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Critical Thinking

Critical thinking is a process by which the thinker improves the quality of his or her thinking by skillfully adjusting and adapting thought and imposing intellectual standards upon them.

Intellectual Standards

Universal intellectual standards are standards which must be applied to thinking whenever one is interested in checking the quality of reasoning about a problem, issue, or situation.

There are intellectual standards that critical users use to assess whether the logic in our mind mirrors the logic of the thing to be understood.  By Linda Elder and Richard Paul & The Foundation for Critical Thinking

Critical Thinking Intellectual Standards: Thinking About My Thinking

 

Clarity                To what extent is my point easily understood by myself and others?
 
Accuracy           To what extent is my information at hand true or correct without distortion?
 
Precision           To what extent is my information exact and specific to the necessary level of detail?
 
Relevance        To what extent does my information and input relate to the issue at hand?
 
Depth                To what extent am I engaging with the complexities of the issue?
 
Breadth             To what extent am I considering the issue at hand within the necessary contexts?
 
Logic                 To what extent do my conclusions follow from the evidence?
 
Significance      To what extent can I identify and focus on the most important aspects of the issue?
 
Fairness             To what extent am I able to avoid privileging my own biases?

 

From The Foundation for Critical Thinking

Critical Thinking - Standards of Thought - Part 2 - By Richard Paul

Part 2 - Dr. Richard Paul defines the universal standards with which thinking may be "taken apart" evaluated and assessed. Excerpted from the Socratic Questioning Video Series. (9:55)