SET A Volume 1: Chapter 3: Critical Thinking

Implications/Consequences

-If someone accepted my position, what would be the implications? What am I implying?

Highly Motivated

A critical thinker must have a natural curiousity to further one's understanding and be _____________. Which is necessary to evaluate the multiple sides of issues before making a judgment.

Free Thinker

A critical thinker must have an independent mind or be a _______________ restraining one's desire to believe because of social pressures to conform

Ambiguity

A word or expression that can be understood in more than one way

Confirmation Bias and Selective Thinking, False Memories and Confabulation, Personal Biases and Prejudices, Physical and Emotional Hindrances, and Testimonial Evidence

Basic Human Limitations include:?

Open-minded, skeptical

Critical thinker must be both _____ and _______

Apophenia and superstition, Argument from ignorance, False analogies, Irrelevant comparison, Pragmatic fallacy, Slippery slope fallacy

Faulty Logic or Perception includes:?

Point of View

From what point of view am I looking at this issue? Is there another point of view I should consider?

Intellectual Humility

Having _____ means adhering tentatively to recently aquired opinions and being prepared to examine new evidence even if it leads to flaws in one's own arguments. To stop thinking that complex issues are either "black or white"

Basic Human Limitations, Use of Language, Faulty Logic or Perception and Psychological or Sociological Pitfalls

Hindrances to Critical Thinking can be divided into 4 Categories, what are they?

Conclusions/Inferences

How did I reach this conclusion? Is there another way to interpret the information?

Argument from ignorance

Is a logical fallacy claiming something is true because it has not been proven false

Apophenia and superstition

It is the erroneous perception of the connections between unrelated events. An example would be someone who irrationally believes wearing their hat while watching a football game can influence the score.

Meaningless comparisons

Meaningless comparisons include language that implies something is superior but retreats from that view. One example would be an advertisement claiming that a battery lasts "up to 30% longer, but does not say it will last 30% longer.

Ad hominem fallacy, Ad populum, Emotional appeal, Evading the Issue (Red Herring), Fallacy of False Dilemma, and Poisoning the well

Psychological and Sociological pitfalls include:?

Ambiguity, Assuring expression, Meaningless comparisons, Doublespeak jargon, Emotive content, False implications

The Use of Language include:?

Emotive content

The intentional use of words to arouse feelings about a subject to bias others positively or negatively, in order to gain influence or power.

(Purpose, Questions, Information, Inferences/Conclusions, Concepts, Assumptions, Implications/Consequences, and Points of View)

There are eight elements of thought:?

Assuring expression

These expressions are those that disarm you from questioning the validity of an argument. Expressions such as "As everyone knows..." and "Common sense tells us that..." can often lead a person to believe something that is not true.

Physical and Emotional Hindrances

These include stress, fatigue, drugs, and related hindrances

Personal Biases and Prejudices

These result from our own unique life experiences and worldview, which makes it difficult to remain objective and think critically.

Ad populum

This bandwagon fallacy is an appeal to the popularity of the claim as a reason for accepting the claim

Evading the Issue, Red Herring

This could happen when one is accused of wrongdoing by diverting attention to an issue irrelevant to the one at hand

Pragmatic fallacy

This is arguing something is true because "it works," even though the cause of this something and the outcome are not demonstrated

False Memories and Confabulation

This is being unaware that your memories are often "manufactured" to fill in the gaps in our recollection, or that some memories of facts, over time, can be unconsciously replaced with fantasy.

Confirmation Bias and Selective Thinking

This is the process where one tends to notice and look for what confirms one's beliefs, and to ignore, not look for, or undervalue what contradicts one's beliefs.

False implications

This is the use of language that is clear and accurate but misleading because it suggests something false.

Doublespeak jargon

This is the use of technical language to make the simple seem complex, the trivial seem profound, or the insignificant seem important, all done intentionally to impress others.

Poisoning the well

This is when one is creating a prejudicial atmosphere against the opposition, making it difficult for the opponent to be received fairly. An example would be someone making the statement, "Anyone who supports removing troops from Iraq is a traitor!"

Ad hominem fallacy

This type of fallacy is when one is criticizing the person making an argument, not the argument itself. An example would be "You should not believe a word my opponent says because he is just bitter because I am ahead in the polls."

Credible, Unbiased, and Accurate.

Three effective approaches for evaluating information are to ensure information is ______, _______, and __________

Testimonial Evidence

We should not rely on the testimonies and vivid stories of others to substantiate one's own beliefs, testimonies are inherently subjective, inaccurate, unreliable, biased, and occasionally fraudulent.

Assumptions

What am I taking for granted? What assumption has led me to that conclusion?

Purpose

What am I trying to accomplish? What is my central aim/purpose?

Infromation

What information am I using in coming to that conclusion? What experience have I had to support this claim? What information do I need to settle the question?

Decisions that are made without a lot of thinking and making sense of it later.

What is Reactive Thinking - System 1?

Decisions that have involve problem-solving and monitoring and self-correcting the process of the situation or problem.

What is Reflective Thinking - System 2?

Concepts

What is the main idea here? Can I explain this idea?

Questions

What question am I raising? What question am I addressing? Am I considering the complexities in the question?

Slippery slope fallacy

argument that assumes an adverse chain of events will occur, but offers no proof.

Fallacy of False Dilemma

intentionally restricting the number of alternatives, thereby omitting relevant alternatives from consideration. An example would be someone making the statement, "You are either with us, or with the terrorist!"

Irrelevant comparison

making a claim that printer A makes better copies than printer B, while ignoring the fact that only printer B can fax, copy, and scan.

False analogies

making illogical analogies to support the validity of a particular claim

Emotional appeal

making irrelevant emotional appeals to a claim (since emotion often influences people more effectively than logical reasoning).