ADDIS ABABA SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY UNIVERSITY

DEPPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY (PHIL1009)

TITLE: INTRODUCTION TO CRITICAL THINKING

NAME: ABDULHAKIM KEDIR FETU

ID NUMBER: ETS 0017/15

SECTION: 1

Summited to: inst. Mohammed Zeinu

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Table of Contents
CHAPTER FOUR
BASIC CONCEPT OF CRITICAL THINKING………………………………………………………….. 2
Lesson 1: Meaning of Critical Thinking………………………………………………………3
Lesson 2: Standard of Critical Thinking ………………………………………………………3
Lesson 3: Benefit of Critical Thinking ……………………………………………………… 6

3.1 Critical Thinking in Class room ……………………………………………………… 7

3.2 Critical Thinking in Work place ……………………………………………………7

3.3 Critical Thinking in Life …………………………………………………………………… 7

Lesson 4: Barriers of Critical Thinking …………………………………………………8

Lesson 5: Characteristics of Critical Thinker ………………………………………12

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INTRODUCTION
This chapter is about the power of disciplined thinking. It is about learning to think for yourself
and being your own person. The main goal of teaching critical thinking is therefore, to teach
students how to think; that is, how to become independent, self-directed thinkers and learners. It
is about the personal empowerment and enrichment that result from learning to use your mind to
its fullest potential. In short, it is about critical thinking. In this chapter, we deal with the
meaning, standards, principles, characteristics, barriers, and benefits of critical thinking

Meaning of 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 preconceptions 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.

However, it does not automatically follow that being intelligent means being able think critically
or reason about information in a useful effective and efficient manner. Being smart and
intelligent is not sufficient. Critical thinking is thinking clearly, thinking fairly, thinking
rationally, thinking objectively, and thinking independently.

Critical thinking standards clarity

Before we can effectively evaluate a person’s argument or claim, we need to understand clearly
what he or she is saying. Unfortunately, that can be difficult because people often fail to express
themselves clearly. Sometimes this lack of clarity is due to laziness carelessness, or lack of skill.
Critical thinkers not only strive for clearly of language but also seek maximum clarity of thought.
As self-help books constantly remind us, to achieve our personal goals in life we need a clear
conception of our goals and priorities, a realistic grasp of our abilities, and a clear understandings
of the problems and opportunities we face. Such self-understanding can be achieved only if we
value and pursue clarity of thought.

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 precision

Precision is a matter of being exact, accurate and careful. Most ideas are vague and obscures
though we think we have precise understanding of them. Everyone recognizes the importance of
precision in specialized fields such as medicine, mathematics, architecture, and engineering.
Critical thinkers also understand the importance of precise thinking in daily life. they understand
that to cut through the confusions and uncertainties that surround many everyday problems and
issues, it is often necessary to insist on precise answer to precise questions.

accuracy

Accuracy is about correct information. Critical thinking should care a lot about genuine
information. There is well known saying about computers: “Garbage in garbage out,” simply put,
this means that if you put bad information in to a computer, bad information is exactly what you
will get out of it. Much the same is true of human thinking. Critical thinkers don’t merely value
the truth; they have a passion for accurate, timely information. As consumers, citizens, workers,
and parents, they strive to make decisions that are as informed as possible. In the spirit of
Socrates’ famous statement that the un examined life is not worth living, they never stop
learning, growing, and inquiring.

Relevance

The question relevance is a question of connections. When there is a discussion or debate, it

should focus on relevant ideas and information. Lincoln he said “Gentleman, you must be careful
and not permit yourselves to be overcome by the eloquence of counsel for defense.” critical
thinkers do not collect any information; they focus and carefully choose only the information that
has logical relation with ideas at hands. A critical thinker should be relevant in his ideas and
thoughts.

Consistency

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Consistency is about the quality of always behaving in the same way or of having the same
opinions or standards. There are two kinds of inconsistency that we should avoid. One is logical
inconsistency, which involves saying or believing inconsistent things it means things that cannot
both or all be true about a particular matter. The other is practical Inconsistency, which involves
saying one thing and doing another. More interesting from a critical thinking standpoint are cases
in which people are not fully aware that their words conflict with their deeds. Such cases
highlight an important lesson of critical thinking: human beings often display a remarkable
capacity for self-deception. It is also common, of course, for people to unknowingly hold
inconsistent beliefs about a particular subject. In fact, as Socrates pointed out long ago, such
unconscious logical inconsistency is far more common than most people suspect. As we shall
see, for example, many today claim that “morality is relative,’’ while holding a variety of views
that imply that it is not relative. Critical thinking helps us recognize such logical inconsistencies
or, still better, avoid them altogether.

Logical correctness

To think logically is to reason correctly; that is, to draw well founded conclusions from the
beliefs held. To think critically we need accurate and well supported beliefs. But just as
important, we need to be able to reason from those beliefs to conclusions that logically follow
from them. Unfortunately, illogical thinking is all too common in human affairs. When the
combination is not mutually supporting, is contradictory in some sense, or does not make sense
the combination, is not logical.

Completeness

In most contexts, we rightly prefer deep and complete thinking to shallow and superficial
thinking. Of a thorough and wide-ranging discussion of the ethics of human genetic research in
a short newspaper editorial. Generally speaking, however, thinking is better when it is deep
rather than shallow, thorough rather than superficial.

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 Fairness

Finally, critical thinking demands that our thinking be fair that is, open minded, impartial, and
free of distorting biases and preconceptions. That can be very difficult to achieve. It is probably
unrealistic to suppose that our thinking could ever be completely free of biases and
preconceptions; to some extent we all perceive reality in ways that are powerfully shaped by our
individual life experiences and cultural backgrounds. But as difficult as it may be to achieve,
basic fair mindedness is clearly as an essential attribute of a critical thinker.

The benefit of critical thinking

The benefits Critical thinking includes; how to raise and identify fundamental questions and
problems in the community, to reformulate these problems clearly and precisely, how to gather
and assess relevant information, develop reasoned conclusions and solutions, testing them
against relevant criterion and standards. It is also how to be open minded to alternative system
of thought, recognize and assess your own assumptions, implications and practical
consequences, how to communicate effectively with others in figuring out solutions to complex
problems. The effects of developing keen problem solving skills cannot be understated.
Problem solving skills have the potential to impact individuals more immediately and often
with ramifications for the future

Critical thinking in the classroom

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Students who implement critical thinking skills approach the courseware in a more thoughtful and
effective manner, ask more challenging questions and participate in the learning process more
intensely. Students who develop critical thinking skills often practice those skills well into latter life.
These skills may, in fact, literally change their lives forever. Developing critical thinking abilities
translates to both academic and job success. Using these skills, students tend to expand the
perspectives from which they view the world and increase their ability to navigate the important
decisions in learning and in life. At one time, educators believed that content knowledge was enough
for students to succeed. It was thought that for the most part of information that students learned in
school were the same information that their parents learned. That paradigm has shifted in a changing
world typified by instant communication, 24/7 news cycles and the desire to know as much as possible
as quickly as possible. The power and speed of technology has created a world where information
changes quickly, and new ideas can be distributed and adapted almost instantaneously. It has also
resulted in inaccurate and miss-information which has to be sorted through and questioned critically.
Today it is important that students learn critical thinking skills, so they can be both the inventors and
the critics of the new information.

Critical thinking in work place

Critical thinking in the workplace has the potential to impact people either in a negative or positive way
through the decision making process. Often decisions made and passed along to people within
organizations without much thought based on the need to take some action. In this case, the impact
for “normal” actions may be harmless based on daily routine. Using critical thinking skills is a benefit
for employees as well as management when the practice is modeled and promoted from the top to the
bottom of the organizational hierarchy.

Critical thinking in life

Critical thinking is valuable in many contexts outside the classroom and the work place. Critical thinking
can help us avoid making foolish personal decisions. All of us have at one time or another made
decisions about what profession to choose, what relationships to enter into, what personal behavior to
develop, and the like that we later realized were seriously misguided or irrational. Critical thinking can

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help us avoid such mistakes by teaching us to think about important life decisions more carefully,
clearly, and logically. Critical thinking plays a vital role in promoting democratic processes. Critical
thinking is worth studying for its own sake, simply for the personal enrichment it can bring to our lives.

Barriers of critical thinking

There are a number of factors that impede a critical thinking. Some of the most common barriers to
critical thinking are; egocentrism (self-centered thinking), socio centrism ( Group centered thinking),
relativistic thinking, unwarranted assumptions and stereotyping, wishful thinking and see one by one.

Egocentrism

One of the barriers to critical thinking that is most difficult to overcome is the tendency to view
everything in relation to oneself. Many people have a propensity to only consider their own interests, a
deficit that makes them unable to sympathize with anyone else or any differing viewpoints. Analyzing
various perspectives to evaluate their validity and to find the best aspects of each is an important part
of critical thinking. The reason this barrier is so difficult to overcome is because most egocentric people
are unwilling or unable to identify this characteristic within them selves. Egocentrics are selfish, self-
absorbed people who view their interests, ideas, and values as superior to everyone else. Two common
forms this are self-interested thinking and the superiority bias.
Self-interested thinking is the tendency to accept and defend beliefs that harmonize with on self-
interest. Almost no one is immune to self-interested thinking. Superiority 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 who is largely immune
from any such self-deception.

Socio centrism

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It is group-centered thinking. Socio centrism can hinder rational thinking by focusing excessively on the
group. Socio centrism can distort critical thinking in many ways.
Two of the most important are group bias and conformism.

Group bias is the tendency to see one‘s own as being inherently better than others. Social scientists tell
us that such thinking is extremely common throughout human history and across cultures. Just as we
seem naturally inclined to hold inflated views of ourselves, so we find it easy to hold inflated views of
our family, our community, or our nation. Conversely, we find it easy to look with suspicion or disfavor
on those we regard as “outsiders”. Although most people outgrow such childish nationalistic biases to
some extent, few of us manage to outgrow them completely. Clearly, this kind of “mine-is-better”
thinking lies at the root of a great deal of human conflict, intolerance, and oppression
Conformism refers to our tendency to follow the crowd - that is, to conform (often unthinkingly) to
authority or to group standards of conduct and belief. The desire to belong, to be part of the in-group,
can be among the most powerful of human motivations. This desire can seriously cripple our powers of
critical reasoning and decision-making. As critical thinkers, we need to be aware of the seductive power
of peer pressure and reliance on authority and develop habits of independent thinking to combat
them.

Unwarranted assumptions and stereotyping

Assumption is something we take for granted It. could be something we believe without any proof or
conclusive evidence. Assumption is a normal thing because everyone can make or say it. Thus, what is
an abnormal thing which can distort your critical thinking? It’s reasonable since you do like to proclaim
something without proof. Unwarranted assumptions are unreasonable . Unwarranted assumptions
often prevent us from seeing things clearly. It would be impossible to get through a day without
making assumptions; in fact, many of our daily actions are based on assumptions we have drawn from
the patterns in our experience. One of the most common types of unwarranted assumptions is a
stereotype.
A stereotype is begun by unwarranted assumptions. A stereotype is arrived through a process known
as a hasty generalization. It concludes a huge/big/large thing from a small sample. If we meet one
grumpy batak person, we sometimes conclude that the other Batak people are grumpy also. It leads
you to make a logical fallacy because you have made a hasty generalization.

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The assumptions we need to become most conscious of are not the ones that lead to our routine
behaviors, such as carrying an umbrella or going to class, but the ones on which we base our more
important attitudes, actions, and decisions. If we are conscious of our tendency to stereotype, we can
take measures to end it.

Relativistic thinking

Relativism holds that one's perspective determines what is true. Subjectivism and cultural
relativism are the two widely used types of relativism.

Subjectivism is the view that truth is a matter of individual opinion, and there is no such thing as
objective or absolute truth. For example, Bobby believes that abortion is wrong and Alice
believes it is not always wrong, but both beliefs are true for them. This is the only kind of truth
there is.

Cultural relativism is what is true for person A is what the majority of individuals in a given
community or culture considers being true. There is no objective or unalterable measure of truth,
for instance, since drinking wine is morally acceptable in France but judged immoral in Iran.

The idea that truth is relative in certain significant fields is known as relativism. Moral
subjectivism and cultural moral relativism are its two main sub-types.

According to moral subjectivism, what is morally right and good for a particular person is
whatever they perceive to be right and good. Thus, premarital sex is not always inappropriate for
Jennifer but is always inappropriate for Andy.

Cultural moral relativism is the view that what is morally right and good for an individual is
whatever society or culture believes is right and good. It is popular among the young due to the
nature of moral disagreement and the value of tolerance.

Since there is broad disagreement and no logical means to resolve it, ethics differs from math
and science in this regard. This implies that morality is merely a matter of personal or cultural
opinion and that there is no objective truth in ethics. As an example, if culture A thinks

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polygamy is wrong and culture B thinks it is right, then culture A must agree that polygamy is
right for culture B, regardless of how offensive it may be to culture A. This is why cultural moral
relativism is appealing because it implies that we must be tolerant of other cultures' moral beliefs
and values.

Relativism is a type of moral relativism that prevents people from criticizing the traditions and
beliefs of other civilizations, including racial segregation. Additionally, it disproves the notion of
moral advancement, resulting in moral obligations that clash.

Relativists can find themselves stuck with conflicting moral beliefs and duties due to their
membership in a society that holds beliefs that conflict with moral relativism. When a relativist
belongs to two or more cultures and those cultures hold mutually inconsistent moral beliefs. Can
a person belong to two different cultures at the same time? If such dual membership is possible,
conflicts can occur between the two cultures' moral codes, leading to conflicting moral duties.

Deep ethical disagreement does not necessarily imply the absence of an absolute moral truth.
This is comparable to religion, where there is a dispute regarding the existence of God and the
afterlife. God's existence may be difficult to determine, yet it is not merely a matter of opinion.

Even if it may not always encourage tolerance, cultural moral relativism teaches us to embrace
the traditions and ideals of our culture. It helps us to think critically about the challenges of
living an ethical life and to open our hearts and minds to other people's ethical opinions.
Additionally, it promotes in us the value of intellectual humility.

Wishful thinking

Wishful thinking prevents critical thinking, which can result in poor decision-making and
analysis. People can take measures to combat it, including evaluating information objectively,
taking other perspectives into account, and being conscious of their own biases. Wishful thinking
is a frequent occurrence in human history, when people create reassuring stories out of a fear of

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the unknown to make the world less hostile and more predictable. They Fantasise about having
super human abilities and believe unquestioningly in reports of psychic prediction, levitation,
and ESP. They fool themselves into believing it can’t happen to them by purchasing mass-
market tabloids with headlines like “Spiritual Sex Channeler: Medium Helps Grieving Widows
Make Love to their Dead Husbands,” only to deal with the repercussions of unintended
pregnancies, driving convictions due to intoxication, drug addiction, or AIDS.

Characteristics of a Critical Thinker

Critical thinkers are those persons who can move beyond “typical” thinking models to an advanced way
of thinking. Critical thinkers produce both more ideas and improved ideas than poor thinkers. They
become more adept in their thinking by using a variety of probing techniques which enable them to
discover new and often improved ideas. More specifically, critical thinkers tend to see the problem from
many perspectives, to consider many different investigative approaches, and to produce many ideas
before choosing a course of action. In addition, they are more willing to take intellectual risks, to be
adventurous, to consider unusual ideas, and to use their imaginations while analyzing problems and
issues.

Thinkers who are critical

 Draw logical inferences from the available information and facts.

 Accept criticism of your views and presumptions and listen to different points of view
with an open mind.
 Instead of relying on bias or self-interest, they base their beliefs on facts and evidence.
 Are conscious of the prejudices and assumptions that affect how they view the world.
 Think independently and express your disagreement with group consensus without fear.
 Possess the intellectual fortitude to confront and objectively evaluate concepts that
contradict even their most fundamental convictions.

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 An absence of critical thinking

 Lie about their knowledge and disregard their limitations.

 Are closed-minded and resent having their opinions and presumptions criticized.
 Lack of knowledge of one's own assumptions and biases.
 Group-think is a tendency where people blindly adopt the opinions and ideals of the
majority.
 Are unable to focus on the core of a problem or issue and are easily diverted.
 Ideas that contradict their core beliefs are feared and rejected.

Conclusion
Critical thinking generally refers to a wide range of cognitive skills and intellectual dispositions needed to
effectively identify, analyze, and evaluate arguments and truth claims. Critical thinking have standards
because it is disciplined thinking. These are clarity, accuracy, precision, relevance, consistency, logical
correctness, completeness, and fairness. Critical thinkers,
They have many benefits from critical thinking. Specifically critical thinking have benefits in class room,
in the Workplace and in life. Firstly In class room critical thinking has a benefit for Students ;who
implement critical thinking skills approach the courseware in a more thoughtful and effective manner.
Secondly critical thinking has a benefit in work place to encourages employees and managers to
observe various situations. In last critical thinking have benefit in day to day life. It can help us avoid
making foolish personal decisions. Critical thinking can help us avoid such mistakes by teaching us to
think about important life decisions more carefully, clearly, and logically .There are a number of factors
that impede a critical thinking. Egocentrism (tendency to view everything in relation to oneself or it is
preferred as self-centered thinking), socio centrism (group centered thinking), relativistic thinking(view
that truth is a matter of opinion), unwarranted assumptions and stereotyping, wishful thinking are the
most barriers of critical thinking.

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References

1. "The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking" by Richard Paul and Linda Elder
2. "Thinking, Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahneman
3. "How to Read a Book" by Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren
4. "The Art of Reasoning" by David Kelley
5. "A Rulebook for Arguments" by Anthony Weston
6. "The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark" by Carl Sagan
7. "The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe" by Steven Novella, et al.
8. "The Power of Critical Thinking" by Lewis Vaughn
9. "Critical Thinking: An Introduction" by Alec Fisher
10. "The Elements of Reasoning" by Ronald Munson and Andrew Black.

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