03-19-2010, 12:00 AM
Critical thinking involves determining the meaning and
significance of what is observed or expressed, or, concerning a given
inference or argument, determining whether there is adequate
justification to accept the conclusion as true. Hence, Fisher & Scriven define critical thinking as "Skilled, active,
interpretation and evaluation of observations, communications,
information, and argumentation."[1]
Moore & Parker define it more naturally as the careful, deliberate
determination of whether one should accept, reject, or suspend judgment
about a claim and the degree of confidence with which
one accepts or rejects it.[2]
Critical thinking gives due consideration to the evidence,
the context of judgment, the relevant criteria for making the
judgment well, the applicable methods or techniques for forming the
judgment, and the applicable theoretical constructs for understanding
the problem and the question at hand. Critical thinking employs not only
logic
but broad intellectual
criteria such as clarity, credibility,
accuracy, precision, relevance,
depth, breadth, significance and fairness.
In contemporary usage "critical" has the connotation of expressing
disapproval,[3]
which is not always true of critical thinking. A critical evaluation of
an argument, for example, might conclude that it is valid.
*****
HOW TO DO:
There is no simple way to develop the intellectual traits of a
critical thinker. One important way requires developing one's
intellectual empathy and intellectual humility. The first requires
extensive experience in entering and accurately constructing points of
view toward which one has negative feelings. The second requires
extensive experience in identifying the extent of one's own ignorance
in a wide variety of subjects (ignorance whose admission leads one to
say, "I thought I knew, but I merely believed"). One
becomes less biased and more broad-minded when one becomes more
intellectually empathic and intellectually humble, and that involves
time, deliberate practice and commitment. It involves considerable
personal and intellectual development.
To develop one's critical thinking traits, one should learn the art
of suspending judgment (for example, when reading a novel,
watching a movie, engaging in dialogical or dialectical
reasoning). Ways of doing this include adopting a perceptive rather than
judgmental orientation; that is, avoiding moving from perception to
judgment as one applies critical thinking to an issue.
One should become aware of one's own fallibility by:
accepting that everyone has subconscious
biases, and accordingly questioning any reflexive judgments;adopting an ego-sensitive and, indeed, intellectually humble
stance;recalling previous beliefs that one once held strongly but now
rejects;tendency towards group think; the amount your belief system is
formed by what those around you say instead of what you have personally
witnessed;realizing one still has numerous blind
spots, despite the foregoing.
An integration of insights from the critical thinking literature and
cognitive psychology literature is the "Method of Argument and Heuristic
Analysis." This technique illustrates the influences of heuristics and
biases on human decision making along with the influences of thinking
critically about reasons and claims.
******************************
It can be used as a stalking metode
significance of what is observed or expressed, or, concerning a given
inference or argument, determining whether there is adequate
justification to accept the conclusion as true. Hence, Fisher & Scriven define critical thinking as "Skilled, active,
interpretation and evaluation of observations, communications,
information, and argumentation."[1]
Moore & Parker define it more naturally as the careful, deliberate
determination of whether one should accept, reject, or suspend judgment
about a claim and the degree of confidence with which
one accepts or rejects it.[2]
Critical thinking gives due consideration to the evidence,
the context of judgment, the relevant criteria for making the
judgment well, the applicable methods or techniques for forming the
judgment, and the applicable theoretical constructs for understanding
the problem and the question at hand. Critical thinking employs not only
logic
but broad intellectual
criteria such as clarity, credibility,
accuracy, precision, relevance,
depth, breadth, significance and fairness.
In contemporary usage "critical" has the connotation of expressing
disapproval,[3]
which is not always true of critical thinking. A critical evaluation of
an argument, for example, might conclude that it is valid.
*****
HOW TO DO:
There is no simple way to develop the intellectual traits of a
critical thinker. One important way requires developing one's
intellectual empathy and intellectual humility. The first requires
extensive experience in entering and accurately constructing points of
view toward which one has negative feelings. The second requires
extensive experience in identifying the extent of one's own ignorance
in a wide variety of subjects (ignorance whose admission leads one to
say, "I thought I knew, but I merely believed"). One
becomes less biased and more broad-minded when one becomes more
intellectually empathic and intellectually humble, and that involves
time, deliberate practice and commitment. It involves considerable
personal and intellectual development.
To develop one's critical thinking traits, one should learn the art
of suspending judgment (for example, when reading a novel,
watching a movie, engaging in dialogical or dialectical
reasoning). Ways of doing this include adopting a perceptive rather than
judgmental orientation; that is, avoiding moving from perception to
judgment as one applies critical thinking to an issue.
One should become aware of one's own fallibility by:
accepting that everyone has subconscious
biases, and accordingly questioning any reflexive judgments;adopting an ego-sensitive and, indeed, intellectually humble
stance;recalling previous beliefs that one once held strongly but now
rejects;tendency towards group think; the amount your belief system is
formed by what those around you say instead of what you have personally
witnessed;realizing one still has numerous blind
spots, despite the foregoing.
An integration of insights from the critical thinking literature and
cognitive psychology literature is the "Method of Argument and Heuristic
Analysis." This technique illustrates the influences of heuristics and
biases on human decision making along with the influences of thinking
critically about reasons and claims.
******************************
It can be used as a stalking metode