Concise Guide to Critical Thinking Chapter 2

Common impediments to critical thinking: Category 1—hindrances that arise because of how we think. Category 2—hindrances that occur because of what we think.

Self-interested Thinking Accepting a claim solely on the grounds that it advances, or coincides with, your interests. Self-interest alone simply cannot establish the truth of a claim. To base your beliefs on self-interest alone is to abandon critical thinking.

Overcoming self-interested thinking: Watch out when things get very personal. Beware of the urge to distort your thinking to save face. Avoid selective attention. Look for opposing evidence.

Believing without Good Reason Is it morally wrong to accept a belief without justification or evidence?

When examining a claim or making a choice, how can you overcome the excessive influence of your own needs? Watch out when things get very personal. Be alert to ways that critical thinking can be undermined. Ensure that nothing has been left out.

Bertrand Russell: “When there are rational grounds for an opinion, people are content to set them forth and wait for them to operate. In such cases, people do not hold their opinions with passion; they hold them calmly, and set forth their reasons quietly. The opinions that are held with passion are always those for which no good ground exists; indeed the passion is the measure of the holder’s lack of rational conviction.”

Group-Centered Thinking: We humans spend a great deal of time trying to conform to, or be part of, groups. We want to belong, we want the safety and comfort of numbers, we want the approval of our beloved tribe. Trouble appears when our conformism hampers—or obliterates—critical thinking.

Group-Centered Thinking Prejudice in its broadest sense is a judgment or opinion—whether positive or negative—based on insufficient reasons. Bias is another word for prejudice. Racism is a lack of respect for the value and rights of people of different races or geographical origins.

Group-Centered Thinking: Peer pressure—appeal to the masses (appeal to popularity), appeal to common practice, prejudice, bias, racism. Stereotyping—Classifying individuals into groups according to oversimplified or prejudiced attitudes or opinions.

Group Centered Thinking, Cont: Subjective relativism—The view that truth depends solely on what someone believes; truth is relative to persons. Social relativism—The view that truth is relative to societies. Problems with these views: They imply that persons and societies are infallible. They are self-defeating.

Philosophical skepticism: The view that we know much less than we think we know or nothing at all. One form of this view says that knowledge requires certainty. If knowledge requires certainty, we know very little. But we sometimes do seem to have knowledge—even though we do not have absolutely conclusive reasons.

Bad Habits of the Mind: The all-too-human tendency to resist evidence that flies in the face of our cherished beliefs. Confirmation bias—the tendency to seek out and use only confirming evidence. Availability error—relying on evidence not because it’s trustworthy but because it’s memorable or striking.