Critical Thinking Week 2 Readings - Notes

Videos QualiaSoup:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OLPL5p0fMg

Very Good quality

"refers to a diverse range of intellectual skills and activities, concerned with evaluating information, as well as our own thought, in a disciplined way. When we're willing and able to examine our own capability as thinkers, acknowledging problems and weaknesses, this can help us refine our thought processes, so that we learn to think and assess information in a more comprehensive way that increases our ability to identify and reject false ideas and ideologies. Critical thinking isn't just thinking a lot. A person may spend a great deal of intellectual energy defending a flawed position or pursuing a question that actually needs reformulating before progress can begin."

• analyzing
• conceptualizing
• defining
• examining
• inferring
• listening
• questioning
• reasoning
• synthesizing

From CriticalThinking.org:
Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action. In its exemplary form, it is based on universal intellectual values that transcend subject matter divisions: clarity, accuracy, precision, consistency, relevance, sound evidence, good reasons, depth, breadth, and fairness.

It entails the examination of those structures or elements of thought implicit in all reasoning: purpose, problem, or question-at-issue; assumptions; concepts; empirical grounding; reasoning leading to conclusions; implications and consequences; objections from alternative viewpoints; and frame of reference. Critical thinking — in being responsive to variable subject matter, issues, and purposes — is incorporated in a family of interwoven modes of thinking, among them: scientific thinking, mathematical thinking, historical thinking, anthropological thinking, economic thinking, moral thinking, and philosophical thinking.

Critical thinking can be seen as having two components: 1) a set of information and belief generating and processing skills, and 2) the habit, based on intellectual commitment, of using those skills to guide behavior. It is thus to be contrasted with: 1) the mere acquisition and retention of information alone, because it involves a particular way in which information is sought and treated; 2) the mere possession of a set of skills, because it involves the continual use of them; and 3) the mere use of those skills ("as an exercise") without acceptance of their results.

Critical thinking varies according to the motivation underlying it. When grounded in selfish motives, it is often manifested in the skillful manipulation of ideas in service of one’’s own, or one's groups’’, vested interest. As such it is typically intellectually flawed, however pragmatically successful it might be. When grounded in fairmindedness and intellectual integrity, it is typically of a higher order intellectually, though subject to the charge of "idealism" by those habituated to its selfish use.

Critical thinking of any kind is never universal in any individual; everyone is subject to episodes of undisciplined or irrational thought. Its quality is therefore typically a matter of degree and dependent on , among other things, the quality and depth of experience in a given domain of thinking or with respect to a particular class of questions. No one is a critical thinker through-and-through, but only to such-and-such a degree, with such-and-such insights and blind spots, subject to such-and-such tendencies towards self-delusion. For this reason, the development of critical thinking skills and dispositions is a life-long endeavor.

...

Critical thinking is, in short, self-directed, self-disciplined, self-monitored, and self-corrective thinking. It presupposes assent to rigorous standards of excellence and mindful command of their use. It entails effective communication and problem solving abilities and a commitment to overcome our native egocentrism and sociocentrism.

From Aaron Dewald:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRmhB3MW6GE
Not criticism or judgment -- critical is "a way of thinking", not a result.
Quotes Moore and Parker: "The careful application of reason in the determination of whether a claim is true."
Quotes Tittle: "Judicious reasoning about what is true, and therefore, what to do."

• Careful, intentional thinking ("judiciousness"). Purposeful, deliberate, thorough. Fully evaluate ALL parts of a claim. Take in complexity, breadth, depth. Goal is not only voting 'yes or no'.
• The use of reason or logic.
• Judgement about beliefs.
• Application to real-world problems

Bloom's Taxonomy:
Remembering --> Understanding --> Applying --> Analyzing --> Evaluating --> Creating

Ennis, as quoted on http://criticalthinking.net
A SUPER-STREAMLINED CONCEPTION OF CRITICAL THINKING
Developed (last revised 11/26/10) by Robert H. Ennis, rhennis@illinois.edu.

A critical thinker:
1. Is open-minded and mindful of alternatives
2. Desires to be, and is, well-informed
3. Judges well the credibility of sources
4. Identifies reasons, assumptions, and conclusions
5. Asks appropriate clarifying questions
6. Judges well the quality of an argument, including its reasons, assumptions, evidence, and their degree of support for the conclusion
7. Can well develop and defend a reasonable position regarding a belief or an action, doing justice to challenges
8. Formulates plausible hypotheses
9. Plans and conducts experiments well
10. Defines terms in a way appropriate for the context
11. Draws conclusions when warranted – but with caution
12. Integrates all of the above aspects of critical thinking
Although the word 'critical' is sometimes used in a negative sense, this conception of critical thinking is not negative. Also, it does not treat critical thought as persuasion, but critical thought will, we hope, often be persuasive. The future of democracy depends on it.

Kaylea's definition:
Critical thinking is the careful and skeptical application of reasoning to assess the validity of claims, evidence, and argument, in the service of some significant action, decision, or conclusion.