Preface
INTRODUCTION
A Start-Up Definition of Critical Thinking
How Skilled Are You as a Thinker?
Good Thinking Requires Hard Work
The Concept of Critical Thinking
Become a Critic of Your Thinking
Establish New Habits of Thought
Develop Confidence in Your Ability to Reason and Figure Things Out
Chapter 1 - BECOME A FAIRMINDED THINKER
Weak versus Strong Critical Thinking
What Does Fairmindedness Require?
Intellectual Humility: Strive to Discover the Extent of Your Ignorance
Intellectual
Courage: Develop the Courage to Challenge Popular Beliefs
Intellectual Empathy:
Learn to Enter Opposing Views Empathically
Intellectual Integrity: Hold Yourself
to the Same Standards to Which You Hold Others
Intellectual Perseverance:Refuse to Give Up Easily; Work Your Way through Complexities and Frustration
Confidence in Reason: Respect Evidence and Reasoning, and Value Them as Tools
for Discovering the Truth
Intellectual Autonomy: Value Independence of Thought
Recognize the Interdependence of Intellectual Virtues
Conclusion
Chapter 2 - THE FIRST FOUR STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT: AT WHAT LEVEL OF THINKING WOULD YOU PLACE YOURSELF?
Stage 1: The Unreflective Thinker
Stage 2: The Challenged Thinker
Stage 3: The Beginning Thinker
Stage 4: The Practicing Thinker
A “Game Plan” for Improvement
A Game Plan for Devising a Game Plan
Integrating Strategies One by One
Chapter 3 - SELF-UNDERSTANDING
Monitor the Egocentrism in Your Thought and Life
Make a Commitment to Fairmindedness
Recognize the Mind’s Three Distinctive Functions
Understand That You Have a Special Relationship to Your Mind
Connect Academic Subjects to Your Life and Problems
Learn Both Intellectually and Emotionally
Chapter 4 - THE PARTS OF THINKING
Reasoning Is Everywhere in Human Life
Reasoning Has Parts
A First Look at the Elements of Thought
An Everyday Example: Jack and Jill
Analysis of the Example
How the Parts of Thinking Fit Together
The Relationship between the Elements
Critical Thinkers Think to Some Purpose
Critical Thinkers Take Command of Concepts
Critical Thinkers Assess Information
Inert Information
Activated Ignorance
Activated Knowledge
Critical Thinkers Distinguish between Inferences and Assumptions
Critical Thinkers Think through Implications
Critical Thinkers Think across Points of View
The Point of View of the Critical Thinker
Conclusion
Chapter 5 - STANDARDS FOR THINKING
Take a Deeper Look at Universal Intellectual Standards
Clarity
Accuracy
Precision
Relevance
Depth
Breadth
Logic
Significance
Fairness
Bring Together the Elements of Reasoning and the Intellectual
Standards
Purpose, Goal, or End in View
Question at Issue or Problem to Be Solved
Point of View or Frame of Reference
Information, Data, Experiences
Concepts, Theories, Ideas
Assumptions
Implications and Consequences
Inferences
Brief Guidelines for Using Intellectual Standards
Chapter 6 - ASK QUESTIONS THAT LEAD TO GOOD THINKING
The Importance of Questions in Thinking
Questioning Your Questions
Dead Questions Reflect Inert Minds
Three Categories of Questions
Become a Socratic Questioner
Focus Your Thinking on the Type of Question Being Asked
Focus Your Questions on Univers
