What Is Critical Thinking?, Summaries of Reasoning

Download What Is Critical Thinking? and more Summaries Reasoning in PDF only on Docsity! Chapter 1 What Is Critical Thinking? 1 Often, a good way to begin the process of thinking critically about a subject is to do some conscious thinking about it before you do any reading or hear any presentations in the subject. Thus, if you are going to study biology or sociology or writing, a good way to begin is by writing down some of the main ideas you already have about biology or sociology or writing itself before you do any reading or listen to lectures.This allows you to be an active listener rather than a passive recipient of information. It helps you to become aware of your assumptions about the subject so that you can assess them more accurately in light of what you will later read and hear. Some Definitions of Critical Thinking Here are three definitions of critical thinking by leading researchers. First, Robert Ennis’s classic definition:1 Critical thinking is reasonable, reflective thinking that is focused on decid- ing what to believe or do. M01_NOSI2422_03_SE_C01.QXD 11/29/07 11:45 AM Page 1 2 CHAPTER 1 Even before you start reading this text, begin by examining your own con- cept of critical thinking. Before you start reading this text, respond to the following in a paragraph or two: 1. What is your concept of critical thinking? You can respond to question (1) by giving a description. An alternative way to address it, though, is to use examples. 2. Describe a situation in which you thought through something critically. 3. Describe a situation in which you did not think through something critically. Then write a paragraph describing how, in your best judgment, critical thinking is necessary within the subject matter you are studying. Next, Matthew Lipman’s definition:2 Critical thinking is skillful, responsible thinking that is conducive to good judg- ment because it is sensitive to context, relies on criteria, and is self-correcting. Finally, in informal presentations, Richard Paul uses this definition: Critical thinking is thinking about your thinking, while you’re thinking, in order to make your thinking better. Each of these is an excellent def- inition of critical thinking. It pays to read them several times and to stop and reflect on every aspect of each definition. Why did the expert include this word rather than another? Just what are the experts trying to capture with the words they have chosen? What overlap is there in the definitions, and what main differences of emphasis are there? It may seem hard to believe, but each of these definitions, brief as Revise your concept of criti- cal thinking over the course of the semester. Reformulate it (maybe scrapping it entirely and starting over) so that it accords with your deepening grasp of what critical thinking is. M01_NOSI2422_03_SE_C01.QXD 11/29/07 11:45 AM Page 2 WHAT IS CRITICAL THINKING? 5 Compare critical thinking to driving a car. There are rules for good driving (e.g., merge when entering an interstate), but merely following the rules won’t make you a good driver. To be a good driver you have to follow the rules mindfully. What does that mean? It means, for exam- ple, following the rules while being aware that the purpose of merging is to allow traffic to flow more smoothly and reduce collisions between fast- and slow-moving cars, that weather and traffic conditions affect how you should merge, and so on. Notice that this is an open-ended list of what a mindful driver is aware of while merging. We often long for surefire, step-by-step procedures, and the more personally important or threatening a situation is, the more we want foolproof rules. But there are no rules that guarantee our thinking will be correct—and that is especially true in very important or threatening situations. There are no rules to tell us if our reasoning is correct, precisely because we must use our reasoning to evaluate rules, rather than vice versa. The only way we can decide whether to follow certain rules is if we use our best reasoning to determine that those rules are reasonable, that they lead to reasonable results when followed. Critical thinking is “self-correcting” at least partly because it is the court of last resort. There is no level of greater certainty beneath it that we can use to evaluate our reasoning. Three Parts of Critical Thinking Full-fledged critical thinking involves three parts. First, critical thinking involves asking questions. It involves asking questions that need to be asked, asking good questions, questions that go to the heart of the matter. Critical thinking involves noticing that there are questions that need to be addressed. Second, critical thinking involves trying to answer those questions by reasoning them out. Reasoning out answers to ques- tions is different from other ways of answering questions. It is different from giving an answer we have always taken for granted but never thought about. It is different from answering impressionisti- cally (“That reminds me of . . .”), or answering simply according to the way we were raised, or answering in accordance with our per- sonality. It is also different from answering by saying the first thing that comes into our mind, and then using all our power of reasoning to defend that answer. Third, critical thinking involves believing the results of our reasoning. Critical thinking is different from just engaging in a men- tal exercise. When we think through an issue critically, we internalize the results. We don’t give merely verbal agreement: we actually believe the results because we have done our best to reason the issue out and M01_NOSI2422_03_SE_C01.QXD 11/29/07 11:45 AM Page 5 6 CHAPTER 1 we know that reasoning things out is the best way to get reliable answers. Furthermore, when we think critically through a decision about what to do in a situation, then what follows the reasoning is not just belief, but action: Unless something unforeseen occurs, we end up taking the action we concluded was most reasonable. Asking the Questions Critical thinking begins with asking questions. If a teacher assigns a homework problem to solve, a good question to ask is “How can I best solve this problem?” Often, though, students, don’t ask this question at all. Instead, they just jump in and try to solve the problem by any method that springs to mind. Thinking critically about solving a problem, in contrast, begins with asking questions about the prob- lem and about ways to address it: ■ What are some alternative ways of solving the problem assigned? ■ What is a good way to begin? ■ Do I have all the information I need to start solving the problem? ■ What is the purpose behind the problem? ■ Can the problem be solved? Does it even make sense? All of these questions are rele- vant when a problem is assigned. But when teachers assign problems, they have already done a funda- mental part of the questioning. Posing a problem is asking a ques- tion. So, a major part of learning how to think critically is learning to ask the questions—to pose the problems—yourself. That means noticing that there are questions that need to be addressed: recogniz- ing that there are problems. Often, this is the hardest part of critical thinking. This is true not just in school, but in daily life as well. People often do not ask themselves, “How can I best get along with my parents (my partner, my co-workers, my friends) in this situation?” Instead, they con- tinue relating to them in habitual and unexamined ways. If your goal CRITICAL WRITING Write down three questions you have about critical think- ing. Then, write down three questions you have about how you will be using critical thinking in this course. Of the six questions you wrote, pick out the one you think is the best. (If no real questions came up for you, even after pushing, what conclusions do you draw from that?) M01_NOSI2422_03_SE_C01.QXD 11/29/07 11:45 AM Page 6 WHAT IS CRITICAL THINKING? 7 is to improve some aspect of your daily life, begin by asking yourself some questions: What are some con- crete things I can do to improve my job performance? to make better grades? to meet new people? to read more effectively? to make the subject matter of this course mean- ingful in my life? To be effective, you need to really ask these questions. It’s not enough just to say the words. In fact, when you look at the ques- tions just posed, they can seem empty. But that’s not because they are empty. Whether a question is empty or not depends a great deal on the spirit in which you ask it. If you ask it in an empty way, just going through the motions, then it’s not a genuine question at all, not for you, and it will not be the beginning of thinking critically through that question. Here are some questions that teachers list as ones that students do not ask, but should be asking, in their courses: ■ How does what I learn in this course relate to my own experience? ■ How can I use what I learn here in my own life? ■ Can I think up my own examples? ■ How does this subject matter relate to other courses I am taking? ■ What is the evidence behind this? ■ How do the topics in this course fit together? ■ What is the purpose of the course? ■ Why? Finally, people often ask what makes something a good question. Though many approaches to this will emerge during the course of this book, in the end a good question is one you really want to know the answer to. (How to approach and answer critical-thinking ques- tions is addressed in more detail in Chapter 5.) Identify some situations in your life that are problematic, ones that are not going as well as you think they should. Write them as questions. Be specific in how you describe them. Don’t just say “How can I get along with my friends?” Focus it: “How can I best deal with Arthur when I feel him pressuring me to do X and I really don’t think I should be doing X?”. Write a list of some fur- ther questions you should be asking about those situations. M01_NOSI2422_03_SE_C01.QXD 11/29/07 11:45 AM Page 7 10 CHAPTER 1 matter. In a reasoned discussion, however, listening is as important as speaking. Participants try to understand the reasons behind other people’s beliefs, and they try to identify both the strong and weak points of the views expressed. The whole spirit is different. So, “reasoning things out” really means reasoning them out well. What does it mean, then, to reason through something well? Reasoning itself is drawing conclusions on the basis of reasons. Good reasoning, therefore, is drawing conclusions on the basis of rea- sons and giving due weight to all relevant factors. Relevant factors include the implications of drawing those conclusions, the assumptions on which the reasoning is based, the accuracy of the reasons used, the alternatives available, and a number of other elements (Chapter 2) and standards (Chapter 4). Although it’s not difficult to define good reasoning in an open- ended way, the challenge is to spell it out in a way that is usable by you, one that lays a foundation so your ability to reason well can improve and deepen during the rest of your life. A good deal of the rest of this book is devoted to that. Believing the Results Critical thinking, in the fullest sense, results in belief. It even results in action. Here is an example. A teacher lowers my course grade because I missed too many classes, and I feel unfairly treated. So I raise the question: “Was my teacher being fair in giving me this grade?” Next, I reason my way to an answer: I collect information (maybe I ask the teacher about it; I check what the syllabus said about missed classes; maybe I check to see if other students were treated the same way); I consider the teacher’s point of view on the issue and her pur- pose in lowering my grade because of absences. After reasoning it through—reasoning it through well, I believe—suppose I come to the conclusion that my teacher was fair in what she did. The next step seems so obvious as not to need stating: I believe the results of my rea- soning; I believe that my teacher’s actions were in fact fair. However, taking this last step isn’t always easy. Even after reason- ing it out, I may still have feelings of being unfairly treated, and I may still suspect that I was treated unfairly. What is going on in this example is an indication that I have not thought through the issue critically, at least not in a complete enough way. Maybe there are other questions I should be raising (“Could my feelings of being treated unfairly arise from other circumstances in my life?” “What concept of fairness am I using in my thinking?”). Maybe there are alternative explanations to consider; maybe I am making some unstated assumptions that are influencing my feelings. Or else, maybe I should just believe the results: the teacher was being fair and my original estimate of unfairness was really off the mark (and I need M01_NOSI2422_03_SE_C01.QXD 11/29/07 11:45 AM Page 10 WHAT IS CRITICAL THINKING? 11 to remember that feelings of being unfairly treated, even if they are unjustified, often take time to go away). Believing the results is a rough test or measure of the completeness of your critical thinking. If you have reasoned something out and come to a conclusion but find you still don’t really believe it, that indicates the reasoning is probably not complete. Important factors probably are missing—factors that lead you to resist internalizing the results. It is more controversial to link critical thinking to action. Suppose, for example, I continue to smoke or to eat too many saturated fats despite the fact that I’ve done a lot of reasoning about the importance of giving them up. Is that a flaw in my critical thinking? If I can state all the compelling reasons but still do not act on my reasoning, how good is my critical thinking? Experts disagree on the answer. The suggestion here is that there is some flaw in the critical think- ing. The flaw can lie in how I think about my own body, or about my life, or about the relation between abstract statistics and my chances of survival. I might have an overriding background belief that those statistics don’t apply to me, or that even though it’s important for me to give up smoking, it’s not important that I do it now. Sometimes you can even get the impression that certain people don’t believe they will ever die. There is a subtle relation between denial and lack of critical thinking, one that has not yet been fully explored. It is difficult to identify examples of not believing the results of our own reasoning. That’s because, paradoxical as it may sound, it’s hard to become aware of what we actually believe and don’t believe. There are four indicators of when we are not believing the results of our reason- ing (but only the last one is even moderately easy to spot in ourselves): 1. I reason something out, but strong emotions arise within me against the result. 2. I find myself believing contradictory things. 3. I believe something very strongly, but I find I am unable to come up with any good reasons for the belief. In fact, I don’t think I even need reasons. Thinking the opposite seems ridiculous. 4. I reason something out, but my actions do not follow my reasoning. The following are examples of the first three indicators (but they may not be convincing to you, especially if you share the beliefs in question): 1. ■ Michael reasons out the issue of capital punishment as a deterrent. He gathers information and concludes that it does not significantly deter murder or other violent crimes. But after his investigation, he feels angry. He says, “Maybe that’s true, but I’m still in favor of capital punishment because you have to do something to stop criminals.” M01_NOSI2422_03_SE_C01.QXD 11/29/07 11:45 AM Page 11 12 CHAPTER 1 ■ Maria, taking a course in gender studies, reasons her way through the argument that there is no nonsexist reason why a woman should adopt her husband’s name at marriage. Like Michael, Maria discovers that the more she follows the argu- ment, the angrier she gets. 2. ■ Pete believes that all cultures and all cultural practices are equally valid. He believes people do not have a right to say that a particular culture’s practices are wrong. But he also believes that it’s part of our Western culture to impose our ideas on others, and that it’s wrong for us to do that. ■ Most of us believe that everyone should be treated equally, but that does not prevent us from thinking we deserve special breaks. 3. ■ Some people think that eating dogs, cats, or seagulls is revolt- ing, but that eating cows or chickens is quite reasonable. They believe this despite the fact that all their reasoning shows the cases are identical. They find themselves trying to make up reasons that they know don’t work (such as, “Dogs and cats are pets! That’s why it is wrong to eat them”). ■ In critical-thinking presentations, Vincent Ruggiero asks, “Why not turn cemeteries into parks where children can play?” (Can you give a good reason against it?) “We’re running out of room: why not bury people in the median strips of highways?” When you’ve thought through something critically and come to the conclusion that seems most reasonable to you, it should follow (a) that you believe it, and (b) that you start acting in accordance with that belief. An appropriate exercise would be to ask you to identify situations where you do not believe the results of your reasoning, where each of the four causes applies to you. But that is extremely difficult. Can you identify any examples where indicators (1), (2), and (3) apply to you? If you can find even one, that’s a major insight into yourself. (It sometimes helps to begin with other people, and then apply the results to yourself.) With indicator (4), however, it should be easy to identify some examples of actions you continue to engage in even though your best reasoned think- ing tells you that you should not. M01_NOSI2422_03_SE_C01.QXD 11/29/07 11:45 AM Page 12 WHAT IS CRITICAL THINKING? 15 is to be devoid of emotions or, if emotions arise, to put them aside, don’t let them influence your conclusions. The image in this myth is of someone coldly rational, someone who puts aside his or her feel- ings in order to be “logical.” This is one of the most misleading myths there is, and it is all the more damaging because there is a grain of truth in it. Some emotions do indeed get in the way of critical thinking: rage and panic, for example. It is extremely difficult for people to think clearly about a decision when they are enraged. Often, the only reasonable thing they can do in such circumstances is to put off action until the rage subsides, maybe helping it to subside by exercising, or by deep breathing, or by not letting the same enraging thoughts keep repeat- ing in their head. So, some emotions can interfere with critical thinking. But cer- tain other emotion-laden states help with critical thinking: the love of truth is an example. So are the joy of discovery, anger at biased presentations of information, and fear of making an unrea- sonable decision when something very important hangs in the balance. Consider as an example something that intrinsically involves a lot of emotion: love. Suppose you are the mother of a child. What will help you in being a good mother? A good mother is one who acts in accord with high standards of critical thinking: she has the best interests of her child at heart; she does not neglect her own inter- ests, but she nurtures and makes wise decisions in the best interests of her child, weighs relevant alternative courses of action, and under- stands the child’s strengths and weaknesses, the child’s growing need for both autonomy and safety; she is creative about finding ways to help her child develop in a healthy way. Now, what is the role of love in this? It should be clear that love—far from being an impediment to clear thinking—is essential to being a good critically thinking mother. Love is a large part of what motivates the thinking, grounds it, helps her to assess choices that confront her as a parent. The emo- tions that go along with love are not in any way opposed to the thinking required to be a good parent. The same can be said about romantic love. Sometimes it may seem that being in love is opposed to critical thinking, but often this stems from a superficial concept of love. For example, people who are in love often engage in wishful thinking. Suppose Ashley is in love with Lou and Lou is an alcoholic. A common scenario is that Ashley keeps thinking that Lou will be cured any day now, even though it may be clear to others that Lou is not on the road to recovery. But thinking, against all the evidence, that Lou’s cure is just around the corner is not an example of love interfering with critical thinking. It’s deeper than that. M01_NOSI2422_03_SE_C01.QXD 11/29/07 11:45 AM Page 15 16 CHAPTER 1 To sort through this example requires thinking through the con- cept of love in a deeper way and distinguishing it from neediness and from a desire to mold the person according to an image. Part of lov- ing someone, romantically or not, is seeing what that person is actually like, respecting his or her boundaries. To love someone, rather than just to love an image of that person, is to accept the per- son as he or she is. Loving the person is exactly what can help you see clearly who that person is and your relationship to him or her. Emotions Give Us Data There is another area in which emotions are essential to critical thinking. Emotions often give us data, and much of the time it’s fool- hardy to ignore that data. For example, if two people are in love, it is unreasonable for them to ignore that fact when they make important decisions about, say, whether to go to schools that are far apart. Being in love is directly relevant to that decision. Ignoring important data is not thinking critically. (For the same reason, it would also be unrea- sonable to base the decision only on the fact that they are in love. Other facts are relevant as well.) In a more general way, though, we receive important data from our emotions all the time. Suppose that while walking through a Describe some situations where, in your best judgment, your emotions led you astray in your reasoning. Describe some situations where, in your best judgment, your emotions made a positive contribution to your reasoning. Try to discover patterns in your emotional reactions, so you can assess when your emotions tend to be accurate responses to reality and when they tend not to be. For example, think about the people you have been in love with in the past. Have they generally been caring, respectful people who, on the whole, treated you well? If so, that’s a pretty good reason to rely on your feelings of love as an indicator of who is good for you: you’re pretty good at picking good people. But if they were abusive or manipulative, that’s a good reason not to let your feelings of being in love with someone guide you too strongly in your future choices. M01_NOSI2422_03_SE_C01.QXD 11/29/07 11:45 AM Page 16 WHAT IS CRITICAL THINKING? 17 neighborhood at dusk, you become afraid that you are in danger. Sometimes people have a narrow view of rationality. If they cannot pinpoint what is dangerous about the situation, they draw the conclusion that their fears are unfounded. But under most circum- stances, that’s not reasonable at all. There is a good chance that you are picking up clues you are not aware of, triggering your fear. There is nothing unreasonable about heeding that data. On the contrary, what is unreasonable is to pretend you are not afraid when you are. The reasonable thing to do is neither to ignore the data of your emo- tions nor to give them too much weight. Being Logical Is Linked to Having Feelings If we think of desires as intertwined with emotion, then the tie between critical thinking and emotions is even stronger. That is because, in the end, it is not possible to engage in critical thinking without desires and their attendant emotions. Unless I have goals— desires, things I want, things I’m emotionally attached to—I have no reason to think critically, no reason to take action X rather than action Y. There was a character named Mr. Spock on the old Star Trek series. He said that he put aside whatever feelings he had in order to be what he called “logical.” But in the series, he saves the ship and the crew again and again. The problem with this scenario is that if he is not emotionally attached to the crew members, he has no rea- son to save them. Unless he wants them to live, it is not “logical” for him to save them. Spock’s answer is that saving the Enterprise is the “right thing to do.” But, unless he’s emotionally attached to doing the right thing, he has no reason to do the right thing either. The ques- tion is always: Why should he try to achieve any purpose? It is “logical” for him to do something only if achieving his purpose is something that matters to him, matters to him in terms of his emo- tions and desires. Being logical requires having goals that are emotionally important. The relation between emotions and critical thinking is a compli- cated one, without easy solutions. (For example, not all philosophers would agree that emotions and desires underlie rationality.) There is no doubt that emotions can cloud judgment, but they can also illu- minate it. Fear can make you run from a decision that is in your best interests. But fear can also alert you to dangers in decisions, dangers that you’re not consciously aware of. Anger is often a very sophisti- cated emotion, alerting us to subtle evidence of people’s intention to cross our boundaries. Whether to rely on emotions in any particular case, and how much to rely on them, is itself a matter for critical thinking. M01_NOSI2422_03_SE_C01.QXD 11/29/07 11:45 AM Page 17 20 CHAPTER 1 Discuss how likely you are to get a false picture of the following topics from the news: ■ the danger of small airplanes ■ the amount of crime in your area ■ new findings in science ■ the chances of winning the lottery commits a violent crime while on parole. Maybe we hear politicians or relatives of a victim talking about how life means only twenty years, and we believe them. (These people too get their impression from the news.) These stories are vivid. They are simplified and made dramatic. Often there is stirring footage. They register in our minds. Whether we are aware of it or not, we form a general picture that vio- lent criminals (including murderers sentenced to life in Louisiana) are getting out of prison early all the time. Any picture like that one, formed on the basis of news presenta- tions, is likely to be seriously distorted. This is because the news media report not on what is usual or typical, but on what is unusual. That’s why it is called news: it reports on what is out of the ordinary. That’s also why it works so well as entertainment. In contrast, what is usual is for people to wake up in the morning, eat breakfast, go to work, eat lunch, come home at the end of the day, watch TV for a while, go to bed. That is not a news event. Rather, what the news reports on is Iraq (hardly a typical country), a fire in an apartment complex (not a common event), an ax murder in Montana (maybe the only one to occur there in fifty years), a highly controversial bill in Congress (not the hundreds of bills that are passed regularly). If you want an accurate picture of what the world is usually like, you need to look to reputable books, studies, or websites that deal with the subject in depth. Textbooks are usually an excellent source. And, of course, you have to do some intensive critical thinking about the topic as well. This doesn’t imply that it’s wrong to consult the news media reg- ularly. On the contrary, the news—especially if it has more in-depth coverage—is an excellent way to keep up with the unusual, even earthshaking, events of our time. (continued) M01_NOSI2422_03_SE_C01.QXD 11/29/07 11:45 AM Page 20 WHAT IS CRITICAL THINKING? 21 Forming a Picture of the World on the Basis of Movies, TV, Advertising, Magazines If forming a picture of the world on the basis of the news results in distortion, forming a picture on the basis of fictionalized or sensa- tionalized material results in vastly more distortion. Sometimes the distortion is obvious, at least to reflective adults: People do not get thrown through plate-glass windows and emerge intact; there is no reason to believe there are aliens among us; the clothes in the glossy picture will not make most of us look like the model in the picture; products often have unmentioned defects. Other examples are more subtle and affect our attitudes in deep and disturbing ways: Trying your hardest, though it may give you personal satisfaction, will not usually result in beating the com- petition (especially because they may be trying their hardest too); most people’s grades (or height or intelligence or abilities) cannot be above average; everyone cannot be glamorous, young, physically attractive, or strong; being a lone- wolf rebel who can’t get along with superiors does not usually bring success. List some of the subtle mes- sages acquired from movies, TV, magazines, or advertising that tend to give people a false sense of what the world is like. How about school in particular? How is high school or college usually depicted? How is the subject matter of your classes pre- sented in these sources? Are there stereotypes? Write down a few important topics of your own where your picture of the world is likely to be seriously distorted if you base your impression mainly on what is reported in the news. Where, specifically, would you look to get a more accurate impression? In the discipline. Are there topics related to the discipline you are studying that appear from time to time in the news? Is the picture you receive from the media likely to be distorted? In what ways? Again, where specifically would you look to get a more accurate picture? (Continued) M01_NOSI2422_03_SE_C01.QXD 11/29/07 11:45 AM Page 21 22 CHAPTER 1 Describe a situation—either from your own life or from disciplines you have studied—where you engaged in all-or-nothing thinking. Then describe a contrasting situation, one where you were tempted to engage in all-or-nothing thinking, but instead addressed the subtleties of the situation and therefore came up with a more careful answer. Describe a similar pair of contrasting examples for us-versus-them thinking, then for stereotyping. All-or-Nothing Thinking (Black-and-White Thinking), Us-Versus-Them Thinking, Stereotyping Each of these ways of thinking is deeply ingrained in us. Some biol- ogists even think we have a built-in genetic bias in favor of thinking in these ways. Nevertheless, each stands in the way of critical think- ing, and for similar reasons. Thinking in terms of concepts like these is a way of simplifying our world. In fact, each of them vastly oversimplifies the complexity of reality, and each serves as an excuse for not thinking things through. Effective thinking requires us to pay attention to the complexity of things. It requires us to develop a tolerance for ambiguity and an acceptance of less-than-certain answers. It requires a commitment to seeing both sides of an issue and to trying to find out the truth, rather than merely trying to bolster our side: our country, our race, our gender, our political views. Fears Although, as we have seen, all fears are not automatically an impedi- ment to critical thinking, some fears do tend to become obstacles. That’s especially true of ■ fear of making mistakes ■ fear of trying something new, of sticking your neck out ■ fear of looking foolish The full exercise of critical thinking requires that you develop intellectual courage. For example, making mistakes is an essential part of critical thinking. What important skill have you ever learned that did not involve making many mistakes? Most critical-thinking experts believe you learn a great deal more from mistakes than from M01_NOSI2422_03_SE_C01.QXD 11/29/07 11:45 AM Page 22 WHAT IS CRITICAL THINKING? 25 other person is saying. For many people, when someone critiques their country or culture or religion or family, all they hear is the fact that they are being criticized. Anger rises, and often they can’t even repeat the substance of the com- ments the person made. This interferes with their ability to give a fair evaluation of their country, cul- ture, and so on. If I can’t hear a critique, then I can’t come to a bal- anced conclusion, and that deprives me of information I can use to assess the validity of my beliefs. Egocentrism makes it difficult for me to tell accurate from inac- curate statements. It leads me to misunderstand other people’s motives as well as my own. It influences me to put incorrect inter- pretations on what people say. In course work, egocentrism can lead to my seeing education only in terms of grades, in effect causing me to miss out on all the other benefits to be derived from education. It can lead to plagiarism and cheating, or thinking that teachers are unfair even if they’re not. One of the most valuable things to be gained from critical thinking is an ability to see the egocentricity of our own thinking. Developmental Patterns of Thinking We acquire many of our patterns of thinking as we go through different stages of psychological and physical development. As children, we have a number of deeply felt needs: a need to feel safe, a need to be loved, Think about the need to feel safe. This is a need that develops in early childhood and never really goes away. Begin by focusing on other people. Use obvious examples of persistent irra- tional behavior in people you know: maybe they are abrasive and drive friends away; maybe they identify with groups or with causes that don’t seem to serve their interests; maybe they continue to hold beliefs when the vast preponderance of evidence goes against those beliefs. Now try out the hypothesis that this behavior is partly the result of looking for feelings of safety along paths established during childhood. (If I drive people away, for example, it can feel as though I don’t have to take the risk of depending on them; identify- ing with groups can give me a feeling of belonging, of safety.) A much harder exercise is to apply this not just to others, but also to yourself. M01_NOSI2422_03_SE_C01.QXD 11/29/07 11:45 AM Page 25 26 CHAPTER 1 a need for physical contact; we have a need to individuate ourselves from others as well as a contrary need to join completely with another person. Moreover, many of our standard ways of thinking were acquired during childhood, even during early childhood. After all, that’s when we first learned how to conceptualize and deal with emotions, frustration, authority figures, strong desires, pain, and hurt. Many of the strategies we devised back then still persist, beneath the surface, throughout our lives. Thus, when we feel threat- ened, we can easily revert back to a child’s way of thinking. Problems that can be solved may seem overwhelming. (Think of how over- whelming problems can be to a child.) People can be going about their business with no reference to us at all, and we may feel victim- ized by it (e.g., waiters who don’t see us at their table; drivers who go slow in the left lane; customers who have 20 items in the 15-item checkout lane). We might resort to manipulation or even physical bullying when we don’t get our way. Psychologically, that makes sense from a child’s relatively helpless point of view. Those are reversions to childhood. But our thinking can also revert to early adolescence. That’s especially true of our judgments about love, romance, and sexuality. Both childhood and early adolescence, though, are very confusing times, when our critical-thinking abilities have not yet developed very much. If we continue to use those patterns of thinking, espe- cially at important junctures in our lives, we can easily perpetuate the situations of the past. So, another great benefit of learning to think critically is that you can start identifying the assumptions you used to make about life, and you can distinguish them from the more mature assumptions you can make now. You can separate your past from your present purposes. You can take seriously the much more extensive information you have now, the context in which you now live, the alternatives that are now available to you that were not avail- able when you were younger. You can draw different conclusions. (The italicized terms are essential critical-thinking concepts, elements of reasoning; see Chapter 2.) Previous Commitments, Previous Personal Experience Suppose someone makes a point about a controversial issue, about politics maybe, or capital punishment, or the benefits of a trade agreement. The most usual way to evaluate the person’s statement is first to see how much it agrees with my views, and then give reasons for or against it based on the amount of agreement. This might be reasonable if my views were the product of exten- sive critical examination on my part. But often my views are ones I just happen to hold; they only seem to be the result of previous M01_NOSI2422_03_SE_C01.QXD 11/29/07 11:45 AM Page 26 WHAT IS CRITICAL THINKING? 27 examination. There may be no reason to think that my previously held beliefs are more likely to be correct than the newer points I am evaluating for the first time. We can also think in a biased way with respect to evidence. On the one hand, if I lean toward a certain belief, then just a small amount of evidence weighs heavily in its favor for me. If I believe in aliens visiting earth, or herbal remedies for cancer, or homeopathic cures, or predestination, then even the negative fact that such views have not been absolutely disproven counts heavily in their favor in my eyes. On the other hand, if I oppose a belief, then a vague piece of evidence, or just the fact that it has not been absolutely proven, weighs heavily against it: “I don’t believe in global warming. Nobody has proved the earth is getting warmer. Last winter it was very cold.” “Smoking does not cause lung cancer: correlation is not the same thing as causation.” “You can’t prove that I won’t win the lottery. There’s always a chance. You can’t win if you don’t play.” That is, we slant the amount of evidence to fit in with our pre- dispositions. We require a mountain of evidence to make us doubt something we already believe, but we require only the slightest of evi- dence to make us more sure of it. Even our own ingenuity can work against us. No matter how bizarre or farfetched a point of view is, if we become convinced that it is true, our ingenious minds can almost always construct at least some evidence in its favor. How should we make judgments? If we are interested in accuracy, in knowing the truth or what is likely to come closest to the truth, we should go with the preponderance of evidence, regardless of whether we started out for or against a particular conclusion. That is often extremely difficult to do because decisions can be made below the level of our awareness and because our beliefs are so often bound up with our egos and developmental ways of thinking. We can increase our awareness and open-mindedness by using critical thinking. This is also true when we are basing judgments on personal expe- rience. Personal experience gives us a valuable supply of information, one that we can use to draw conclusions, make decisions. One of the main ways teachers get students to think critically about a discipline is by asking them to relate the discipline’s concepts to their personal experiences. No one would deny the value of personal experience in critical thinking. However, personal experience can also be an impediment to crit- ical thinking. That’s particularly true of vivid personal experiences, M01_NOSI2422_03_SE_C01.QXD 11/29/07 11:45 AM Page 27 30 CHAPTER 1 Many people automatically assume that bravery is good. But here are some possible examples where bravery makes a situation worse, where being brave does damage: ■ someone who is brave but a Nazi ■ a sports figure who bravely plays despite a serious injury ■ criminals who bravely risk their lives in committing their crimes ■ Achilles, the hero of The Iliad. Did his bravery accomplish what you would call worthwhile purposes? Plato would say that these examples are not part of the concept of bravery at all. How might someone believe that? In your view, are these examples of bravery or of something else? Why? If they are examples of bravery, would you admire the action in each case? Or would you say, “We would all be better off if these people were not brave”? your thinking. It is only recently that anyone thought suntans were beautiful, that beaches were a desirable place to spend a vacation, that thinness in men and women was attractive, that wilderness held value, that toleration was a virtue, that democracy was workable, that it was unhealthy to be a caretaker in a relationship. Our standard concepts for each of these key terms has changed, becoming strikingly more positive or negative. The concepts may well change again. It can be liberating to step out of the fads that come and go with respect to what is desirable. Re-examining the concepts you have of the things you desire will help you rise above the fads. Similarly, your concepts have an immense influence on what you are afraid of and what brings you joy. If you are afraid of the dark, afraid of math, or even afraid of dying—these are not universal fears. There are many people, not very different from you, who don’t share these fears. Some people feel safe in the dark, delight in math (even if they are not very good at it), and find peace and acceptance in con- templating death. We fear things in part because of the concepts we have of those things, because of how we classify them and think about them. The influence of our thinking extends even to bodily sensations: “Even though nerve signals work the same way, something as obviously M01_NOSI2422_03_SE_C01.QXD 11/29/07 11:45 AM Page 30 WHAT IS CRITICAL THINKING? 31 biological as pain in childbirth is experienced differently depending on cultural expectations [that is, on concepts in our culture]. Women develop expectations not just about how they should respond but about how they should experience their own sensations and emotions.”4 Emotions are not really under our direct control, though how we act on those emotions often is. Many of the ways people try to gain direct control over their emotions actually hurt. If you are afraid of speaking in public, for example, but feel you shouldn’t be afraid of it, you can try to suppress the fear. Maybe you can even force yourself to speak in public, or pretend to yourself that you are not afraid of it. You can reason as follows: “It doesn’t make sense to feel fearful of speaking in public. There’s really nothing to be afraid of. Therefore, I am not afraid of speaking in public.” This is called denial. Denial is when you keep yourself from seeing something you know is true. The classic case is alcoholics who refuse to see that they are alcoholics. Many people confuse denial of this sort with being rational. Neither suppression nor denial is very healthy. Neither is very effective either, at least not in the long run. Both have high psychological costs. Though our emotions are not under our direct control, we can indirectly affect them by addressing our concepts. You can work on your concept of public speaking and try to understand why you see it as fearsome. You can admit and honor the fear that arises. You can investigate what its roots are, what associations you have with it that generate the fear, and build new associations. You can rethink the concept over time, and usually this will be effective in changing your reaction to it. The Experience of Learning to Think Things Through You may already be good at thinking critically. In some areas you may be very good at it. In fact, in some areas you may be so good at criti- cal thinking that it occurs naturally—you no longer even recognize it as good thinking. For example, suppose you are driving down a street and a ball bounces out in front of you from between parked cars. You instinctively put your foot on the brake; you instinctively look around, searching for the child who might dart out. Another example: There’s a sudden accident in the cars ahead of you. To get out of the way, you instinctively pull to the right rather than to the left. These seem instinctive, but they’re not. You’ve learned to do these things, and you haven’t learned them as a conditioned reflex. You’ve learned them by reflection on likely consequences. You’ve internal- ized the critical thinking so well that it seems natural, instinctive. But these actions are still the product of critical thinking. M01_NOSI2422_03_SE_C01.QXD 11/29/07 11:45 AM Page 31 32 CHAPTER 1 For many people, it is difficult to learn a new skill from a book. Think of learning how to drive a car, or dance ballet, or write. To acquire skills like these from scratch, it may be essential to have feed- back: “Is this the way to parallel park?” “Should I position my feet like this?” But critical thinking is not that way, at least not entirely. You already have a lot of critical-thinking skills. It is an activity you already engage in, maybe to a significant degree. When it comes to skills you already have, reading a book can improve them dramati- cally. If you’re able to write, drive, and dance, you can improve those skills by reading books that guide you through techniques. Of course, it’s not enough just to read the book. You have to try it out, act on it, put it into practice. You have to do the writing, driving, dancing, do the critical thinking. In fact, you can be confident that if you work your way through this book, your thinking skills will improve significantly. That is so because of the reflectiveness critical thinking requires. By working through this book, you will become more reflective, more aware of the dimensions of your thinking, and the skills will improve. The trouble is, you may not feel as if your skills are improving. The improvement is not likely to be obvious. Many people have the opposite reaction. They feel they are getting worse at reasoning as they work through a course that emphasizes critical thinking. That happens for a number of reasons. First, working through a disciplined process of critical thinking will slow your thinking down. A problem that you once effortlessly thought your way through will now take much longer. You will have to focus on all the parts of the thinking you previously took for granted. Second, questions will start to arise for you where none arose before. “Am I being clear?” “Is this really an implication?” “Maybe I’m jumping to a conclusion here.” “How can I check up on this?” Questions are a sign of growth, of opening to new ways of thinking. But we often believe that questions are a sign of not understanding, that it is better to have no questions at all. Critical thinking lives in questions. Third, the reflectiveness of critical thinking can cause you to start second-guessing yourself, especially at the beginning, or when you are feeling down on yourself. Before, you might have confidently asserted an answer; now, however, you might reflect, “Wait a minute, maybe I’m jumping to a conclusion here,” or, “Is this really an implication of this author’s position? Maybe I’m being unduly influenced by the fact that I disagree with her.” Fourth, some of your certainty about things can be a bluff to cover up the threatening fact that you really don’t know, or don’t know for sure. The main person you are bluffing may be yourself. Studying how to think critically often calls your bluff. You start M01_NOSI2422_03_SE_C01.QXD 11/29/07 11:45 AM Page 32 WHAT IS CRITICAL THINKING? 35 page 39 of this book is a visual illustration of the process of critical thinking). In some cases it can also be a graph, a diagram, or a con- cept map. More usually, your illustration will be a picture in words: an analogy, simile, or metaphor that captures the meaning. For instance, Rush Cosgrove was clarifying the concept of civil disobedi- ence. He stated his definition of it in a sentence; then he elaborated on it; and then he gave a good example of civil disobedience. (His example was Rosa Parks refusing to sit in the back of the bus.) Then he gave an illustration: He said that civil disobedience was like being a cliff at the edge of the ocean—the waves crash against it, but the cliff remains there. To me, that illustration captures vividly what Cosgrove means by civil disobedi- ence. You can begin your illustration by saying, “It’s like. . . .” There are two aspects of clarify- ing something. The first is getting clear in your own mind; the sec- ond is communicating clearly to others, communicating so they understand you well. SEE-I works well for both of them. You can improve your writing in a major way by taking each main idea and developing it in your paper with an SEE-I. The result, with practice, can be a smooth flow of richly understood and well-communi- cated ideas. SEE-I can make both your thinking and your writing dramatically better. It is also a way of testing your understanding of what you learn (and is thus a valu- able way to study for exams). If you can accurately S, E, E, then I a con- cept or a principle in a course, it means you almost certainly have a good grasp of it, that you under- stand it to a much greater degree than if you are merely able to state it. Similarly, SEE-I is a method your teacher may use to test your under- standing, to assess how clear you are about concepts and issues in the course. When students are assigned a five-page paper to write, they often have difficulty “filling up” the five pages (Teachers are often amazed by this because teachers usually have the opposite problem: they have difficulty “cutting down” what they want to say to five pages.) Using SEE-I gives you a way to “fill up” those pages—but without just adding filler. With every major point you are making in your paper, you can state it, elaborate on it, give examples, and top it off with an illustration that con- veys the point. This will “fill up” your paper with writing that is clear and directly rele- vant to the development of your paper (see pp. 37–38). M01_NOSI2422_03_SE_C01.QXD 11/29/07 11:45 AM Page 35 36 CHAPTER 1 The Flexibility of SEE-I All of the critical-thinking processes in this book are flexible, adapt- able. They can be shaped to a great variety of circumstances that call for critical thinking. Critical thinking is seldom simply a linear activ- ity. That is so for SEE-I also: It is not a rigid process. For instance: ■ Though the idea is to go step by step—first state, then elaborate, then give an example, then illustrate—you don’t simply finish one step and then you’re done with it. You will find that as you elaborate, you will often need to revise the statement you formu- lated in step 1. Similarly, both your example and your illustra- tion may cause you to refine or even change your mind about the earlier steps. ■ An ideal clarifying statement is a single, clear, well-formulated sentence. But in some cases it may take two. Similarly, you will usually elaborate in one or two paragraphs—but with complex ideas, more elaboration than that may be needed. The point is not really how long—the point is to capture the essence in a statement, and to explain it in its fullness in an elaboration. ■ Sometimes you can skip the illustration step with very little loss. Often, though, a striking illustration will make the subject sud- denly come into focus. It allows your creativity to come forward. ■ In exemplification, you give an example. But sometimes what really clarifies the issue is to give both an example and a contrasting example. Thus, with civil disobedience, I can say that Rosa Parks is an example of it, but that cheating on my income tax to protest tax laws is not an example—it is doing something self-serving under the guise of civil disobedience. (Notice that the example might cause me to revise my state- ment of what civil disobedience is.) ■ Much of the time, the statement-part of your SEE-I will be your own formulation, a definition or thesis statement that you your- self construct. But sometimes it is beneficial to take the state- ment step from some authoritative source, such as your teacher or the textbook. You then clarify your understanding of that statement in your elaboration, give a good example of your own, and an illustration that conveys it well. Thus an anatomy and physiology text gives a definition of “anatomy” as “the study of internal and external structures of the body and the physical relationships among body parts.”6 Writing out this statement does not, of course, show that I grasp what anatomy is, or how it is different from physiology. But I can clarify my understand- ing of it in my own mind, and convey that understanding accurately to a reader, by elaborating on that definition in a M01_NOSI2422_03_SE_C01.QXD 11/29/07 11:45 AM Page 36 WHAT IS CRITICAL THINKING? 37 paragraph or two, by giving a good example of an anatomical structure (and maybe a contrasting example of a non-anatomical process), and by giving an apt illustration of anatomy. SEE-I IN THIS BOOK STATE A statement of what critical thinking is can be found on pages 1–2. In fact, there are three statements of it there. ELABORATE Pages 3–4 are an elaboration of what critical thinking is. Pages 5–12 are another elaboration. EXEMPLIFY There are many examples of critical thinking in this book. One is on a reasonable way to deal with math anxiety on page 8; another is reasoning out the fairness issue on pages 10–11. More extended examples include Chris’s analysis of marriage (pp. 75–79) and the analysis of the logic of earth sciences (pp. 100–101). Other examples will come from you: Any of the out- comes listed at the end of any chapter in this book are examples of critical thinking. Some contrasting examples (examples of not thinking critically) are also found throughout this book: for instance, the bulleted list on page 9. Examples of non-critical-thinking standards are listed on page 160. ILLUSTRATE There are several illustrations of critical thinking in this book. A picture of critical thinking is given on page 39; a visualization of thinking through the elements of reasoning is given on pages 39–40. But I could also say, as an illus- tration, that critical thinking is like a pair of binoculars: it allows you to get up close, explore detail, put what you see in context, and understand more of what you are seeing. That is an analogy. It is not an example of critical thinking; it is something that critical thinking is being compared to. Another illustration: when people give me a ride someplace in their car, or if I follow GPS (continued) M01_NOSI2422_03_SE_C01.QXD 11/29/07 11:45 AM Page 37 40 CHAPTER 1 The DisciplineStandards ELEMENTS FIGURE 1.3 The process of critical thinking in a discipline. 3. Suppose the question being addressed is one related to the discipline or field you are studying. Maybe it is a question your teacher has assigned; maybe it’s from the textbook in the sub- ject; maybe it’s your own question. There are ways of thinking that lie at the heart of the discipline you are studying. These include fundamental and powerful concepts, and central questions of the discipline. Disciplines are not bits and pieces; they are not assemblages of facts. Instead, there is a logic to thinking in each discipline. For example, if the course you are taking is in sociology, then that logic, taken all together, constitutes the way a sociologist thinks. In biology, the goal is to think biologically, to think the way a biologist thinks. In history, the goal is to think his- torically. The concepts differ from field to field. Social patterns is an example of a fundamental and powerful concept in sociology. So one way to examine how well people have reasoned out a question in the discipline of sociology is to focus on that fundamental and powerful concept: social patterns. We can ask, “Have they drawn conclusions, accurate conclusions, in terms of what we know about social patterns?” (Critical thinking in a discipline is explained in Chapter 3.) You can picture the discipline as a lens or set of lenses through which people reason. Figure 1.3 gives us a full picture. Some Outcomes At the end of this chapter . . . 1. You should be able to run your finger slowly down the table of contents and identify the main concepts of Chapter 1: ■ reflective thinking; reasonable thinking ■ misconceptions about critical thinking M01_NOSI2422_03_SE_C01.QXD 11/29/07 11:45 AM Page 40 WHAT IS CRITICAL THINKING? 41 ■ the role of emotions in critical thinking ■ impediments to thinking more critically ■ and so forth 2. With the book closed, you should be able to state, elaborate, exemplify, and illustrate each of these concepts, using examples from your own life, learning, and experiences. You should be able to give contrasting examples as well (e.g., of unreflective thinking, or of a mistaken idea of the role of emotions in critical thinking). 3. You should be asking more questions—about your thinking, about the discipline you are studying, about everything. You should also be reflecting more on your reasoning. 4. You should be able to identify which aspects of critical thinking are getting clearer for you and which are still unclear. You should not expect to achieve the outcomes just listed in a way that is perfect. But you can expect to be improving in them, to find them increasing in your behavior. Not all of these will be directly observable by your teacher. You yourself may often not notice them. Changes in critical-thinking abilities are usually gradual and subtle. Critical-Thinking Character Traits In addition to the outcomes just discussed, you may notice some character traits changing in you. Here are two to reflect on: ■ Intellectual Courage. Intellectual courage involves the willing- ness to face up to challenges to your settled beliefs and your habitual ways of thinking about things. Critical thinking will definitely challenge long-established ways of thinking you may have. Be alert to noticing that your intellectual courage is developing. ■ Confidence in Reason. This describes the willingness to try to figure things out, to rely on thinking your way through things, to the best of your ability, rather than on all the other influences that shape your thinking without your knowing it. Both this book and the discipline you are studying rely on your commitment to use your best thinking to address questions. M01_NOSI2422_03_SE_C01.QXD 11/29/07 11:45 AM Page 41 42 CHAPTER 1 CHAPTER 1 Exercises Some of the questions in this and later chapters call for the straight- forward application of concepts from the text, but some are more than that. Some ask you to extend concepts in the text to new areas and then to think critically about these extensions. Some of the exer- cises are designed to teach new concepts. Answering them is part of learning to think critically. Starred exercises (*) are ones that have answers (or at least responses) at the back of the book. The responses there are not neces- sarily complete. Sometimes they are very sketchy. Often they simply point out one dimension it would be wise to consider when answering the question. Sometimes the starred response will contain additional questions as well. 1.1 What are some “good questions” you have about this course? Ask some good questions in each sense (ones that open up cen- tral areas and ones that you really want to know the answer to). What are some “bad questions” you could raise about the course (bad in the sense of superficial or bad in the sense that you don’t really care about the answer)? Compare the questions you raise here with those you raised on page 8. 1.2 Thinking versus reflective thinking. You’ll notice that many of the exercises in this book ask you to reflect: on aspects of the discipline you are studying, on your life, on your experi- ences in school, on your relation to the subject matter you are learning. Here is an example: A. What should I do about this patient? B. What should I do about this patient, keeping in mind that the purpose of this treatment is X? In B, focusing on purpose helps make the thinking more reflective. Another example: A. How should I study for my final exams? B. How should I study for my final exams, keeping in mind the consequences (both positive and negative) of alterna- tive ways of studying? In B, thinking about consequences and alternatives helps make the thinking more reflective. M01_NOSI2422_03_SE_C01.QXD 11/29/07 11:45 AM Page 42 * * WHAT IS CRITICAL THINKING? 45 1.12 Give an example of a situation where your emotions led you in the wrong direction. Then give an example of a situation where your emotions led you in the right direction. In terms of critical thinking, how do you explain the difference? 1.13 It is one of those days when people seem to be driving erratically. Far more than usual, people are cutting you off, slamming on their brakes unexpectedly, or driving too slow. What are some good hypotheses to explain the way people are driving? 1.14 In the discipline. Look again at the impediments to criti- cal thinking discussed in this chapter. (Eight major ones are listed.) Choose three and describe how they might be impediments for learning the discipline or subject matter of this course in a critical-thinking way. 1.15 You may notice some features of this book as you read. One is that it tends to use qualifier words a great deal; another is that it sometimes uses “I” in examples rather than “you” (e.g., on page 7). Can you see why, from a critical-thinking point of view, the book uses these features? Are there other aspects of the way this text is written that seem to you unusual? Can you see any of them as responses to aspects of critical thinking? 1.16 The topic of Chapter 2 is the elements of reasoning. Three of those elements are conclusions, assumptions, and points of view. Think of a difficult situation in your life, a problem in your relationship with someone, a decision you have to make, or something important about this course. Formulate three good questions about that situation, using each of the three elements listed. Then answer the questions as well as you can. 1.17 Go deep: Look for a good example of how intellectual courage will be needed for you to think critically within the disci- pline you are studying, an example of when it will require courage for you to take ownership of some of the concepts or conclusions or points of view in the discipline. If you find a good example, describe it, including the role intellectual courage would play. If you can’t find an example, write a paragraph considering the possibility that you are not taking the discipline seriously enough to believe the results. M01_NOSI2422_03_SE_C01.QXD 11/29/07 11:45 AM Page 45 * 46 CHAPTER 1 1.18 Work in pairs. Each person chooses one written answer to an exercise in this chapter. (Alternatively, you could choose a written answer you gave to a critical-thinking problem about the discipline.) Exchange papers with the person next to you. Each of you then writes comments on the reasoning in the other person’s paper. Return the papers. What can you learn about your paper from what the other person has said? What can you learn about what the other person values? 1.19 Without looking back in the book, explain how SEE-I works to make your thinking clearer. 1.20 Group work. Use the template on page 38 to address the topic of critical thinking as you understand it so far. ■ Gather with four or five people to discuss the topic critically. ■ In a discussion, figure out the three most central organiz- ing concepts that underlie the conception of critical thinking being presented in this book. Try to come to consensus, but if you can’t, you are not required to use the other people’s central concepts for the next step. If you believe yours are well thought out, use them. ■ Write out an SEE-I for each and a paragraph on how they work and fit together. Make duplicates for everyone. ■ Each person critiques the responses of the others in the group. Focus on two standards: ➞ Are the responses clearly stated? ➞ Are they accurate? DAILY PRACTICE At incorporating critical thinking into your life and your learning There are two difficulties about learning to think critically, and they are dramatically different from one another. The first is how to do it: how to acquire the skills of asking good questions, reasoning your M01_NOSI2422_03_SE_C01.QXD 11/29/07 11:45 AM Page 46 WHAT IS CRITICAL THINKING? 47 way through them, and believing the results of your reasoning. One way to look at this book is as a guide for developing those skills. The second difficulty, though, is in a way deeper, harder to reckon with: after you’ve learned how to do it, you actually have to do it. Even after you acquire skills, your tendency may well be to let them slide, to engage in them only when called on in class or when there is a specific assignment. A subsection of the exercises at the end of each chapter is designed to help you incorporate critical thinking into your life and learning in a more ongoing way. (Here, it’s Exercises 1.21 through 1.25.) The key to these is to do them as often as possible, daily if you can, in small repeated intervals, rather than doing them in a single big burst of effort. It’s like daily exercise—only this is mental exercise. Thus, spending ten (or even five) intense, focused minutes per day on practicing applying the critical-thinking concepts to your life and learning will be more effective than spending the same number of minutes all crowded into a single day. 1.21 Engage with questions. Spend some time just noticing questions, and then writing them down in your journal. You can notice (a) asked questions: ones you ask, other people ask, questions in print, on-line, in text messages, or on TV. Get a feel for the places and times where people ask questions and the kind of questions they ask. But notice also (b) the ques- tions that are not asked: Write down examples you come across where questions would have made a difference, where they should have been asked, but weren’t. That includes places where you should have been asking questions. 1.22 Engage with reasoning. Again, this is an exercise in noticing, and then in critical writing about what you notice. In your journal, write down examples of good reasoning, bad reasoning, and non-reasoning that you come across. Again, these can be on TV, in ads, in what people say, in what you say, anywhere. The goal is to start using the con- cept of reasoning in the way you naturally observe what’s around you. 1.23 Engage with believing the results. Spend some time noticing and recording examples where people (including you) don’t believe the results of their reasoning. These will usually be most apparent when people’s actions are at odds with what they say they believe. M01_NOSI2422_03_SE_C01.QXD 11/29/07 11:45 AM Page 47