Updated June 2024.

The following is from Fee.org:

Too often in practice, people equate critical thinking with merely being skeptical of whatever they hear. Or they will interpret it to mean that, when confronted with someone who says something that they disagree with, they either:

• a) stop listening (and perhaps then start shouting),
• b) find a way to squeeze the statement into our pre-existing belief system (if we can’t we stop thinking about it), or
• c) attempt to “educate” the speaker about why their statement or belief system is flawed. When this inevitably fails we stop speaking to them, at least about the subject in question.

Ultimately, each of these responses leaves us exactly where we started, and indeed stunts our intellectual growth.

To me, critical thinking means, at a minimum, questioning a belief system (especially my own) by locating the premises underlying a statement or conclusion, whether we agree with it or not, and asking:

• 1) whether or not the thinker’s conclusions follow from those premises,
• 2) whether or not those premises are “reasonable,” or
• 3) whether or not what I consider reasonable is “reasonable,” and so on.

https://fee.org/articles/critical-thinking-doesnt-mean-what-most-people-think/

There is a huge difference between questioning something to understand it better and arguing merely to win.

Being critical is simply pointing out what you see wrong with a thing.

Critical thinking seeks a better understanding of that thing.

Done right, there are no losers with critical thinking, only winners.

Critical Thinking Requires the Application of a Consistent Thinking Process.

I chose to use the TIDAL Approach to Decision Making.

Critical Thinking Process

• Step # 1 – Start with a Question
• Step #2 – Pick a target, goal, or answer to the question.
• Step 3: Gather information that will help you set the best target and formulate the best answer.
  • List the facts, beliefs, paradigms, premises, and other conclusions supporting the proposed answer.
  • Gather Evidence to support or refute your facts, beliefs, paradigms, premises, and/or conclusions.
• Step #4 – Make a decision
  • Independent of our agreement with the Answer, we need to state our agreement or disagreement with the following:
    • Does the Proposed Answer follow from those premises?
      • Is the Answer “reasonable?”
      • Are the facts, beliefs, paradigms, premises, or other conclusions used to support the proposed answer “Reasonable?”
    • Based on the Above – assign a “reasonableness” value to the Answer. The value would be from 100% reasonable to 0% reasonable.
      • It is 100% reasonable to believe a strawberry is a fruit.
      • It is 0% reasonable to believe a strawberry is a drawbridge.
• Step #5 – Act on the decision
  • Determine if the Answer causes you to change your beliefs or behavior.
  • If the answer causes you to change your behavior, develop a plan to change your beliefs or behavior.
  • If the answer supports your current actions, then add this answer to the list of confirming answers.
• Step #6 – Learn from the Process
  • Determine what you can learn from the process
    • If you cannot learn anything, you have determined that the process could not improve.
    • If you can learn something, find a way to retain that learning for future use.

Following this process is fairly easy. Coming up with the best answer is the hard part.

The challenge is overcoming the perceptual limitations caused by how our brains work.

Selective perception, confirmation bias, motivated reasoning, and cultural/linguistic biases are real things that affect our decision-making.

Critical Thinking Requires Discussion, not Debate.

Critical thinking is “debate” for the sake of better understanding, not just to win.

If you do debate right, there are no losers, only winners.

As an outcome of this lesson, you will develop skills in:

• Using the Elements of Reasoning and Intellectual Standards to create a critical thinking process that works well for you.
• Using the Elements of Reasoning and Intellectual Standards to think through intellectual, academic, personal, social, and political problems.
• Providing the intellectual tools you need to engage in fair-minded critical reasoning.

Critical Thinking: Tools for Taking Charge of Your Learning and Your Life

• Whatever you are doing right now is determined by how you think. 
• Whatever emotions you feel are determined by your thinking.
• Whatever you want – all your desires – are determined by your thinking.
• If your thinking is unrealistic, it will lead you to many disappointments.
• If your thinking is overly pessimistic, it will deny you due recognition of the many things you should properly rejoice in.   

Few people realize the powerful role that thinking plays in their lives, and fewer still gain a significant command of it.

Many are more hurt than helped by their thinking.

Poor thinking prevents many from recognizing opportunities. It often causes many to exert energy on the wrong things.

Skills to Improve Your Critical Thinking.

• The skill to think about your thinking.    Do not take your thinking for granted.
• The skill to have a clear intent.    Don’t simply think. Know why you are thinking about something. And once you know why you are thinking about something, think about how to achieve your intention. The skill is having clear goals and priorities. And the skill is to constantly check to see if your thinking is helping you achieve your intention.
• The skill to use decision tools to help in your thinking. There are many tools to help you think better. Libraries, search engines, spreadsheets, and calculators are just a few of the decision tools that we must master to master critical thinking.
• The skill to separate facts, beliefs, and assumptions and know when to use them.    
• The skill to learn from your thinking.    You need to understand the way the mind evaluates itself is inherently flawed. The skill is to consciously learn.