Critical Thinking
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- Date Submitted: 02/15/2015 05:44 PM
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The importance of critical thinking:
1. To react critically to an essay or evidence presented in a textbook, a periodical, or on a website.
2. To judge the quality of a lecture or speech
3. To form or respond to an argument
To think critically about something means to address the following 10 questions:
1. What are the issues and conclusions?
2. What are the reasons?
3. What words and phrases are ambiguous?
4. What are the value and descriptive assumptions?
5. Are there any fallacies in the reasoning?
6. How good is the evidence?
7. Are there rival causes?
8. Are the statistics deceptive?
9. What significant information is omitted?
10. What other reasonable conclusions are possible?
Remember, how you approach these questions will be, in large part, based on your values.
Values (defined): The unstated ideas that people see as worthwhile. They provide standards of conduct by which we measure the quality of human behavior.
Values (examples): Adventure, Ambition, Collective Responsibility, Individualism, Excellence, Courage, Harmony, Honesty, Justice, Rationality, Security, Tradition
More information about these 10 questions
1. What are the issues and conclusions?
a. An issue is a question or controversy responsible for the conversation or discussion. It is the stimulus for what is being said.
i. Descriptive issues are those that raise questions about the accuracy of descriptions about the past, present, and/or future.
ii. Prescriptive issues are those that raise questions about what we should do, or what is right or wrong (good or bad).
b. The conclusion is the message/idea that the speaker/author wants to you accept as “true.”
2. What are the reasons?
a. Reasons are explanations or rationales for why we should believe a particular conclusion.
b. Reasons + Conclusion = Argument
3. What words and phrases are ambiguous?
a. Ambiguity refers to the existence of multiple possible meanings for a word or phrase (eg. “justice”)
b. Think about...
1. To react critically to an essay or evidence presented in a textbook, a periodical, or on a website.
2. To judge the quality of a lecture or speech
3. To form or respond to an argument
To think critically about something means to address the following 10 questions:
1. What are the issues and conclusions?
2. What are the reasons?
3. What words and phrases are ambiguous?
4. What are the value and descriptive assumptions?
5. Are there any fallacies in the reasoning?
6. How good is the evidence?
7. Are there rival causes?
8. Are the statistics deceptive?
9. What significant information is omitted?
10. What other reasonable conclusions are possible?
Remember, how you approach these questions will be, in large part, based on your values.
Values (defined): The unstated ideas that people see as worthwhile. They provide standards of conduct by which we measure the quality of human behavior.
Values (examples): Adventure, Ambition, Collective Responsibility, Individualism, Excellence, Courage, Harmony, Honesty, Justice, Rationality, Security, Tradition
More information about these 10 questions
1. What are the issues and conclusions?
a. An issue is a question or controversy responsible for the conversation or discussion. It is the stimulus for what is being said.
i. Descriptive issues are those that raise questions about the accuracy of descriptions about the past, present, and/or future.
ii. Prescriptive issues are those that raise questions about what we should do, or what is right or wrong (good or bad).
b. The conclusion is the message/idea that the speaker/author wants to you accept as “true.”
2. What are the reasons?
a. Reasons are explanations or rationales for why we should believe a particular conclusion.
b. Reasons + Conclusion = Argument
3. What words and phrases are ambiguous?
a. Ambiguity refers to the existence of multiple possible meanings for a word or phrase (eg. “justice”)
b. Think about...