WGU CLC1

Critical thinking is the art of thinking about thinking while thinking in order to make thinking better

• 1) It analyzes thinking
• 2) Evaluates thinking
• 3) Improves thinking

Best thinkers use their ability to think well in every dimension of their lives. Best thinkers make the study of thinking second nature. Critical thinking is the way you do everything you do

• Mode of thinking about any subject, content, or problem in which the thinker improves the quality of their thinking by
• skillfully analyzing, assessing and reconstructing it

Critical thinking is self directed, self disciplined, self monitored and self corrective thinking

• To analyze thinking
• Identify its purpose, question, information, conclusion(s), assumptions, implications, main concepts, and point of view

• To assess thinking
• Check it for clarity, accuracy, precision, relevance, depth, breadth, significance, logic and fairness

Critical thinking adds a second level of thinking to ordinary thinking

• First order thinking
• Is spontaneous and nonreflective. It contains insight, prejudice, truth and error, good and bad reasoning, indiscriminately combined

• Second order thinking
• Is first order thinking raised to a second level of conscious realization( analyzed, assessed and reconstructed)

• Part of the critical thinking process is becoming fair minded.
• To be fair minded is to strive to treat every viewpoint relevant to a situation in an unbiased , unprejudiced way.
• The opposite of fair-mindedness is to be intellectual unfairness – is to lack a sense of responsibility to represent accurately and fairly viewpoints with which one disagrees

• Weak sense thinkers or sophistic sense critical thinkers – recognizing the fault in others reasoning but not in your
• own.
• Sophistry is the art of winning arguments regardless of whether there are problems in the thinking being used.

• Strong sense critical thinkers
• consistent pursuit of the fair and just.
• Work to empathize with the viewpoints of others
• Willing to listen to the view points of others
• Change their views when faced with better reasoning than their own

• Intellectual automony
• Intellectual integrity
• Intellectual humility
• Intellectual sense of justice
• Intellectual perserverence
• Intellectual fair mindedness
• Intellectual confidence in reason
• Intellectual courage
• Intellectual empathy

• Strive to discover the extent of your arrogance
• The opposite is Intellectual Arrogance which is the natural tendency to think one knows more than one does know

• Develop the courage to challenge popular beliefs.
• The opposite is Intellectual cowardice which is fear of ideas that do not conform to one’s own

• Learning to enter opposing views empathically
• Its opposite is Intellectual Self Centeredness which is which is thinking centered on ones self

• Holding yourself to the same standards to which you hold others
• Its opposite is Intellectual hypocrisy which is a state of mind unconcerned with true honesty
• Also called being egocentric and hypocritical

• Refuse to give up easily; work your way through complexities and frustration
• Its opposite is Intellectual laziness which is a tendency to give up easily when faced with an intellectually challenging task

• Respecting evidence, reasoning, and value them as tools for discovering the truth
• Its opposite is Intellectual distrust of reason which is without confidence in reason people naturally will have confidence in the truth of their own beliefs. Also means, undisciplined thinkers feel threatened by good reasoning

• Valuing independence of thought
• Its opposite is intellectual conformity or intellectual dependence which means that large masses of people can become intellectually dependent on authorities
• Also means that there is a passive acceptance of the status qou.

• Stage 1 – The unreflective thinker - we are unaware of significant problems in our thinking)
• Stage 2 – The challenged thinking – we become aware of problems in our thinking
• Stage 3 – The beginning thinker – we try to improve but without regular practice
• Stage 4 – The practicing thinker – we recognize the necessity of regular practice
• Stage 5 – the advanced thinker – we advance in accordance with our practice
• Stage 6 – The master thinker – skilled and insightful thinking become second nature to us

• Everyone is born this way and most people are this way most of their lives
• Unreflective people come from all walks of life – from the poor to the rich to the professional sophisticated
• Unreflective thinkers are unaware of the role that thinking is playing in their lives

• Without knowledge of our ignorance , we cannot seek the knowledge we lack
• At this stage one becomes aware that normal thinkers often think poorly
• The challenged thinker will begin to notice the flaws in the way they think

• You begin to take thinking seriously
• This is the stage of developing will power
• Stage of dawning realizations
• Emerging conscious

• Dogmatic absolutism – believing that truth is acquired not through reasoning and inquiry but rather through some predetermined nonintellectual path
• Subjective relativism – believing that there are no intellectual standards by which to judge anything as true or false.

• Committing oneself to daily practice in thinking well and begin to design your own plan for practice
• Good theory, good practice and good feedback are essential
• Must develop a game plan for improvement

• Sociological – our minds are influenced by the social groups in which we belong
• Philosophical – our minds are influenced by our personal philosophy
• Ethical – influenced by the extent to which we behave in accordance with our obligations and the way we define our obligations
• Intellectual – influenced by the ideas we hold, by the manner in which we reason and deal with abstractions of abstract systems
• Anthropological – influenced by cultural practices, mores and taboos
• Ideological and political – influenced by the structure of power and its use by interest groups around us
• Economic – influenced by the economic conditions under which we live
• Historical – influenced by our history and by the way we tell our history
• Biological – influenced by our biology and neurology
• Theological – our minds are influenced by our religious beliefs and attitudes
• Psychological – our minds are influenced by our personality and personal psychology

• Use wasted time to develop and practice
• Handle one problem a day
• Internalize intellectual standards
• Keep an intellectual journal
• Practice intellectual strategies
• Reshape your character
• Deal with your ego

• Human egocentrism is one of these barriers to understanding
• -Our life is deeply situated in our own immediate desires, pains, thoughts and feelings
• -Seek immediate gratification or long term gratification based on essentially a selfish perspective
• -We seek to get what we want, avoid disapproval of others, and justify ourselves in our own mind
• -These all create inner chains that enslave us – they affect our relationships, success, growth and happiness.

• The three basic functions of the human mind
• 1)Thinking
• a. Creates meaning
• b. Making sense of the events of our lives, sorting events into named categories, finding patterns for us
• c. Continually tells us: That is what is going on. This is what is happening
• 2) Feeling
• a. Monitor or evaluate the meanings created by the thinking function – evaluating how positive and negative events of our life are, given the meaning we are ascribing to them
• b. It continually tells us: This is how you should feel about what is happening in your life
• 3)Wanting
• a. Allocates energy to action, in keeping with our definitions of what is desirable and possible
• b. Continually tells us: this is what this is worth getting

• 1) What is going on in our life
• 2) Feelings – positive or negative about those events
• 3) Things to pursue where to put our energy ( in light of 1 and 2)
• There is an intimate, dynamic interrelation between thinking, feeling and wanting

Whenever you are reasoning,you are trying to accomplish some purpose, within a point of view, using concepts or ideas. You are focused on some questions, issue, or problem, using information to come to conclusions, based on assumptions, all of which have implications.

Parts form an interrelationship

Our purpose affects the manner in which we ask questions

The manner in which we ask questions affects the information we gather

The information we gather affects the way we interpret it

The way we interpret information affects the way we conceptualize it

The way we conceptualize information affects the assumptions we make

The assumptions we make affect implications that follow from our thinking

The implications that follow from our thinking affect the way we see things – our point of view

Concepts

Concepts are the like air we breath, they are everywhere

Although they are essential to our life, we rarely notice them

• We approach virtually everything in our experience as something that can be decoded or given meaning by the power of our mind to create conceptualization and to
• make inferences on the basis of it hence to create further conceptualizations

You must become the master of your own conceptualizations.

• You must develop the ability to mentally remove this or that concept from things named by the concept and try alternative
• ideas.

The proper way to conceptualize things, events, situations, emotions, abstract ideas, you must first achieve a true command of the uses of words.

Need to be proficient in your language and the meaning of words

As critical thinkers we must continually distinguish the concepts and ideas implicit in our social conditioning from the concepts and ideas implicit in the natural language we speak

Critical thinkers learn how to strip off surface language and consider alternative ways to talk and think about things

Information

• One cannot reason without using some set offacts, data or experiences as a constituent part of ones thinking. Finding
• trustworthy sources of information and refining one’s own experience critically are important goals of critical thinkers

• The mind can take in information in three distinct ways:
• 1) by memorizing factoids or inert information ( which is not
• understood well enough to be used by the mind)

• 2) by mislearning or partially learning
• information, or accepting illogical beliefs ( which leads to activated ignorance)

• 3) by bringing significant ideas accurately into
• the mind( which then leads to activated
• knowledge).

By inert information we mean taking into the mind information that though memorized we do not understand – despite the fact we think we do

critical thinkers try to clear the mind of inert information by recognizing it as such and transforming it through analysis, into something meaningful

By activated ignorance we mean taking into the mind, and actively using information that is false, though we mistakenly think it to be true.

It is essential therefore that we question our beliefs, especially when acting upon them has significant potential implications for the harm, injury, or suffering of others

By activated knowledge we mean taking into the mind and actively using information that is true and also, when understood insightfully, leads us by implication to more and more knowledge

When we understand basic ideas, they become a form of activated knowledge

• inference and assumption
• Crucial relationship between two of the elements: inference and assumption.

Distinguishing inferences from assumptions is an important skill to learn in critical thinking

Step of the mind, an intellectual act by which one concludes that something is true in light of something else’s being true or seeming to be true

Inferences can be accurate or inaccurate, logical or illogical, justified or unjustified

An assumption is something we take for granted or presuppose. Usually it is something we learned previously and do not question. It is part of our system of beliefs. We assume our beliefs to be true and use them to interpret the world around us.

If your belief is a sound one, your assumption is sound. If your belief is not sound, your assumption is not sound.

Beliefs and hence assumptions can be unjustified or justified depending upon whether we do or do not have good reasons for them.

Humans naturally and regularly use our beliefs as assumptions and make inferences based on those assumptions

People automatically make inferences to gain a basis for understanding and action.

We make inferences as to clarity of what we are saying, what requires further explanation, what has to be exemplified or illustrated, and what does not.



Many inferences are justified and reasonable but some are not

Information ( situation) -> Assumption-> Inference ( conclusion)

Important to critical thinking is the art of bringing is subconscious in our thought to the level of conscious realization

We learn to distinguish the raw data of our experience from our interpretations of those data

As developing critical thinkers, we want to begin to notice the inferences we are making, the assumptions upon which we are basing those inferences, and the point of view about the world we are developing.

Implications

Among the most important skills of critical thinking is the ability to distinguish between what a statement or situation actually implies and what people may merely and wrongly infer from it

Critical thinkers try to monitor their thinking so they infer only that which is implied in a situation – no more and no less.

We reserve the word consequences for what actually happens in a given case. In short a consequence is what in fact occurs in some situation.

As thinkers we want to think through all of the implications, ( possible, probably and inevitable) of a potential decision before we make a decision and act on it.

As thinkers , we want to be aware of what precisely we are implying when we say things.

We also want to take into account the reasonability of what we are implying. If we do, we say that we mean what we mean and what we say – an important principle of integrity.

As developing thinkers, we want to realize the important role of implications in human life. When we are thinking through a problem, issue, or question, we want to think through all the significant implications of the decisions we might make

We want to infer only what is being implied in specific situations

When we use language we want to be aware of what we are implying

We want to figure out what others are logically implying.

• Points of view
• One of the most challenging elements to master is point of view

• Recognizing that our point of view has many potential sources:
• o A point in time
• o A culture
• o A religion
• o A gender
• o A profession
• o A discipline
• o A peer group
• o An economic interest
• o An emotional state
• o An age group

Our dominant point of view as individuals reflects some combinations of these dimensions

The best thinkers have a distinctive point of view concerning themselves. They see themselves as competent learners. They have a can do vision of their own learning. They do not see opposing points of view as a threat to their own beliefs. They see all beliefs as subject to change in the face of new evidence or better reasoning. They see themselves as lifelong learners

• Clarity
• Accuracy
• Precisions
• Relevance
• Depth
• Breadth
• Logic
• Significance
• Fairness

One of the fundamentals of critical thinking is the ability to assess one’s own reasoning. To be good at assessment requires that we consistently take apart our thinking and examine the parts with respect to standards of quality

When we asses our reasoning we want to know how well we are reasoning

We assess our reasoning using intellectual standards because we realize the negative consequences of failing to do so.

Thinking critically requires command of fundamental intellectual standards

Critical thinkers routinely ask questions that apply intellectual standards to thinking

• o Am I being clear?
• o Accurate?
• o Precise?
• o Relevant?
• o Am I thinking logically?
• o Am I dealing with a matter of significance?
• o Is my thinking justifiable in context?

Whenever we reason, we reason to some end, to achieve some objective or fulfill some need

As developing critical thinker, you should get in the habit of explicitly stating the purposes you are trying to accomplish.

You should strive to be clear about your purpose in every situation.

If you fail to stick to your purpose, you are unlikely to achieve it

Whenever you attempt to reason-through something, there is at least one question to answer—one question that emerges from the problem to be solved or issue to resolve.

An area of concern in assessing reasoning, therefore, revolves around the very question at issue

An important part of being able to think well is assessing your ability to formulate a problem in clear and relevant ways. It requires determining whether the question you are addressing is important, whether it is answerable, whether you understand the requirements for settling the question, for solving the problem.

Whenever we reason, we must reason within some point of view or frame of reference

Critical thinkers strive to adopt a point of view that is fair to others, even to opposing points of view

Good thinkers then, consider alternative points of view when they reason through an issue

Whenever we reason, there is some “stuff”, some phenomenon about which we are reasoning.

Reasoners should be assessed on their ability to give evidence that is gathered, and reported clearly , fairly and accurately

All reasoning uses some ideas or concepts and not others. These concepts include the theories, principles, axioms, and rules implicit in our reasoning.

Any defect in the concepts or ideas of this reasoning is a possible source of problems in our reasoning

Critical thinkers should begin to focus more deeply on the concepts you use

Assess the extent to which you are clear about those concepts whether relevant to the issue at hand, whether your principles are slanted inappropriately by your point of view

All reasoning must begin somewhere. It must take some things for granted.

Any defect in the assumptions or presuppositions with which reasoning begins is possible source of problems in the reasoning.

Assessing skills of reasoning involves assessing our ability to recognize and articulate assumptions, again according to relevant standards

Our assumptions may be clear or unclear, justifiable or unjustifiable, consistent or contradictory

Whenever we reason , implications follow from our reasoning

When we make decisions, consequences result from those decisions

As critical thinkers, we want to understand implications whenever and wherever they occur. We want to be able to trace logical consequences. We want to see where our actions are leading us to. We want to anticipate possible problems before they arise

• All reasoning proceeds by steps in which we reason as follows:
• o “Because this is so, that is also so ( or probably so)” or “Because this, therefore that”

The mind perceives a situation or set of facts and comes to a conclusion based on those facts. When taking this step of the mind , an inference results

Any defect in our ability to make a logical inference presents a possible problem in our reasoning.

Critical thinkers want to become adept at making sound inferences

As a student interested in developing your mind, you should ask questions that will improve your ability to spot important inferences wherever they occur.