CRITICAL THINKING

Introduction MAG PONSARAN, PH.D.

 Scenario #1:
Job Applicant

How would you explain to your prospective employer that you are
up for the job?
Scenario #2:
Team Leader

How would you summarize the options with fairness

for 2 opposing members?
Scenario #3:
Eyewitness

How would you analyze the situation and determine the steps
you will take to report the accident?
What do these three scenarios have
in common?
critical thinking
 Learning Outcomes

❖ Differences between critical and uncritical thinkers

❖ Nature and goals of critical thinking
❖ Intellectual standards of critical thinking
❖ Barriers to critical thinking
❖ Applications of concepts
 Critical thinker vs Uncritical
thinker
1. Have a passionate drive for clarity, precision, accuracy Often think in ways that are unclear, imprecise, and
and other critical thinking standards inaccurate

2. Are sensitive to ways in which critical thinking can be Often fall prey to egocentricism, sociocentricism,
skewed by egocentrism, sociocentrism, wishful relativistic thinking, unwarranted assumptions, and
thinking, and other impediments wishful thinking

3. Are skilled in understanding, analysing,and Often misunderstand or evaluate unfairly arguments

evaluating arguments and viewpoints and viewpoints

4. Reason logically and draw appropriate conclusions Think illogically and draw unsupported conclusions
from evidence and data from evidence and data

5. Are intellectually honest with themselves,

Pretend they know more than they do and ignore their
acknowledging that they don't know and recognizing
limitations
their limitations
 Critical vs Uncritical Thinking
6. Are intellectually honest with themselves,
Pretend they know more than they do and ignore their
acknowledging that they don't know and recognizing
limitations
their limitations

6. Listen open-mindedly to opposing points of view and Are close-minded and resist criticisms of beliefs and
welcome beliefs of criticisms and assumptions assumptions

7. Base their beliefs on facts and evidences, rather than Often base their beliefs on mere personal preference or
on personal preference or self-interest self-interest

8. Are aware of the biases and preconceptions that

Lack awareness of their own biases and preconceptions
shape the way they perceive the world

9. Think independently and are not afraid to disagree Tend to engage in “group-think,” uncritically following
with group opinion the beliefs and the values of the crowd
 Critical vs Uncritical Thinking (Bassham,
2011)
10. are able to get to the heart of the issue or the Are easily distracted and lack the ability to zero in on
problem without being distracted by details the essence of the issue or the problem

11. have the intellectual courage to face fairly ideas that

Fear and resists ideas that challenge their basic belief
challenge even their most basic beliefs

12. pursue truth and are curious about wide range of

Are often indifferent to truth and lack curiosity
issues

13. have the intellectual perseverance to pursue insights Tend not to persevere when they encounter intellectual
or truths despite obstacles or difficulty obstacles or difficulties
Critical thinking may be a transformative
experience.
❖ critic (n.)
❖ formerly critick, 1580s, "one who passes judgment, person skilled in
judging merit in some particular class of things,
❖ " from Middle French critique (14c.), from Latin criticus "a judge, a
censor, an estimator," also
❖ "grammarian who detects spurious passages in literary work orThe
meaning "one who judges merits of books, plays, etc." is from c. 1600
❖ " from Greek kritikos "able to make judgments," from krinein "to
separate, decide”

❖ https://www.etymonline.com/word/critic
❖ Negative connotation of “critical”
❖ The English word always has had overtones of
"censurer, faultfinder, one who judges severely."
❖ too be too confrontational
❖ Positive connotation:
❖ exercise skilled judgment or observation
❖ Critical Thinking is the general term given to a wide
range of cognitive skills and intellectual dispositions
needed to identify, analyse, and evaluate arguments and
truth claims
❖ Goals:
❖ to discover personal biases
❖ to formulate and present convincing reasons in support
of conclusions
❖ make reasonable and intelligent decisions about what to
believe and what to do
❖ Also
❖ See the connections between ideas
❖ Formulate ideas succinctly and precisely
❖ Identify, construct and evaluate arguments
❖ Evaluate the pros and cons of a decision
❖ Detect inconsistencies and common mistakes in reasoning
❖ Analyze problems systematically
❖ Identify the relevance and importance of one’s ideas
❖ Justify one’s beliefs and values
❖ Reflect and evaluate one’s thinking skills
❖ CRITICAL THINKING is a disciplined thinking
governed by intellectual standards of clarity, precision,
accuracy, relevance, consistency, logical correctness,
completeness and fairness.
❖ 1. Precision- “cutting through” the confusion and uncertainties that
surround everyday problem and issues
❖ Example: Sherlock Holmes use of careful and highly trained
observation, which led him to the discovery of clues that others
have , in order to solve the mystery.
❖ Or Hercule Poirot of Agatha Christie

❖ Look precise answers to precise questions:

❖ what’s the problem?
❖ what are the alternatives?
❖ what are the advantages and disadvantages of the alternatives?
❖ 2. Accuracy- passion for accurate and timely
information
❖ free from error as a result of cautious and careful
consideration of facts
❖ opposed to hit and miss approach, when you are
accurate you hit the target
❖ 3. Relevant
❖ A critical thinker is focused and does not allow himself
to get distracted by irrelevant matters
❖ 4. Consistency- agreement of parts/features to whole,
avoidance of contradiction
❖ 2 kinds:
❖ Logical inconsistency-saying or believing
inconsistent things (those that cannot all be true)
about a particular matter
❖ Practical inconsistency-saying one thing doing
another
❖ 5. Logical correctness- ability to draw well-founded
conclusions from the beliefs we hold
❖ 6. Completeness- deep and complete thinking as
opposed to shallow or superficial one
❖ ex. hasty jury deliberations, slipshod(careless)
criminal investigations, superficial news stories
❖ 7. Fairness- open-minded, impartial thinking free from
bias
❖ Questions:
❖ Think from your experience and share your answers
to the following questions:
❖ 1. To what extent did undergraduate course has
prepared you to possess critical thinking standards
(clarity, precision, logical correctness, fairness, etc.
❖ 2.Have you ever been guilty of logical or
practical inconsistency?
❖ Here are some questions for you to reflect on your thinking attitudes.
Which of them are true of you? (J. Lau, 2011)
❖ a) I can improve my thinking skills further.
❖ b) The purpose of thinking is not to be right all the time.
❖ c) I am not afraid to try out new ideas.
❖ d) Thinking takes time and might not be easy.
❖ e) I do not enjoy thinking about complicated ideas.
❖ f) Thinking is boring and it is better to spend time doing other things.
❖ g) Thinking is easy. I just use my gut feelings to make up my mind.
❖ h) The point of giving reasons is to show people that they are wrong.
❖ Throughout recorded history, people accept without
question that the 1. earth is the centre of the universe 2.
slavery is just 3. men are superior to women 4. demons
cause diseases 5. destructive forces of nature are caused
by angry gods.
❖ Why is uncritical thinking common? What are the
barriers to critical thinking?
❖ 1. Egocentrism- self-centered thinking
❖ means overconfidence in one’s beliefs
❖ a person with a self-serving bias has the tendency
to overrate himself
❖ braggarts and know-it-alls
❖ self-interested thinking or thinking for your best
interest
❖ 2. Sociocentrcism is a group-centerer bias
❖ Group bias-tendency to see one’s group (nation,
tribe, sect, peer group) as better than others
❖ Conformism- tendency to follow the crowd or
conform (unthinkingly) to authority or group’s
standards of conduct and beliefs
❖ Critical thinkers have the ability to resist pressure and
rely on authority, develop habits of independent
thinking to combat them
❖ 3. Unwarranted Assumptions and Stereotypes
❖ Assumption- something that we take for granted, something that we
believe to be true without conclusive evidence or proof.
❖ An unwarranted assumption is something that we take for granted
without good reason. One of the most common types is stereotyping.
❖ printing press era: plates or stereotypes were used to produce identical
copies of one page.
❖ now: we associate it to a standardised mental picture of people that
represents our oversimplified opinion, prejudiced attitude, and
uncritical judgment.
❖ Product of hasty generalisation
❖ Examples of stereotypes
❖ All Muslims are the same, Blacks are the same
❖ 4. Relativistic thinking
❖ -view that truth is a matter of opinion
❖ 2 popular forms:
❖ A. cultural relativism- truth is a matter of cultural opinion
❖ ex. 1drinking wine is not morally acceptable in Iran but
not in France or America
❖ ex.2 polygamy is acceptable in Egypt, Iraq and Iran, not
in other countries
❖ B. subjectivism- truth is a matter of individual opinion
❖ 5. Wishful thinking-believing something not because
you have good evidence for it but because you wished
it were true
❖ …It is a habit of mankind to entrust to careless hope
what they long for, and to use sovereign reason to
thrust aside what they do not desire.- ANONYMOUS
❖ Fear of the unknown led man to invent myths to
render the universe more less hostile and more
predictable
❖ example: healing crystals and quack cures and
communication with the dead
egocentrism,
sociocentrism,
stereotyping, relativistic
thinking, wishful thinking

Which of these barriers

hinder you toward effective
practice of critical thinking?
 References

❖ Bassham,G., Irwin, W.,Nardone, H., & Wallace, J. (2011)

Critical Thinking 4th ed. Mac Graw Hill: NY.
❖ Lau,J. (2011) An Introduction to Critical Thinking and
Creativity. John Wiley &Sons, Inc: NewJersey.
❖ Photo Credits:
❖ Google Images (livecareer.com, insider.com, and
newscentral.africa, trader.com)