1. John Dewey
How We Think

2. Dewey Steps of thinking Examples
Deciding to choose the subway over the elevated or an automobile in order to reach a certain destination at a certain time-->Everyday experience
Identifying the function of a pole on a boat as pointing the direction of the boat while rejecting other hypotheses
Hypotheses about the formation of soap bubbles-- >scientific training

3. Dewey
Simpler example
You come home and you find your house in a disorderly state

4. Dewey Five steps: A felt difficulty Its location and definition
Suggestion of possible solutions
Reasonings bearing upon the possible solutions
Further observations leading to acceptance or rejection

5. Dewey Steps 1 and 2 Perplexity or problem
Case 1: harmonize an end with the means for reaching it
Case 2: incompatibility of belief with facts
Find intermediate factors that bind incompatible traits
Case 3: reduce apparent anomalies to well-established laws
Find intermediate factors

6. Dewey
Steps 1 and 2
Begin with partial and confused data to a comprehensive solution
A diagnosis of the situation
Do not rush to a conclusion
The essence of critical thinking is suspended judgment
Suspension is inquiry to determine the nature of the problem before proceeding to attempts at its solution

7. Dewey Steps 1 and 2 Case of the disorderly room
More detailed and extensive observation
Case of the disorderly room
Inventory the facts
Look more broadly: Is only one room disorderly, or are several rooms disorderly?
Look more precisely: Is anything damaged?
Similar to a doctor performing some diagnostic tests

8. Dewey
Step 3
Suggestion-idea-going from something present to something absent
Speculation, leap, supposition, conjecture, guess, hypothesis, theory
Cultivation of a variety of alternative suggestions is an important factor in good thinking
Inference-the suggestion of an explanation or solution

9. Dewey
Systematic inference-recognition of definite relations of interdependence between items previously unorganized and disconnected
This recognition is brought about by the discovery and insertions of new facts and properties
Induction is discovery of a binding principle

10. Dewey Case of the disorderly room
Burglars
Mischievous children
Strong winds
Like a physician who comes to a diagnosis after conducting tests to collect observations

11. Dewey
Step 4
Reasoning-developing the implications of an idea on a problem
Links together extremes into a consistent whole
Develops the meaning of a given idea
Deductive reasoning is movement toward testing, confirming, refuting, modifying it on the basis of its ability to unify isolated details into a single experience

12. Dewey Case of the disorderly room
Draw out the implications of the various hypotheses
If burglars ransacked the room, then any valuable would be missing.
If children or the wind did it, then no valuables would be missing.
If it was the wind, then some windows must have been left open.
Once a physician has come to some diagnoses, then he draws out the implications of these diagnoses.

13. Dewey
“The trained mind is the one that best grasps the degree of observations, forming of ideas, reasoning, and experimental testing required in any special case, and that profits the most, in future thinking, by mistakes made in the past.”

14. Dewey
Step 5
Verification of one speculative idea and falsification of the other alternatives
Direct observations already present
Experiments-conditions are deliberately arranged in accord with the requirements of the idea to see if the results theoretically indicated in the idea actually occur

15. Dewey Case of the disorderly room
See if the consequences of the various hypotheses are confirmed or not.
Like the physician testing each diagnosis to determine which is most likely

16. Dewey Recognizing the existence of a problem
Collecting and investigating the facts
Synthesizing them into an idea or hypothesis
Drawing forth the consequences of this idea
Verifying that these results are actual