to give up initial beliefs.
– Can provide a basis for strengthening those
beliefs.
Asking the Right Questions
 The
skills you will learn as a critical
thinking will greatly improve your
writing and speaking.
 Critical thinking will enhance your
understanding of other people’s
expectations.
 You must practice these skills!!
Asking the Right Questions
“Skill depends on practice, for it is
only with practice that one
becomes good at anything”
~Eleanor Roosevelt