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
2. Terms: Rationales, arguments, explanations, claim, premise, conclusion, reflective/deliberative context. (p. 3)
3. Thinking in Stereo: what is it, what questions are asked at each level.
4. 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.
5. 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.
4. Reconstruction (skill) Might have a short argument to reconstruct.
5. Distinguishing Deductive and Inductive arguments. (skill) also, give definitions and compare. (Handbook topic: "Logical Structure in Deductive and Inductive Reasoning")
6. 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".)
7. Identify and give examples of basic deductive argument forms and formal fallacies.
8. Validity. (esp. relation to truth.) Can a valid argument have a false conclusion? In a valid argument is the conclusion always true?
9. Basic inductive patterns and inductive analogies.
10. Understand discussion of "Why Mars is Red" in "Form in Explanation"

3rd Discipline: Critical Response

1. 3 Techniques for assessing rationales. (skill)
2. What is critical response?
3. What is the difference between assessing rationales and giving a critical response?
4. Ad hominem fallacy
5. 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 Fundamental attribution error

4 Confirmation 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