WGU - CRITICAL THINKING & LOGIC
IMPEDIMENTS/BAD HABITS TO SOUND THINKING: - ANS- Making generalizations
unsupported by evidence
- Letting stereotypes shape our thinking
- Viewing the world from one fixed vantage point
- Forming false beliefs
- Dismissing or attacking viewpoints that conflict with our own
- Thinking deceptively about our own experiences
EGOCENTRISM: - ANSthe tendency to view everything in relationship to oneself.
SOCIOCENTRISM: - ANSthe assumption that one's own social group is inherently superior to
all others.
CRITICAL THINKING IS CHARACTERISTICALLY: - ANSself-directed; self-disciplined;
self-monitored;
self-corrective; requires practicing good intellectual habits; "thinking about thinking".
FIRST-ORDER THINKING (ORDINARY THINKING): - ANSspontaneous and non-reflective;
contains insight, prejudice, good and bad reasoning indiscriminately combined
SECOND-ORDER THINKING (CRITICAL THINKING): - ANSfirst-order thinking that is
consciously realized (i.e., analyzed, assessed, and reconstructed).
FAIR-MINDEDNESS: - ANSto consider all relevant opinions equally without regard to one's own
sentiments or selfish interests; to bring an unbiased and unprejudiced perspective to all
viewpoints relevant to a situation. Involves adherence to Intellectual Standards along with
requiring the critical thinker to simultaneously embody certain key Intellectual Traits.
INTELLECTUAL UNFAIRNESS (opposite of fair-mindedness): - ANSto always see yourself as
right and just; nearly always involves an element of self-deception.
TRAITS/VIRTUES of a CRITICAL THINKER:
*terms used by Paul & Elder
(all relate fundamentally to fair-mindedness) - ANS-INTELLECTUAL AUTONOMY=thinking for
oneself while adhering to standards of rationality.
-INTELLECTUAL COURAGE=to develop the courage to challenge popular beliefs; confronting
ideas, views, beliefs with fairness, even when painful; examine beliefs that one has negative
feelings toward and has been dismissive of.
-INTELLECTUAL EMPATHY=to routinely inhabit the perspectives of others in order to genuinely
understand them.
, -INTELLECTUAL HUMILITY=commitment to discovering the extent of one's own ignorance.
Recognition that one does not/cannot know everything. To be conscious of one's biases and
prejudices.
-INTELLECTUAL INTEGRITY=striving to be true to one's own disciplined thinking and holding
oneself to the same standards that one expects others to meet.
-INTELLECTUAL PERSEVERANCE= the act of working one's way through intellectual
complexities despite frustrations inherent in doing so.
-CONFIDENCE IN REASON=encourages people to come to their own conclusions through the
use of their own
STRONG-SENSE CRITICAL THINKERS: - ANSto behave in ways that do not exploit or
otherwise harm others; work to empathize with the viewpoints of others; consistent pursuit of fair
and just; willing to listen to arguments they do not necessarily hold; change their views when
faced with better reasoning. Rather than using their thinking to manipulate others and to hide
from the truth (in a weak-sense way), they use thinking in an ethical, reasonable manner.
WEAK-SENSE CRITICAL THINKERS: - ANSfail to consider, in good faith, viewpoints that
contradict its own viewpoint; lacks fair-mindedness.
Sophistry - ANSThe art of winning arguments regardless of whether there are problems in the
thinking being used, regardless of whether relevant viewpoints are being ignored.
Sophistic thinkers - ANSUse lower-level skills of rhetoric, or argumentation, by which they make
unreasonable thinking look reasonable and reasonable thinking look unreasonable
Reasoning; key question to ask - ANSWhenever someone is reasoning, it makes sense to ask,
"Upon what facts or information are you basing your reasoning?"
Element: ASSUMPTIONS/PRESUPPOSED - ANSReasoning begins with our assumptions.
These encompass everything we take for granted as true in order to figure out something else.
Being able to identify assumptions (others' and our own) is essential to critical thinking.
Element: CONCEPTS - ANSReasoning takes form in concepts. Most of us take our concepts for
granted. Critical thinking requires us to be aware of the concepts we hold and consider how they
drive our reasoning.
Element: IMPLICATIONS/CONSEQUENCES - ANS
Element: INFERENCES - ANS
Element: INFORMATION - ANS
Element: POINT of VIEW - ANS
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