Ch 8 & 9 Critical Thinking

A Unique Kind of Purposeful Thinking

Critical Thinking
A creative mode of thinking An objective reasoning and judgment to determine merits and faults Thinking aimed at a well-founded judgment, using appropriate evaluative standards to determine true worth, merit, or value (3-D: Analytic, Evaluative, Creative) The art of thinking about thinking while thinking, in order to make thinking better. Analyze Evaluate Improve(Reconstruct)

Critical Thinking
A unique kind of purposeful thinking. A disciplined art of ensuring the best thinking, with a goal of figuring out a situation, solving a problem, answering a question, or resolving an issue. A systematic monitoring of thought with the end of improvement. An intellectual skill required for better reasoning in short and long-range goals.

Critical Thinking
Is not a normal mode of thinking. Adds a second level of thinking to ordinary thinking. Second-order thinking is first-order thinking raised to the level of conscious realization (analyzed, assessed, and reconstructed). First-order thinking is spontaneous and nonreflective. It contains insight, prejudice, truth and error, good and bad reasoning, indiscriminately combined.

Thinking Critically

. Examine your thinking and put it to test.

Take your thinking apart, to see it as something constructed out of parts. Identify weaknesses, while recognizing the strengths. Creatively reconstruct your thinking to make it better, overcoming the natural tendency of the mind to be rigid.

Critical Thinkers
Use theories to explain how the mind works Apply those theories to the way they live every day Have self-command of the principles of critical thinking; keep alive in the mind; and have continual engagement in everyday life

The Best Critical Thinker

Pay close attention to thinking by: Analyzing it Evaluating it Improving it

Test Yourself as a Critical Thinker

What does critical thinking mean to you? In other words (4-5 sentences): How can you apply critical thinking to your life and in business? Write down your thinking habit. Identify any discovery you made about your thinking. What did you learn about your thinking?

Critical thinking is:

Self-directed Self-disciplined Self-monitored Self-corrective

Standards
Become a critic of your thinking. Establish new habits of thought. Develop confidence in your ability to reason and figure things out. Apply intellectual standards to thinking. Focus on clarity, accuracy, precision, relevance, depth, breadth, logic, significance, and fairness (avoid sweeping statements that could lead to serious errors).

Universal Intellectual Standards

- Fundamental Intellectual Critical Thinking & Reasoning
Clarity A gateway to understanding the issue in question Accuracy - Represents actuality Precision - Exact meaning Relevance - Directly connected with and bears upon the issue at hand Depth Getting beneath the surface and identifying the complexities of an issue or problem Breadth Considering every relevant viewpoints

Logic - Orderly bringing a variety of thoughts together in a mutually supporting way that makes sense Significance - The most important info, idea, or concept relevant to the issue Fairness - Making sure your thinking is justified in context

Asking Questions that Lead to Good Thinking

Three Kinds of Questions (see Exh 6.1, p. 369) 1. Questions of Fact 2. Questions of Preference 3. Questions of Judgment

Socratic Thinking
An integrated and disciplined approach to thinking (See Exh 6.2. p.373) Probing, analytic, synthetic, creative, and connection-forming thought Construction of a logical system of understandings Leading to insight A natural way to develop and test your understanding of content A natural way to give life to content based on the universal features of thinking and the questions that knowledge of those features generates

Common Logical Fallacies

- Possible Weaknesses in Reasoning
Emotive language Emotion-laden language. False dilemma Either-or fallacy. Slippery slope If-then, or the next thing you know Circular reasoning Avoiding the issue Ad hominem Personal attack to the person Ad populum Playing to the peoples desires Common practice Bandwagon approach, everyone is doing it Red herring Distraction from the real issue using unrelated point

Logical Fallacies (Contd)

Straw man Exaggeration, distortion Generalizations All, everyone, always, never, none False analogy Comparing two different things Post hoc - False cause reasoning Non sequitur It does not follow or make sense