WGU Critical Thinking -D265 Study Guide Graded A+
Critical thinking
Being curious and thinking creatively:
Separating the thinker from the position:
Knowing oneself enough to avoid biases and errors of thought:
Having intellectual honesty, humility, and charity: very important:
Understanding ...
Ans: primarily the ability to think carefully about thinking and reasoning—to criticize
your own reasoning. "Criticize" here is not meant in the sense of being mean or talking
down or making fun of. Instead, it is used in the sense of, for example, how a coach
might take a critical stance toward a players' skills—he throws high every time, she does
not lead with her foot, they ride too forward in the saddle, etc. "Critical" here means
something more like "reflective," "careful," or "attentive to potential errors."
2). Being curious and thinking creatively:
Ans: not believing things are simple and settled, being willing to go the next step and
think about all of the possible positions and arguments before settling into a position.
3). Separating the thinker from the position:
Ans: being able to discuss a position without attacking or judging the person holding
the position, without getting caught up in our own attachment to the position or its
antithesis, and without having our identities wrapped up in a particular viewpoint or
opinion.
4). Knowing oneself enough to avoid biases and errors of thought:
Ans: being aware of the flawed patterns of reasoning we are disposed to engage in,
being aware of cognitive biases and mental heuristics (rough rules that work well
enough to survive but don't work in many cases) that we're prone as a species to have,
all in the interest of counteracting these biases and flaws.
5). Having intellectual honesty, humility, and charity: very important:
Ans: being honest about what we know and how we know it, what evidence we have
and what questions are not yet settled; being humble in recognizing the vast number of
things we don't yet know or understand and in recognizing how very difficult it is to truly
know anything at all and so recognizing that the standards are high and we, most of the
time, don't meet them (and that's okay); and being charitable or having the disposition to
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, attribute the best intentions and most sophisticated positions and arguments that we
can imagine to our opponents in arguments.
6). Understanding arguments, reasons, and evidence:
Ans: thinking carefully about thinking, about arguments and positions.
7). Propositions
Ans: statements that can be true or false.
8). Non-propositions
Ans: Sentences that are not statements about matters of fact (or fiction). They do not
make a claim that can be true or false.
9). Exhort
Ans: to urge strongly, Example: Let's go to get dinner! Let's go hiking on Tuesday!
10). Command
Ans: give an authoritative order. Example: Go to the store later to buy me some
cheese. Don't do that.
11). Plead/request
Ans: ask for something from someone, often on the verge of begging. Example Would
you please stop that? Please read me a bedtime story!
12). Question
Ans: something asked, a statement that requires an answer Example: What is the
capital of Florida? How much do the pineapples cost?
13). Perform
Ans: carry out, accomplish, or fulfill (an action, task, or function) Example: I hereby
adjourn this meeting. I pronounce you husband and wife!
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, 14). Simple propositions
Ans: have no internal logical structure, meaning whether they are true or false does
not depend on whether a part of them is true or false. They are simply true or false on
their own.
15). Complex propositions
Ans: have internal logical structure, meaning they are composed of simple
propositions. Whether they are true or false depends on whether their parts are true or
false.
16). Premise
Ans: is a proposition lending credence to the conclusion. It is supposed to be a group
of statements that, if you accept they are true, make the case that you rationally must
(or, weaker, should) accept the conclusion.
17). Bad inferential structure:
Ans: Every argument with the same structure as this argument is bad (invalid or
weak). The premises do not, in fact, demonstrate or maybe even support the conclusion.
In other words, we can accept the premises as true without being compelled to accept
the conclusion. There is something wrong with this argument's general structure.
18). False premise:
Ans: This particular argument has a premise/assumption that is false. There is
something wrong with this argument's particular content.
19). Conclusion indicators
Ans: all have the general sense of "I have told you some things or I am about to tell
you some things, now here is what I want you to believe." They feel conclusive. Here are
some especially common ones: Therefore, so, it follows that, hence, thus, entails that, we
may conclude that, implies that, wherefore, as a result
20). Premise indicators
Ans: have the general sense of "from this fact I am going to infer something else."
Here are some common: Because, for, given that, in that, as, since, as indicated by
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