Critical Thinking
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"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
- Aristotle
"Defending one’s beliefs despite contrary evidence is the highest mark of stupidity."
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Critical thinking is the process of using evaluated reasoning to reach logical conclusions about
arguments.
Experts agree that critical thinking consists of six key areas. My definitions follow:
1. Interpretation: Correctly extracting the intended and essential meaning from information.
2. Analysis: To assess the parts and relationships of communication.
3. Evaluation: To use intellectual standards to judge the truth, credibility, or logical strength of a
statement.
4. Inference: To draw reasonable meaning, conclusions, or consequences from information,
knowledge, or evidence
5. Explanation: To “attempt to show why or how something happens” (William Hughes).
6. Self-regulation: To consistently apply rules of intellectual expertise to one's own arguments.