INTRODUCTION TO CRITICAL THINKING BY DR MIKE KURIA DAYSTAR UNIVERSITY FOR THE CLASS GRA 613: INTRODUCTION TO GRADUATE STUDIES

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The difference between school teachers and philosophers is that school-teachers think they know a lot of stuff that they try force down our throats. Philosophers try to figure things out together with the pupils. Jostein Gaarder in Sophie’s World: A Novel about the History of Philosophy.(71)

INTRODUCTION Critical thinking is a desire to seek, patience to doubt, fondness to meditate, slowness to assert, readiness to consider, carefulness to dispose and set in order; and hatred for every kind of imposture. (Francis Bacon, 1605) It is not enough to have a good mind, rather the main thing is to apply it well (Rene Descartes in Discourse on Method)

DESCARTES’S RATIONALIST METHOD 1.Never accept anything as true unless it is recognized to be certainly and evidently such and unless it presents itself so clearly and distinctly that there can be no reason for doubting its truth; 2. Divide each complex problem into its component parts; 3.Proceed in an orderly fashion from what is known and proved to what is not known and not proved; 4.Allow for no omissions in the logical chain of reasoning.

EXERCISE In groups of 5 read each other’s papers What questions would you ask? –A disagreement with an idea? –An idea whose clarity is questionable? For each paper, raise at least two questions. Attach those to the paper.

KEY ELEMENTS TO CRITICAL THINKING To think as a human is to think for a purpose (our thinking never lacks some end, some motivation, some goal). In pursuing a purpose (using thought), questions are generated (for example, how can I best achieve this purpose?). To answer a question you need information that bears on it. To use information, you must make sense of it. To make sense of information, you must come to some conclusions, make some inferences. To make inferences, you must use concepts. To use concepts, you must make assumptions. To make assumptions leading to inferences generates implications and consequences. And, finally, to think purposively, using information, to come to conclusions is to think within a point of view.

CRITICAL THINKING: GROUP WORK Is the thinking clear? Is the thinking accurate? Is the thinking as precise as it needs to be? Is the thinking relevant to the issue? Is the thinking dealing with the complexities of this issue or problem? Is the thinking too narrow or one-sided? Is the thinking logical? Is the thinking focusing on what is most significant? WHAT ELSE DO YOU NOTICE: THINK! ARE YOU CONVINCED?