Life Skills: Critical Thinking

Introduction

Critical thinking is a way of deciding whether a claim is always true, sometimes true, partly true, or false. It can be traced in the West to ancient Greece with its Socratic method and in the East to ancient India with the Buddhist kalama sutta and abhidharma literature. Critical thinking is an important component of most professions. It is a part of formal education and is increasingly significant as students’ progress through university to graduate education.

            We all agree that we think all the time about all important and trivial methods. Critical thinking provides us the systematic approach to thinking process. Just like mathematics or language or science, critical thinking has necessary tools and a method for using those tools.

Critical thinking & its tools

There are two main activities we do all the time when we think which are:

1.      Gathering information or collecting data

2.      Drawing conclusion

We gather the information by using our five senses; information gathering is a constant process. We, as a Human being, keep on observing and collecting the data. The second activity we do when we think is drawing a conclusion based on the information we’ve collected. To gather the information we can ask the questions like, ““Who?” “What?” “Where?” “When?” and “How?” The facts need to be accurate, clear, and precise. Questions that get to the details of facts, with words like “exactly,” “how much,” “what time,” etc., help to clarify the facts.

Once we have the facts, the process of evaluation starts. Evaluating facts is not as easy as it sounds because evaluations involve not only facts, but also involve opinions and preferences. Tools for Evaluating the Facts include questions that explore the relevance and significance of the facts and questions that explore whether or not the facts are substantial, crucial, or applicable to the conclusion. 

Once we evaluate the facts, we need to draw the conclusions. A conclusion is a statement that sums up all of the information collected in order to make a point or a decision. Tools for Drawing a Conclusion use logic (a method that investigates arguments) to help the critical thinker avoid making errors by exploring validity, consistency, and logical flaws. 

Next step for us is to evaluate the conclusions. We need to ask the following types of questions: “Is my conclusion fair?” “Has my conclusion taken into account all the information available?” “Is my conclusion reasonable?” and “Is there more information that should be considered?” Tools for Evaluating a Conclusion include questions that explore the fairness, reasonableness, depth, and breadth of a conclusion.

Asking questions is the key for critical thinking. It is important that we ask questions not just of other people’s thinking, but that we also challenge, and ask questions of, our own thinking. Finally, one of the most important questions you can ask another person is, “Let me understand what you are saying. Are you saying…?” Then in different words, repeat what you think the other person is saying, or repeat what you think you are saying in a different way. To admit you may not understand what someone else is saying is a way to open up more critical thinking questions.

Summary

1.      Critical thinking tools are questions.

2.      There are four main types of critical thinking tools (questions): Getting the Facts, Evaluating the Facts, Drawing a Conclusion using Logic, and Evaluating a Conclusion.

3.      Tools for Getting the Facts include questions like “Who?” “What?” “Where?” “When?” and “How?”

4.      Tools for Evaluating the Facts include the following types of questions: “Is this fact relevant or significant?” “Is this fact substantial, crucial, and applicable?” and “Does it support the conclusion?”

5.      Tools for Drawing a Conclusion use logic to help the critical thinker to avoid making errors by asking: “Is this valid and consistent with other information?” and “Are there any logical flaws in this conclusion?”

6.      Tools for Evaluating a Conclusion include the following types of questions: “Is this fair and reasonable?” and “Does my conclusion have the necessary depth and breadth?”

Example:

Prove that “The Moon is made of Green cheese.”

1.      When was it discovered? –No one has discovered it.

2.      How was it discovered? –It has not been discovered.

3.      Who discovered it? - No one has discovered it.

4.      What evidence supports it? –No evidence supports it.

5.      What evidence does not support it? –Rock samples taken from the moon are not made of Green cheese.

6.      Is the explanation consistent with the data? –No

7.      Is the conclusion substantiated by observations? –No

8.      Is this a scientifically valid claim? –No

Critical thinking calls for the ability to:

·         Recognize problems, to find workable means for meeting those problems

·         Understand the importance of prioritization and order of precedence in problem solving

·         Gather and organize relevant information

·         Recognize unstated assumptions and values

·         Comprehend and use language with accuracy, clarity, and judgment

·         Interpret data, to appraise evidence and evaluate arguments

·   Recognize the existence (or non-existence) of logical relationships between propositions

·         Draw warranted conclusions and generalizations

·         Put to test the conclusions and generalizations at which one arrives

·         Reconstruct one's patterns of beliefs on the basis of wider experience

·         Render accurate judgments about specific things and qualities in everyday life

Definitions:

"A persistent effort to examine any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the evidence that supports it and the further conclusions to which it tends."

"the mental process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating information to reach an answer or conclusion"

"disciplined thinking that is clear, rational, open-minded, and informed by evidence"

"reasonable reflective thinking focused on deciding what to believe or do"

"purposeful, self-regulatory judgment which results in interpretation, analysis, evaluation, and inference, as well as explanation of the evidential, conceptual, methodological, criteriological, or contextual considerations upon which that judgment is based"

"includes a commitment to using reason in the formulation of our beliefs"