Chapter 1: Critical
Thinking basics
Slides developed by Dr. Musicha N. Shariff
Critical Thinking, 9th Edition by Moore & Parker
Objectives
Explaining an Issue or Problem
Employing Evidence/Information
Effectively
Analyzing Contexts
Describing Your and Others Perspectives
Formulating a Thesis/Hypothesis
Drawing Logical Conclusions
What is critical thinking?
The careful application of reason in the
determination of whether a claim is true.
Everybody makes errors of judgment; keep
such errors to a minimum and learn to do it.
THE BASICS
Claims
Issues
Arguments
…
Identifying these elements, including
separating them out from
embellishments and impostors, and
analyzing and evaluating
Claims
The things we say, aloud or in writing, to convey
information—to express our opinions or beliefs.
Statements are the kinds of things that are true
or false.
Statements, judgments , assertions
CT helps with examination and evaluation of
claims, including their relationships to each other
Issue
Whenever we call a claim into question—
that is, when we ask questions about its
truth or falsity—we raise an issue.
An issue is nothing more than a
question—in fact, we can use the two
words interchangeably.
We answer the question or settle the
issue.
Arguments
The single most important ingredient in critical
thinking.
To weigh the reasons for and against the claim
and try to determine its truth or falsity.
“My grandmother died, and I had to miss class to
attend the funeral”
We produce an argument when we give a
reason for thinking that a claim is true.
Definition of argument
An argument consists of two parts; the
premise(s) supposedly provides a reason
for thinking that the other part (the
conclusion) is true.
Sometimes arguments do not need two
people; we make arguments for our own
use all the time
Premise and conclusion
Premise:
A claim that is offered as a
reason for believing another claim
Conclusion:
Answers the question asked by
the issue
Issue: Should high school students be allowed in
class with mobile phones?
Conclusion: Yes (high school students should be
allowed in class with mobile phones)
Premise (Reason): There might be emergency
family calls
Conclusion: No (high school students shouldn’t be
allowed in class with mobile phones)
Reason: There will be no full concentration
…
Whether an argument is a good
one depends on whether the
premise really does prove or
support the conclusion—
whether it really gives us a
reason for thinking the
conclusion is true.
Components to the premise’s support of
the conclusion
only if the premise is
true.
relevant
what arguments are not
feud or fuss
Arguments and Explanations
An argument is a rationale in which the reason
presents evidence in support of a claim made in the conclusion. Its
purpose is to provide a basis for believing the conclusion to be true.
An argument answers the question: How do you know? This is a
request for evidence.
An explanation is a rationale in which the reason presents
a cause of some fact represented by the conclusion. Its purpose is
to help us understand how or why that fact occurs.
An explanation answers the question: Why is that so? This is a request
for a cause.
Arguing that a dog has fleas is quite different from explaining what
caused the fleas. Arguing that violent crime has increased is
different from explaining what caused it to increase.
I think Hazel must have forgotten about our
appointment. She's an hour late.
Hazel is an hour late for our appointment because
she forgot about it.
Martha: I think the battery on my iPod is worn out. It doesn't
play as long as it used to. I guess it's just been recharged too
many times.
The relation between R1 and the conclusion is evidential
in nature. R2 is not additional evidence that the battery
is worn out. It is a proposed cause. Hence, what Martha
has given us here is actually an argument combined with
an explanation. This is extremely common.
Is there a difference?
A. Ahmed has a knee injury because
he tripped and fell
B. Zaynab could not do her homework
because she took her sister to the
hospital
Arguments and Persuasion
An argument attempts to prove or
support a conclusion.
Persuasion: an attempt to win a person to
your point of view
Sometimes you might use an argument to
persuade someone. Not all arguments
attempt to persuade and many attempts to
persuade do not involve arguments.
Consider advertisements
TWO KINDS OF GOOD ARGUMENTS
Deductive
Inductive
Deductive Arguments
A good deductive argument , is said to be
“valid,” which means it isn’t possible for the
premises to be true and the conclusion false.
Premise: Mogadishu is the capital city of
Somalia. Ahmed lives in Mogadishu.
Conclusion: Therefore, Ahmed lives in
Somalia.
The premises , assuming they are true, prove or
demonstrate the conclusion.
Mr Shariff is teaching CT to
Marine students now in the hall.
Zakarie is a Marine student in
the hall.
Therefore, Zakarie in in Mr
Shariff’s class now.
Inductive Arguments
The premises of a good inductive argument , don’t prove or
demonstrate the conclusion. They support it.
This means that, assuming they are true, they raise the
probability that the conclusion is true.
Premise: Most people living in Mogadishu have canjero for
breakfast. Ahmed lives in Mogadishu.
Conclusion: Therefore, it’s likely that he has canjero for
breakfast.
This means that, assuming they are true, they raise the
probability that the conclusion is true.
Premise indicators
Since . . .
For . . .
Because . . .
In view of . . .
This is implied by . . .
Given . .
Conclusion indicators
Therefore…
It follows that . . .
This shows that . . .
Thus . . .
Hence . . .
Consequently . . .
Accordingly . . .
So . . .
My conclusion is . . .
Other terms and concepts
Truth
Knowledge
Value judgements
Truth
a legitimate claim—that is, one that
makes sense—is either true or false in
the normal, commonsense way.
Truth and falsity are properties of
claims
Mogadishu is the capital city of Somalia
Knowledge
You can say that you know a claim is
true if you believe so and can
provide justification for it with no
reason to suspect that you are
mistaken
Value judgements
A term for a claim that expresses an
evaluation of something.
It was fantastic
It was the worst day of my life
Examples of value judgments
Aesthetic values (beautiful, ugly)
Culinary values (delicious, tasteless)
Moral/ethical values (honest, trustworthy)
Misconception about value judgements
People are free to accept whatever value
judgment they please and that all value
judgments are equally plausible. WRONG
Sometimes you need to subject a value
judgment to critical examination to
challenge or defend it
For tastes we do not need to evaluate
The situation is different where serious
Extraneous Considerations:
Logical Window Dressing
People dress up what they say with
rhetoric —language that has
psychological force but carries no
extra weight logically.
Determine which of the following passages contain arguments.
For any that do, identify the argument’s conclusion.
1. The Directory of Intentional Communities lists more than two
hundred groups across the country organized around a variety of
purposes, including environmentally aware living.
2. Carl would like to help out, but he won’t be in town. We’ll have to
find someone else who owns a truck.
3. In 1976, Washington, D.C., passed an ordinance prohibiting
private ownership of firearms. Since then, Washington’s murder rate
has shot up 121 percent. Bans on firearms are clearly
counterproductive.
4. Computers will never be able to converse intelligently through
speech. A simple example proves this. The sentences “How do you
recognize speech?” and “How do you wreck a nice beach?” have
different meanings, but they sound similar enough that a computer
could not distinguish between the two.
5. Recent surveys for the National Science Foundation report that
two of three adult Americans believe that alien spaceships account
for UFO reports. It therefore seems likely that several million
Americans may have been predisposed to accept the report on
NBC’s Unsolved Mysteries that the U.S. military recovered a UFO
with alien markings.