Critical Thinking
(An abridged extract from an article by Michael Scriven & Richard Paul for the National Council for Excellence in Critical Thinking Instruction)
Critical thinking is the
“intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action”.
To become a critical thinker implies an open mind but the strict application of academic and intellectual processes in your reading, writing and research. Critical thinkers will spend time evaluating and validating the assumptions; concepts; empirical grounding; reasoning leading to conclusions; implications and consequences; objections from alternative viewpoints; and frame of reference of the works they are reviewing.
Critical thinking is not confined to one body of intellectual pursuit – indeed there are recognized processes in areas such as to critical scientific thinking, mathematical thinking, historical thinking, anthropological thinking, economic thinking, moral thinking, and philosophical thinking.
Critical thinking can be seen as having two components:
1) a set of information and belief generating and processing skills, and
2) the habit, based on intellectual commitment, of using those skills to guide behavior.
It is thus to be contrasted with:
1) the mere acquisition and retention of information alone, because it involves a particular way in which information is sought and treated;
2) the mere possession of a set of skills, because it involves the continual use of them; and
3) the mere use of those skills ("as an exercise") without acceptance of their results.
Critical thinking of any kind is never universal in any individual; everyone is subject to episodes of undisciplined or irrational thought. Its quality is therefore typically a matter of degree and dependent on, among other things, the quality and depth of experience in a given domain of thinking or with respect to a particular class of questions. No one is a critical thinker through-and-through, but only to such-and-such a degree, with such-and-such insights and blind spots, subject to such-and-such tendencies towards self-delusion. For this reason, the development of critical thinking skills and dispositions is a life-long endeavor.
Why Critical Thinking?
The Problem:
Everyone thinks; it is our nature to do so. But much of our thinking, left to itself, is biased, distorted, partial, uninformed or down-right prejudiced. Yet the quality of our life and that of what we produce, make, or build depends precisely on the quality of our thought. Shoddy thinking is costly, both in money and in quality of life. Excellence in thought, however, must be systematically cultivated.
A Definition:
Critical thinking is that mode of thinking - about any subject, content, or
problem - in which the thinker improves the quality of his or her thinking
by skillfully taking charge of the structures inherent in thinking and
imposing intellectual standards upon them.
The Result:
A well cultivated critical thinker:
- raises vital questions and problems, formulating them clearly and
precisely; - gathers and assesses relevant information, using abstract ideas to
interpret it effectively comes to well-reasoned conclusions and solutions, testing them against relevant criteria and standards; - thinks open mindedly within alternative systems of thought,
recognizing and assessing, as need be, their assumptions, implications, and practical consequences; and - communicates effectively with others in figuring out solutions to complex problems.
Useful links:
Critical book or article reviews: