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 History of Critical Thinking Fundamentals of Critical Thinking Skills Needed to Think Critically Intellectual Standards 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 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

Example: “Two wrongs make a right” EXAMPLES OF FALLACIES Burden of Proof (a.k.a. Appeal to Ignorance) Example: “Two wrongs make a right”

FALLACIES Hasty generalization Post hoc reasoning (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

EXERCISE Bringing Intellectual Standards and Elements of Reasoning to Bear Upon a Problem

SUMMARY History of Critical Thinking Fundamentals of Critical Thinking Skills Needed to Think Critically Intellectual Standards 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