9/10/2020

Introduction to Critical
Thinking

Introduction to Critical Thinking

1. What is Thinking? 3. What is
2. Types of Thinking
Critical Thinking?

7. Characteristics of
a Critical Thinker 4. Critical Thinking
Standards

6. Barriers to 5. Benefits of
Critical Thinking Critical Thinking

1
 9/10/2020

What is thinking?

What is thinking?

 Bush-turkey can’t fly:

A: How do you know it?
D: I just know!
D: I believe it.
D: I am right!
D: I just do!
 We just see and remember phenomena but
rarely think, ask ourselves “why?” and seek
answers.

2
 9/10/2020

What is thinking?

 Bush-turkeys can’t fly:

A: How do you know it?
D: Because it is a convincing argument. In
order to fly, birds need to be aerodynamic.
Bush-turkeys aren’t aerodynamic. Therefore,
bush-turkeys can’t fly.
 We need to seek evidence, build up
arguments to convince others.  critical
thinking

What is thinking?

3
 9/10/2020

What is thinking?

 Are we thinking when/by watching this

video?  No
 Critical thinking = philosophical thinking =
thinking about thinking.
 Analyze thinking

 Evaluate thinking

Why does IU have this course?

To help you improve your

Thinking Skills 

HOW TO
THINK!
8

4
 9/10/2020

What is Critical Thinking?

Critical thinking is the general term given to a wide range

of cognitive skills and intellectual dispositions needed:
 to effectively identify, analyze, and evaluate arguments
and truth claims,
 to discover and overcome personal prejudices and
biases,
 to formulate and present convincing reasons in support
of conclusions; and
 to make reasonable, intelligent decisions about what to
believe and what to do.
Cognitive, intellectual : thuộc về nhận thức, trí óc. Prejudice: định kiến an unfair and
unreasonable opinion or feeling, especially when formed without enough thought or knowledge.
Bias: thành kiến often supporting or opposing a particular person or thing in an unfair way by
allowing personal opinions to influence your judgment

10

5
 9/10/2020

11

Critical Thinking Standards (CTS)

The most significant critical (intellectual)

thinking standards:
1. Clarity
2. Accuracy
3. Precision
4. Relevance
5. Depth
6. Breadth
7. Logic
8. Fairness
9. Cónisstency
12

6
 9/10/2020

1. Clarity
 Clarity is a gateway standard. If a statement is
unclear, we cannot determine whether it is accurate
or relevant.
 In fact we cannot tell anything about it because we do
not yet know what it is saying.
 Clarity in expression is a sign of intelligence
 Exploratory questions related to the Clarity Standard:
 Is my thinking clear?
 Do I need to elaborate my thinking more?
 Do I need to provide an illustration of what I mean?
 Do I need to give an example from everyday life?

Clarity is the gateway standard

13

Example of Clarity

“Tóm lại, đây là bài học cho những nhà trí

thức khi nhận định, phát biểu về một tôn giáo
mà cứ ngỡ mình đã nắm vững. Nhất là Phật
giáo, không đơn thuần như những tôn giáo
khác, lại là Phật giáo Bắc truyền quá đa dạng
và dung thông, hàm tàng nhiều triết thuyết vi
diệu.” (Minh Mẫn, PGVN, 05/09/2016)

14

7
 9/10/2020

Example of Clarity

Europe has a set of primary interests, which to us

have none, or a very remote relation. – Hence,
she must be engaged in frequent controversies,
the causes of which are essentially foreign to our
concerns. – Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in
us to implicate ourselves, by artificial ties in the
ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary
combinations and collisions of her friendships or
enmities. (George Washington, “Farewell
Address,” 1796)

15

Example of Clarity

Europe has a set of vital interests that are of little

or no concern to us. For this reason, European
nations will often become embroiled in conflicts
for reasons that don’t concern us. Therefore, we
shouldn’t form artificial ties that would get us
involved in the ordinary ups and downs of
European politics.

16

8
 9/10/2020

2. Accuracy

 A statement can be clear, but not accurate as in:

“Most chickens weight over 300 pounds in weight.”
 Questions related to evaluating the accuracy of
thinking include:

 Is my thinking accurate?
 How could I check to see if this is true?
 How could I find out if this is correct?
 How can I verify for accuracy?

17

CTS – Accuracy
 Is that really true?
 How could we check that?
 How could we find out if that is true?

This chicken
weighs over
300 pounds.

A statement can be clear but not accurate

18

9
 9/10/2020

2. Precision

 Precision - A statement can be both clear and

accurate, but not precise.
Example: “Yao Ming is tall.” How tall? Very tall? 2m
tall?
 Questions useful in assessing precision:
 Is my thinking as precise as it needs to be?
 Do I need to be more specific?
 Do I need to give more detail?
 Do I need to be more exact?
  How?

19

CTS – Precision (more specific)

Yao Ming is
TALL!

A statement can be both clear and accurate,

but not precise
20

10
 9/10/2020

Precision- example

A famous VN singer, Mỹ Linh caused an online

quarrel years ago by claiming: “If you want it to be
cheap, do not ask for clean foods”.
Facebookers insisted that she look down other people
(the poor, the peasants).
• Cheap = not precise (how much is cheap? 20.000
VND/kg or 200 VND/kg?)
• Clean foods = what? Meat, fish or vegetables?
• Clean = how clean it is? GAP (well-controlled)?
Organic?
• GAP food is not expensive at all.

21

4. Relevance
 A statement can be clear, accurate, and precise, but
not be relevant to the issue.
 A favorite debaters’ trick is to try to distract an
audience’s attention by raising an irrelevant issue
 Questioning the relevance:
 Is my thinking relevant to the issue?
 How does that relate to the question at hand?
 How does this information bear upon the problem I am
concerned with?
 How does this information help me deal effectively
with the issue?

22

11
 9/10/2020

CTS – Relevance

He is handsome. Therefore, he will pass the

Calculus 1 test. (?)

I studied hard all

semester, therefore I
should get A+.

A statement can be clear, accurate, and precise,

but not relevant to the question at issue.

23

5. Depth (sâu sắc, có chiều sâu)

 We rightly prefer deep and complete thinking to

shallow (nông cạn) and superficial (hời hợt)
thinking.
 Questions useful for evaluating depth of our
critical thinking:
 What factors make up this difficult problem?
 What are the complexities of this issue?
 What are the difficulties I need to deal with?
 Is my thinking taking into account the
different perspectives I need to consider?

24

12
 9/10/2020

6. Breadth (rộng, bao quát)

 The ability to recognize all sides of an issue: broad

view or thinking
 Questions useful for examining breadth:
 Am I looking at this issue in a narrow minded
way?
 Do I need to look at this from another
perspective?
 Do I need to consider another point of view?
 Do I need to look at this situation in other ways?

25

6. Breadth (rộng, bao quát)

 What would this look like from the point of view of

the student?

Headache!!! You got 0 marks for

“Participation”, because
you didn’t participate in
the class discussion at all.

A line of reasoning may be clear, accurate,

precise, relevant, and deep, but lack breadth.
26

13
 9/10/2020

7. Logical correctness

 When we think, we bring a variety of thoughts

together in some order. When the combination of
thoughts is mutually supporting and makes sense in
combination, the thinking is “logical.”
 Questions:
 Does this really make sense?
 Does that follow from what you said?
 How does that follow?
 But before you implied this and now you are saying
that; how can both be true?

27

7. Logical correctness

Bertrand Russell, in his classic essay “An Outline of

Intellectual Rubbish,” provides an amusing example:
I am sometimes shocked by the blasphemies of those
who think themselves pious—for instance, the nuns
who never take a bath without wearing a bathrobe all
the time. When asked why, since no man can see
them, they reply: “Oh, but you forget the good God.”

28

14
 9/10/2020

8. Fairness
Critical thinking demands that our thinking be fair.
 Open-minded

 Impartial = fair (công bằng)

 Free of distorting biases and preconceptions

Fair-mindedness is an essential Distort:

attribute of a Critical Thinker. xuyên tạc

29

9. Consistency (nhất quán)

A person holds inconsistent beliefs, at least one of

those beliefs must be false.
 2 kinds of inconsistency:

- Logical inconsistency: involves saying or

believing inconsistent things (i.e. things that
cannot both or all be true) about a particular
matter.
- Practical inconsistency: saying one thing and
doing another

30

15
 9/10/2020

Consistency

Example:

 MM: Key, Yogi, what do you say we eat at

Toots’ tonight?
 Yogi: Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too
crowded.
Example:
I'm all for equal rights for women. I just
think a woman's place is in the home.

31

Good Thinking is…

CLEAR……….....rather than........UNCLEAR
ACCURATE…....rather than…….INACCURATE
PRECISE……....rather than…….VAGUE
RELEVANT…….rather than…….IRELEVANT
CONSISTENT….rather than……INCONSISTENT
LOGICAL……….rather than……ILLOGICAL
COMPLETE……rather than……INCOMPLETE
FAIR…………….rather than…....BIASED

32

16
 9/10/2020

33

Benefits of Critical Thinking

 Academic Performance
 understand the arguments and beliefs of others
 Critically evaluating those arguments and beliefs
 Develop and defend one's own well-supported
arguments and beliefs.
 Workplace
 Helps us to reflect and get a deeper understanding
of our own and others’ decisions
 Encourage open-mindedness to change
 Aid us in being more analytical in solving problems

34

17
 9/10/2020

Benefits of Critical Thinking

 Daily life
 Helps us to avoid making foolish personal
decisions.
 Promotes an informed and concerned citizenry
capable of making good decisions on important
social, political and economic issues.
 Aids in the development of autonomous thinkers
capable of examining their assumptions, dogmas:
giáo điều, and prejudices.

35

36

18
 9/10/2020

Barriers to Critical Thinking

If Critical Thinking is so important, why is it

that uncritical thinking is so common?

Why is that so many people including many

highly educated and intelligent people find
critical thinking so difficult?

37

Barriers to critical thinking

1. Lack of relevant background information
2. Poor reading skills
3. Bias
4. Prejudice
5. Superstition
6. Peer pressure
7. Face-saving
8. Resistance to change
9. Selective perception
10. Rationalization
11. Scapegoating

38

19
 9/10/2020

Barriers to Critical Thinking

Five Powerful Barriers to Critical Thinking:
Self-centered thinking
 self-interested thinking
Egocentrism  self-serving bias

Group-centered thinking
 Group bias
Sociocentrism
 Conformism (tâm lý bầy đàn)

Beliefs that are presumed to be true

Unwarranted without adequate evidence or justification
Assumptions  Assumption (giả định)

Stereotyping (rập khuôn)

Wishful
Believing that something is true because
Thinking
one wishes it were true.
Relativistic The truth is “just a matter of opinion”
Thinking  Relativism (chủ nghĩa tương đối)

 Subjectivism (chủ quan chủ nghĩa)

 Cultural relativism (tương đối văn hoá)

39

Barriers to Critical Thinking

EGOCENTRISM – the tendency to view
one’s own interests, ideas and values as
superior to everyone’s else

SELF-INTERESTED THINKING – SELF-SERVING

tendency to accept and defend beliefs BIAS – tendency to
that harmonize one’s own self-interest overrate oneself
Tendency: khuynh hướng

40

20
 9/10/2020

Self-interested thinking

• Almost no one is immune to self-interested thinking.

• Most doctors support legislation making it more
difficult for them to be sued for malpractice; most
lawyers do not.
• Most factory workers support laws requiring advance
notice of plant closings; most factory owners do not.
• From a psychological standpoint, however, it is likely
that self-interest plays at least some role in shaping
the respective attitudes and beliefs.

41

Self-serving bias

• Self-serving bias is the tendency to overrate

oneself—to see oneself as better in some respect
than one actually is.
• If you are like most people, you probably think of
yourself as being an unusually self-aware person. If
so, then you too are probably suffering from self-
serving bias.
Ex: Drunkers always said: “I am never drunk.”

42

21
 9/10/2020

Barriers to Critical Thinking

Sociocentrism: group-centred thinking

 Group bias – the tendency to see one’s own

group as being inherently better than others
(ex: fellow-countrymen club, association)

 Herd instinct (conformism) – the tendency

to follow the crowd (tâm lý bầy đàn, a dua)

43

Barriers to Critical Thinking

Unwarranted Assumptions & Stereotyping

 Assumption – something taken for granted,

something we believe to be true without any
proof or conclusive evidence

 Unwarranted assumption – something taken

for granted without good reason

 Most common form is stereotyping (rập

khuôn, quơ đũa cả nắm)– making a hasty
generalization : “All Muslim are terrorist.”

44

22
 9/10/2020

Barriers to Critical Thinking

Wishful thinking (mơ tưởng)

 Believing something not because you had

good evidence for it but simply because you
wished it were true.
 Believing something because it makes one
feel good, not because there is good rational
grounds for thinking it is true.

45

Barriers to Critical Thinking

Relativistic thinking
 Relativism is the view that truth is a matter of opinion.

 There are two popular forms of relativism:

subjectivism and cultural relativism.

 Subjectivism is the view that truth is a matter of

individual opinion. (Mày khổ là do mày, đời chẳng có gì đúng,
sai, tốt, xấu cả, lăn tăn làm gì!)

 Cultural relativism is the view that truth is a matter of

social or cultural opinion.

 The most common form of relativism is moral

relativism.
46

23
 9/10/2020

Barriers to Critical Thinking

 Relativistic thinking - moral relativism.

 Moral subjectivism is the view that what is

morally right and good for A (individual), is
whatever A believes is morally right and
good.

 Cultural moral relativism is the view that

what is morally right and good for A (an
individual), is whatever A’s society or
culture believes is morally right and good.

47

Barriers to Critical Thinking

Several serious problems with cultural moral

relativism
1. Relativism makes it impossible for us to criticize
other cultures’ customs and values, even those
that intuitively seem to us to be terribly wrong.
2. Relativism makes it impossible for us to criticize
our own societies’ customs and values.
3. Relativism rules out the idea of moral progress.

48

24
 9/10/2020

Barriers to Critical Thinking

Cướp lộc hội đền Gióng là 'cướp có văn hóa'

03/03/2015 19:11 GMT+7
- Nhiều người nghĩ là cướp giật, nhưng
không phải, nó cũng giống tục cướp vợ của
người H'Mông. Đây là "cướp" có văn hóa,
"cướp" trong tục lệ - Phó Ban Tuyên giáo
Thành ủy HN lý giải.

49

Barriers to Critical Thinking

Lễ hội chém lợn ở Ném Thượng – Bắc Ninh

Is it too barbarian? How do you think?

50

25
 9/10/2020

 Why standards of critical thinking

are important to overcome the
barriers of critical thinking?

51

Reference

 http://www.criticalthinking.org
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNCOO
UK-bMQ
 http://www.criticalthinking.org/CTmodel/CT
Model1.cfm

http://www.teachertube.com/v.php?viewkey=
8caaadb505ab52c68278

52

26