Critical Thinking

Chapter 1
The Benefit of Asking the Right
Questions
As a thoughtful person, one must make a choice
about how one will react to what one reads or hears:

• accept passively what one reads or hears;

doing so make’s someone else’s opinion
one’s own.
• ask questions in an effort to reach a personal
decision about the worth of item read or
heard.

The second alternative is CRITICAL THINKING!

What is critical thinking?

- Listening and reading critically - that is, reacting with

systemic evaluation to what you have heard or read (this
requires a set of skills and attitude).

- Refers to the following:

* Awareness of a set of interrelated critical questions
* Ability to ask and answer critical questions at
appropriate time, and
* Desire to actively use the critical questions
Two Alternative Thinking Approaches:
A. Sponge Type Approach:
Advantages:
> The more information we absorb about the world,
the more capable we are in understanding its
complexities. The knowledge acquired now will
provide a foundation later on.
> it is relatively passive, no strenuous mental effort is
needed. Tends to be quick and easy when the material
presented is clear and interesting.
Disadvantage:
> It provide no method in deciding which information
or opinions to accept to to reject. Seems that what was
read or heard is already the last.
B. Panning-for-Gold Approach:

Advantages:
> We have a choice on what to accept and what to
decline. There’s an active participation between the
writer and the reader - speaker and the listener.
> Helps a receiver become an active searcher and better
critical thinker because there is an interactive
involvement.

Disadvantages:
> Requires a special attitude - that is the question asking
attitude.
> Requires mental effort in sorting things out.
The Myth of the “Right Answer”

* Physical world/sciences is most likely to have answers

which the general public generally accepts. Frequently,
arrives at the “right answer” since the physical world is
predictable.
* On the other hand, social sciences… questions about
the human behavior are different. No standards could be
established since it is so complex. The best answers
found on many questions about human behavior is based
on probability… which lacks a high degree of certainty.
Thinking and Feeling:

Generally, most of the time we feel attacked whenever

someone presents ideas contrary to our own. This is so
because of emotional attachment.
Warning: The potential danger of emotional attachment
is failure to consider the good reasons on the other side.
A successful active listener is one who is open and
willing to change his/her mind or open for revisions -
so, is a critical thinker.
Kinds of Critical Thinking

Critical thinking can be used to:

> Defend - this is a Weak-Sense Critical Thinking. The
purpose of this is to resist and annihilate any opinions
other than yours.
> Evaluate and revise the initial beliefs - this is a Strong-
Sense Critical Thinking. This provides us the basis
whether our belief will lead to the same mistake as of
before or must change it for the better in the coming
future.
Satisfaction in using both Approaches:

> The Panning-for Gold approach - critical thinkers find

satisfaction in knowing when to accept or reject ideas in an
appropriate manner. The learning is more interactive…
> The Sponge approach - is also satisfying since it permits
us to accumulate information along the way but active
interaction between the writer-reader/speaker-listener didn’t
took place.
>Being a critical thinker improves the quality of the one’s
writing and speaking techniques. One can communicate
effectively since he/she is able to relate and evaluate ideas.
But this is not learned in just a snap of a finger or overnight
but critical thinking is learned only by constant practice.
The Right Questions:

1. What are the issues and the conclusions?

2. What are the reasons ?
3. What words or phrases are ambiguous ?
4. What are the value conflicts and assumptions?
5. What are the descriptive assumptions?
6. Are there any fallacies in the reasoning?
7. How good is the evidence?
8. Are there rival causes?
9. Are the statistics deceptive?
10.What significant information is omitted?
11.What reasonable conclusion are possible?