Chapter 1: Critical Thinking
(F) Day of the week: Tuesday Class: IS209 Created Time: March 3, 2020 2:10 PM Database: Class Notes Database Date: March 3, 2020 2:10 PM Days Till Date: Passed Last Edited Time: June 9, 2021 10:42 AM Type: Lecture
Lower order thinking: remembering and reciting information in tests.
High order thinking: evaluate ideas, analyze, and independently make up their minds from evidence.
Critical Thinking: the use of skills and expertise to evaluate arguments, without bias/preconceptions, to see what to believe and make intelligent decisions.
Preconception: generally accepted concepts that changes relative to different context
1. Critical Thinking Standards
1.1 Clarity
to evaluate a person’s argument you need to understand them.
People fail to express themselves clearly. Critical thinkers not only strive for clarity of language but also seek maximum clarity of thought.
1.2 Precision
precise answers to precise questions allows for clearer understanding of arguments or counter arguments
1.3 Accuracy
bad decisions if your decisions are based on false information
Ex: American’s repeated failures in the Vietnam war was due to actions from inaccurate information
1.4 Relevance
staying focused on relevant ideas and information, bringing up related evidence for your arguments
1.5. Consistency
Inconsistent beliefs make at least one of the beliefs untrue.
- Logical Inconsistency: saying/believing things that contradict one another.
- Practical Inconsistency: saying one thing and doing another, contradicting yourself.
1.6 Logical Correctness
draw well-founded conclusions from the beliefs we hold. Beliefs can’t contridict one another.
1.7 Completeness
Deep and complete thinking will help make your conclusion more accurate. Indept analysis is better than shallow ideas.
1.8 Fairness
openminded, impartial, and free of distorting biases and preconceptions
completely free of biases ideas are not possible but efforts to be unbaised will help.
2. Benefits of Critical Thinking
In Classroom
- understanding the arguments and beliefs of others
- critically evaluating those arguments and beliefs
- developing and defending one’s own well-supported arguments and beliefs
In Workplace
Critical Thinking is a soft skill that is transferable among work place and is not easy to develop in the workplace.
Soft Skills are more valued than Hard Skills
In Life
Critical Thinking will help you make educated and intellegent decisions in society
- Promoting The Democratic Process through voting
- Career Choice: making important decisions for your life
- Learning for personal enrichment: encourage ideas that challenge unlogical societal norms
3. Barriers to Critical Thinking
3.1 Egocentrism
Thinking yourself is better/superiors than everyone else
Your opinion/actions are always right Other’s opinion/actions are always wrong
a. Self-interested Thinking
tendency to believe something is good/better because it benefits themselves
Critical Thinking demands that we weigh evidence and arguments objectively and impartially. Ultimately, it demands that we revere truth—even when it hurts.
b. Self-serving Bias
The average people overate themselves.
Personal Growth can only happen by knowing your weakness and where you are lacking.
3.2 Sociocentrism
💡 is group centered thinking reduces critical thinking to conform with everybody
Group Bias
Belief their group(nation, tribe, neighborbood) is better than other’s
Conformism
The tendency to go with the crown from the desire to belong
Agreeing to something because many believe so.
3.3 Unwarranted Assumption and Stereotypes
Assumption belief in something without proof or conclusive evidence due to past or trustworthy source
Unwarranted Assumption belief in something without being reasonable by generalizing things from few cases.
3.4 Relativistic Thinking
Relativism
Truth is a matter of opinion
- Subjectivism: truth for a person is a matter of individual opinion
- Cultural Relativism: truth is a matter of social or cultural opinion or is a social construct
- Moral Relativism
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Moral Subjectivism: what is morally right and good for an individual is what they believe to be right and good
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Cultural Moral Relativism: what is morally right and good is according to their society or culture believes is morally right and good
Problems of Relativism
- Other’s horrible customs and traditions cannot be judged by a relativist (Child sacrifice, slavery)
- We cannot criticize our own societies, minority opinion opposite of the society will be wrong
- Relativist doesn’t recognize moral progress, as good and bad is relative ⇒ the shift in values is just change
- Relativism leads to conflicting moral duties
- You believe in opposition to your societal belief
- If you belong to two or more culture that conflicts one another in beliefs
3.5 Wishful Thinking
I wish * were true. Therefore, * is true.