DR ISSAH MOHAMMED

ssh.mohammed@yahoo.com

055 500 2049 (WhatsApp)

0502417991
LOGIC AND CRITICAL
THANKING SKILLS
LOGIC AND CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS

INTRODUCTION
Human beings develop at two levels:
1. Firstly they develop as individual, and then
2. Secondary, they develop as members of a
society.
Human beings are said to have developed into
mature social individuals when they:
• begin to think about themselves.
• Become capable of understanding and evaluating
the world around them,
• When they are able to take decisions independently
and responsibly
Along our journey of becoming rational, social, and
moral agents, one thing that comes most handy is
critical thinking.
• The reason is that the ability to think clearly and
rationally is important for everyone.
• This is why critical thinking skills cannot be limited to
any specific area.
• Critical thinking is relevant to those in education,
especially research, and it is equivalent relevant for
people working in the field of finance, management,
legal profession and for people in politics.
• In a globalized world , the phenomenon of
information explosion requires one to be
intellectually flexible.
• Critical thinking skills bring in the flexibility, it
also brings in the desired creativity of the
mind that helps one to come out with new
solutions to age-old problems.
• Above all, an unreflective life is not worth
living.
• Any one who engages in self reflection is
already a critical thinker.
CRITICAL THINKING AND PHILOSOPHY
• Critical thinking makes one a good
philosopher.
• If you want to become a good philosopher,
you need to give up two senses:
1. The sense of obviousness and
2. The sense of absurdity (unreasonable, not
taken serious)
Critical thinker as a philosopher means
• A wise person
• A person adept with skills that will help
smoothly steer through the complexities that
this world and life present.
• An intellectual responsible adult
• A one who evaluates circumstances and takes
intelligent decisions.
• Decisions such as:
• Career, politics
• Finance,
• Studies
• Affection, etc.
 WHO IS A CRITICAL THINKER
• Any student who asks the general question,
“Why should we think critically?”
Or the more specific question,
“Why am I required to do a course on critical
thinking?”
That student is a critical thinker already.
• Whenever we ask for reasons behind something,
we are thinking critically.
• Doing so does not required us to be intelligent or
gifted.
1.Why should I vote for party A instead of party
B?
2. Why should I take Job A instead of job B?
3. Why should I not absent myself from school?
4. Why should I assess my students?
• Being skeptical is a virtue of the critical mind.
• The questions are justifications for either
doing or not doing something or for believing
or not believing something.
• But one does not just become a critical thinker
by merely questioning with a vengeance.
• Being reasonable is also a virtue of a matured
critical mind.
• A critical thinker must reflect a sense of
intellectual responsibility, which any adult
human being ought to have.
• Like any human actions, we may be held
responsible for our thoughts, and they are
also open to evaluation.
• Hence, we may be worthy of praise if our
thinking reflect intellectual responsible, and
worthy of blame if we are callous or wrong.
A critical thinker is a person:
• Who asks for justification or reasons
• Who is sceptical
• Who is intellectual responsible
Who is a good critical thinker?
• A person who is good at persuasion
• A person who is good at deciding whether a
mood of persuasion is good or not
Rational and irrational decisions
• Being rational involves the ability to judge
what would be the best course of action
and what would be the best explanation in any
circumstances.
• In making a rational or wise decision, we need
to exercise reason and should not be guided
by emotion.
• Being irrational involves not considering all
the evidence before a decision is made.
 MARKS OF A FAIR CRITICAL THINKER

Fair critical thinkers are those thinkers who

ensure objective judgments through being:
• self-aware of their own assumptions,
• prejudices,
• perspectives and
• bias.
Mark of a critical thinker: Is the ability to realise
that there may be different interpretations of
the same case, problem, issue or phenomenon.
Fair critical thinkers are not swayed by:
• selfish motives,
• emotional impulses or even
• self-deception
Fairness in evaluating cases:
• There is open-mindedness in a fair judgment
• There is a consideration of all possible and
reasonable inferences as well as all the
possible points of views
THE POINT VIEWS OF CRITICAL THINKERS
ON THE CRISES OF THE WORLD

• These crises are due to narrow, lop-sided or

simplistic views of the world that most of us have.
• Political stalemates result when people see things
in black and white and fail to see the nuisances
and subtleties.
• Difficulties in being fair and unbiased.
• Crises emerge when leaders fail to see the
different strands that make up a complex
situation.
• When people are unable to have a holistic
understanding of events .
• When self-discipline is lacking among thinkers
or decision making.