CRITICAL THINKING

An Introduction by
Prof. Hyman Jay H. Blanco
 The Beginnings

 This is Socrates
 He was a teacher in Athens about 2500 years ago, and he started a
movement called Critical Inquiry, which is a method of questioning
and research that hopefully uncovers or leads us to the truth.
 The Wisest man?
 Socrates was actually a very annoying old man.
 He questioned people about their beliefs and about what they
thought they knew to be true.
 Some people thought him the wisest man in town.
 But he just said; “If I am wise, it is because I admit I know
nothing!
 QUESTIONS
 Socrates made it his business to unmask the false wisdom of his
contemporaries.

 He asked simple but awkward questions like “What is Right?”

Or “What is Good?” and “How do we know what we know?”

 Eventually the people of Athens got fed up with Socrates

questioning them and making them feel foolish. They arrested him
and charged him with corrupting the youth of the city and denying
the truths of religion.

 They found him guilty and voted to put him to death.

 Which just goes to show the dangers of Critical Inquiry!

 Six Types of Question
1 Questions for Clarification
2 Questions about Assumptions
3 Questions about Reasons and Evidence
4 Questions about Viewpoints and Perspectives
5 Questions about Implications and
Consequences
6 Questions about the question
 1 Clarify Please!

 Questions for Clarification

 Sometimes statements are ambiguous: their meaning is
unclear.

 ASK:
 Could you define that please?
 What exactly do you mean by that?
 I’m not sure I understand, could you explain?
 How does this relate to what we are talking about?
 Assumptions
 If you assume something, you don’t know if it is true or
not.

 Let’s assume the weather will be good next week.

 It’s a fair assumption, but it may not be true: there may

be a storm or unusual weather.

 Assumptions come from what we are used to seeing

happen, but history does not always repeat itself!
 2 Don’t Assume !
 Questions that probe underlying assumptions

 To test whether something is assumed by an argument,

you can use the negative test. Insert the opposite of the
alleged assumption into the argument and see if it still
makes sense.

 ASK:
 Aren’t you assuming that such-and-such is true?
 What could we assume instead?
 How can you verify or disapprove that assumption?
 3 Reasons and Evidence

 Questions that ask “ Why?”

and “ On what evidence ?”

 ASK:
 What criteria are we using here?
 What values are we assuming?
 What do you think caused this to happen?
 Might there be another explanation?
 How is this relevant?
 4 Viewpoints and Perspectives

 ASK YOURSELF:
 Is the writer / speaker qualified? What is his expertise?
 Is the speaker objective or biased?
 Is he neutral or does he have a vested interest?
 Does the writer show a cultural bias?

 ASK:
 · Is there another way to look at it?
 · Why it is necessary, and who benefits?
 · What are the strengths and weaknesses ?
 · How are this and that similar?
 · What might be a counterargument?
 5 Implications and
Consequences
 An implication is an unstated consequence. Try to bring
unstated arguments out into the open.

ASK:
 · What are you implying?
 · What are the consequences of that assumption?
 · How does this affect the outcome...?
 · How does this tie in with what we learned before?
 · Isn’t that a generalization?
 6 Questions about the question

 ASK:

 What is the point of this question?

 What exactly does this mean?
 How does this apply to everyday life?
 Why is this important?
 Is this relevant to the problem?