Critical Thinking – What is it?

 When you hear the term ‘critical thinking,’

what does that mean to you?
 CRITICAL THINKING
Involving or exercising skilled judgment or observation

Wide range of cognitive skills and intellectual dispositions needed

to –

Make reasonable and intelligent decisions about what to

believe and what to do.
 INTELLIGENT DECISIONS

Critical Thinking
- What are the characteristics of a critical
thinker?
- What is an argument?
- Why is critical thinking important in the world
today?
 STANDARDS
1. Clarity
2. Accuracy
3. Precision
4. Relevance (Focus)
5. Consistency
6. Logical correctness
7. Completeness (Depth)
8. Fairness
 CLARITY
 Example: Miss Teen South Carolina
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww

Questions:
– Which of the standards of critical thinking does Miss
TSC not meet? Why?
– Can you think of other examples of people “not being
clear on the concept”?
 Relevance, Focus
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=qvzim5rCeFw&feature=fvw

 Is ex-Governor Palin’s answer to the

question relevant?
 Why or why not?
 CONSISTENCY
 Logical consistency: Not saying or believing two (or
more) things that could not simultaneously be true
– Example: P & ~P

 Practical consistency: Not saying one thing and doing

another
– Example: Calvin and Hobbs, P. 12

 Exercise: Generate examples of logical / practical

inconsistency: page 7, Exercise 1.1 II.
 LOGICAL CORRECTNESS
All mammals are dangerous.
Bobo is dangerous.
Therefore Bobo is a mammal.

I am a man.
Brad Pitt is a man.
Therefore, I am Brad Pitt.

All humans are animals.

Most animals can climb trees.
Therefore, most humans can climb trees.
 FAIRNESS
 Not identifying truth with self-interest

 Not resisting unfamiliar ideas, prejudging issues,

stereotyping outsiders
 BARRIERS

1. Egocentrism
2. Sociocentrism
3. Unwarranted assumptions and stereotypes
4. Relativistic thinking
5. Wishful thinking
 EGOCENTRISM
 Egocentrism: Seeing reality as centered on
oneself

 Self-interested thinking: Accepting and

defending beliefs that harmonize with one’s own
self-interest
– Example: “A rising tide raises all boats.”

 Self-serving bias: Overrating oneself

– Example: 90% of drivers rate themselves as above
average
 SOCIOCENTRISM
 Sociocentrism: Group-centered thinking

 Group bias: Seeing One’s own group, tribe,

sect, sex as better
– Example: “Girls are better than boys.”

 Conformism: Following the crowd, conforming

uncritically to group standards of conduct and
belief
– Example: The lines experiment: page 16.
 RELATIVISTIC THINKING
 Relativism: “There is no objective absolute standard of
truth.”

 Subjectivism: “Truth is a matter of individual opinion.”

Exercise: List areas where truth may be a matter of
opinion.

 Cultural relativism: “What is true for person A is what

person A’s culture of society believes is true.”
Examples: drinking wine in France/Iran; polygamy
 MORAL RELATIVISM
 Moral subjectivism: What is morally right and
good for an individual A is what A believes is
morally right and good.
– Example:
 Premarital sex –
– Premarital sex is always wrong.
– Premarital sex is not always wrong
 PROBLEMS
 Relativism makes it impossible to criticize others’ / our
own cultural practices, i.e., cannibalism / racism
 It rules out the idea of moral progress, i.e., meaning of
equality
 It can lead to conflicting moral duties:
– When an individual holds beliefs in conflict with
those of her society;
– When an individual belongs to two or more cultures.
Discussion: Are you bi-cultural in any sense (do you
belong to two or more groups that hold conflicting
beliefs on a topic)?
 UNWARRANTED
ASSUMPTIONS
 Assumption: Something we take for granted, something
we believe to be true without any proof or conclusive
evidence
 We have to make assumptions (the floor was there
yesterday when I got out of bed; it’ll be there today).
This only becomes pernicious when those assumptions
are unwarranted.
 Stereotypes are unwarranted assumptions.
Error: Hasty generalization – making a generalization
about a large class of people from a small sample
Discussion: Identify assumptions you’ve made since you
got up this morning. Were they warranted?
 WISHFUL THINKING
 Wishful thinking: believing something not
because you have good evidence for it, but
because you wish it were true.

 Examples: “The wind will pick up.” “He loves

me.” “I don’t have a 1-73 chance of dying in a
car accident.”

 Exercise: Generate examples of hindrances to

critical thinking.
 CHARACTERISTICS
of a Critical Thinker
 Passionate drive for clarity, precision, and
accuracy
 Careful, disciplined thinking
 Sensitivity to the ways that critical thinking can
be prejudiced by egocentrism, wishful thinking
and other psychological barriers
 Honesty and intellectual humility
 Open-mindedness, intellectual courage, love of
truth, intellectual perseverance
 Short ‘Think Piece”
Review the list of critical thinking traits, p. 25-26:
– Clarity, precision, accuracy
– Sensitivity to egocentrism, sociocentrism, wishful thinking
– Intellectual honesty
– Open-mindedness
– Fact-based beliefs
– Awareness of biases and preconceptions
– Independent thinking
– Intellectual courage to face ideas fairly
– Pursuit of truth
– Intellectual perseverance
 Short ‘Think Piece”
 Jot down short responses to the following
questions:
– Which of the traits listed do you think is your
strongest critical thinking trait? Why?
– Which is your weakest? Why?
– What could you do to improve in this latter
regard?