Critical Thinking

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Critical Thinking

• An educations central mission

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The Big Question

• Everywhere we look, someone is making some claim
  or other about our behavior and experience,
  trying to make money and influence us.
• How can we tell the difference between what is
  legitimate and beneficial and what is merely
  puffed-up advertising or just plain wrong?

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Critical Thinking

• Making crucial decisions on carefully accumulated
  evidence and well supported reasons
• Not because of emotion or misplaced belief on
  isolated occurrences

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Hallmarks of Critical Thinking

• Ask questions even about things others take for
  granted.
• Much is undiscovered, uncertain, unsolved
• We must first ask the questions before we can
  find the answers
• We must use empirical means.

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Examine evidence

• Look carefully to assess a claims foundation
• Based upon mere opinion?
• A few intriguing but isolated occurrences or
  anecdotes?
• Careful observation?
• Sweeping analyses of relationships?
• Experimentation subjected to peer review?

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Look behind assumptions

• Do we start our inquiry already leaning to a
  particular outcome?
• Bias an assumption or belief that unfairly
  influences our appraisal of the evidence
• We attack a position before considering it
  objectively because we just know that it is
  wrong
• Many biases are hidden or subtle.

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Tolerating uncertainty

• We want clear, definite answers.
• We rarely get them.
• Sometimes we lack enough evidence, sometimes what
  we have is confusing or frustratingly complex
• Human behavior is complicated and influenced by
  dozens of factors.

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Its not easy

• Even the smartest make mistakes.
• We must avoid confirmation bias.
• Keep an open mind.

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esp

• Acquiring information without the use of sense
  organs and without receiving any form of physical
  energy
• Widely accepted, but valid?
• Throw away physics?!?
• Suspicious proof
• No one has met Randis
• challenge