Critical Thinking Study Guide

Return to Critical Thinking

Note: On concepts be sure to be able to identify, define, and explain the significance of each concept.

1st Discipline: Reflective Voice

1. Five Disciplines of Thought

-Reflective voice, Seeing Rationales, Giving Critical Response, Recognize Knowledge, Seeing Complexity

1. Terms: Rationales, arguments, explanations, claim, premise, conclusion, reflective/deliberative context. (p. 3)

Premise: Answers "Why" Argument: Reasons why something is right Explanation: Help you to understand a fact or situation Claim: Anything that can be true or false Rationale: A reason for a conclusion Conclusion:The thing being argued or explained Reflective Deliberative Context: any discussion offering reasons for claims.

1. Thinking in Stereo: what is it, what questions are asked at each level.

First Level (content): Think about an object Second Level (meta): Thinking about how you are thinking about an object

1. Thought Experiment for finding reflective ideals: What do you need to count on when you begin a serious discussion with someone? What specific values and expectations should one have? What mutual obligations follow? p. 12 and following.
2. Reflective ideals: sympathetic understanding, seeking knowledge, inviting appraisal.

2nd Discipline: Reconstruction

1. Theory of Rationales - basic defintion of a rationale, distinction between argument and explanation.
2. Distinguishing argument and explanation (skill of identification from exercise set "Distinguishing Argument from Explanation).
3. 3 Criteria for Good Reconstruction.

-identify and distinguish rationales -show logical structure -Practice Interpretation

1. Reconstruction (skill) Might have a short argument to reconstruct.
2. Distinguishing Deductive and Inductive arguments. (skill) also, give definitions and compare. (Handbook topic: "Logical Structure in Deductive and Inductive Reasoning")

-Deductive: demonstrate truth of subject with absolute certainty -Inductive: Shows probability that the conclusion is true.

1. How do you show logical structure in deductive arguments? in inductive? in explanation? (Handbook topic: "Deductive Argument Forms" "Inductive Argument Forms", and "Form in Explanations".)
2. Identify and give examples of basic deductive argument forms and formal fallacies.
3. Validity. (esp. relation to truth.) Can a valid argument have a false conclusion? In a valid argument is the conclusion always true?
4. Basic inductive patterns and inductive analogies.
5. Understand discussion of "Why Mars is Red" in "Form in Explanation"

3rd Discipline: Critical Response

1. 3 Techniques for assessing rationales. (skill)

-Questioning Truth of Premises -Questioning Connection between premises and conclusion -Reconstructing the Issue

1. What is critical response?

-Your Assessment of other's rationales, your view of topic, your reading of goals and purposes of individual reflection

1. What is the difference between assessing rationales and giving a critical response?

-Critical Response poses to find the burden of proof for many rationales.

1. Ad hominem fallacy
2. What factors should you consider in preparing a critical response to someone's rationales?

4th Discipline: Recognizing Knowledge

1. What does is mean to define knowledge as "justified, true belief"?
2. What is the "peer review" process and how does it contribute to the recognition of knowledge?
3. Specific ways of avoiding deception from quantitative information: (use old textbook chapter and class notes)

1 What is a measure?

2 Percentages and rates

3 Linear vs. Non-linear relationships

4 Baseline

5 Surveys

6 Cognitive Bias

1 Anchoring

2 Framing

3 Hindsight bias

4 Fundamental attribution error

5 Confirmation bias

6 Self-serving bias

7 Probability

1 Definition,

2 Gambler's fallacy,

3 Predictive dreams

4 SI jinx

8 Causation

1 Regression analysis

2 Multiple regression analysis

5th Discipline: Seeing Complexity

1. Simplification as part of knowledge production

2. Systems, complex systems, chaotic systems (links, nodes, degrees of separation)

3. Coupling, buffering, feedback loops

4. degrees of separation

5. Konigsburg bridge problem

6. Baltimore syphilis epidemic

7. What do good managers of complex systems do?

8. Thin slicing and the return of intuition

9. Stereotyping