How to Evaluate an Argument
People often talk about the importance of critical thinking without providing much in the way of guidance concerning what critical thinking involves in practice. Here's a bit of a crib sheet.You can find a variety of definitions of "critical thinking," some couched in fairly technical language, others more accessible to laypeople. The definition I like best I happened to find at a nursing department's website:
Critical thinking is a process that challenges an individual to use reflective, reasonable, rational thinking to gather, interpret and evaluate information in order to derive a judgment. The process involves thinking beyond a single solution for a problem and focusing on deciding what the best alternatives are.Aside from its use of plain English, what particularly appeals to me about this definition is its highlighting the relationship between critical thinking and judgment. One of the key attributes of highly effective businesspeople is their ability to consistently exercise good judgment in areas where they are experienced. As I've argued before, exercising good judgment is not just a matter of developing good instincts (though that's certainly important).
How do you put critical thinking into practice? The "critical thinking" entry in Wikipedia suggests asking open-ended questions like the following when evaluating someone's argument concerning a particular issue:
- What do you mean by ____________ ?
- How did you come to that conclusion?
- Why do you believe that you are right?
- What is the source of your information?
- What happens if you are wrong?
- Can you give me two sources who disagree with you and why?
- Why is this significant?
The Wikipedia entry also provides a list of additional resources on critical thinking.
Labels: Critical thinking
posted by Karen Nelson @ 7:04 AM
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