Critical Thinking: What and why?

What is Critical Thinking?

Critical thinking is what all thinking should be. The process of critical thinking is to sceptically assess an argument, checking that the conclusion and any implications along the way are justified. By definition, it is the method of making argumentation as correct as possible. Inwardly, it is spotting errors in your beliefs and arguments and correcting them. Outwardly, it is spotting flaws with what people say, not with the purpose degrading or insulting them, but in an effort to make the statement correct.

Why bother with it? 

The truth matters! Say we have a decision to make, about the welfare of people or a strategy to achieve something, there is a most effective solution. In order to find that solution, correct argumentation is required along with relevant evidence. Critical thinking is appraising the solutions, finding flaws in the logic, attempting to find that solution. In general, humans are very poor at this, we are not built for proper critical thinking. To add to this, we are also even more terrible at accepting where we are wrong. Critical thinking is quite possibly the most important process to learn. It is learning how to find the truth. For this reason, we shouldn't just grudgingly accept that we must study it. We have to wholeheartedly embrace it as a method, enjoying finding truth in the process. Our aim is make critical thinking a mind set, our default mode of thinking.

"The habits of mind that characterize a person strongly disposed toward critical thinking include a desire to follow reason and evidence wherever they may lead, a systematic approach to problem solving, inquisitiveness, even-handedness, and confidence in reasoning."

For further reading on critical thinking, see wikipedia. For a much better explanation of pretty much the whole of rationality, check out Less Wrong.

quote from The National Assessment of College Student Learning: Identification of the Skills to be Taught, Learned, and Assessed, NCES 94–286, US Dept of Education, Addison Greenwod (Ed), Sal Carrallo (PI).


This post is dedicated to Yasmin Slattery :D