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Introduction to critical thinking
Geoff Pynn (Northern Illinois University) gets you started on the critical thinking journey. He tells you what critical thinking is, what an argument is, and what the difference between a deductive and an ampliative argument is.
5 tips to improve your critical thinking
Every day, a sea of decisions stretches before us, and it’s impossible to make a perfect choice every time. But there are many ways to improve our chances — and one particularly effective technique is critical thinking. Samantha Agoos describes a 5-step process that may help you with any number of problems.
There are nine core Intellectual Standards we use to assess thinking: Clarity, Accuracy, Precision, Relevance, Depth, Breadth, Logic, Significance, and Fairness.
Once we have thought about something, how do we know if our thinking is any good? How do we know if our thinking is any good? That is where the intellectual standards come in.
Elements of Thought (reasoning)
Elements of Thought (reasoning)
The "parts" or elements of thinking are as follows:
All reasoning has a purpose
All reasoning is an attempt to figure something out, to settle some question, to solve some problem
All reasoning is based on assumptions
All reasoning is done from some point of view
All reasoning is based on data, information and evidence
All reasoning is expressed through, and shaped by, concepts and ideas
All reasoning contains inferences or interpretations by which we draw conclusions and give meaning to data
All reasoning leads somewhere or has implications and consequences
Intellectual traits
Intellectual traits
Consistent application of the standards of thinking to the elements of thinking result in the development of intellectual traits of:
Intellectual Humility
Intellectual Courage
Intellectual Empathy
Intellectual Autonomy
Intellectual Integrity
Intellectual Perseverance
Confidence in Reason
Fair-mindedness
Paul, R. and Elder, L. (2010). The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking Concepts and Tools. Dillon Beach: Foundation for Critical Thinking Press
The School of Thought is a non-profit providing free educational resources on critical thinking, creative thinking, and philosophy.
They created a microsite that took the heady critical thinking subject of logical fallacies (which are flaws in reasoning often used by politicians and the media to fool people) and condensed each fallacy into a single, simple sentence that anyone could understand.
Podcasts:
Podcasts:
In the lecture, Professor Brown noted that while Critical Thinking is the cornerstone ‘21st century skill’, enshrined in the educational goals at every level of schooling and university, too often it is conceived of on the model of a technical skill, or as consisting in a set of “reason-recognising procedures” – procedures for identifying argumentative structures and assessing inferential connections – that have little bearing on the questions ‘What should I believe?’ or ‘How should I act?’
In her lecture she presented a more robust conception of Critical Thinking – one embodying a range of epistemic values and virtues of reasonableness, including the disposition to recognise and own the burden of proof when it is appropriate to do so and the importance of being accountable in one’s reasoning to others. She explained that one of the crucial things that have been learnt from the Critical Thinking Project is that these values, virtues and dispositions require a certain kind of educational environment in which to thrive, one focused on the development of student thinking. She discussed the nature and outcomes of the project and its successes, particularly in creating cultures of high expectation among disadvantaged students and in empowering them to exercise their voice and authority in the space of reasons.
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