It makes critical judgments relating to the importance of information.
6. Weak-sense critical thinking uses critical thinking to defend an individual's existing beliefs and judgments on issues. There is no attempt to revise these, but rather to change the beliefs and judgments of others.
Strong-sense critical thinking exists to evaluate and revise if necessary all judgments, including the thinker's own.
7. Eight elements are always present in the reasoning process. The first of these is purpose. Reasoning is always accompanies by an identifiable purpose. The second is the question at issue. The purpose of reasoning goes hand in hand with seeking an answer to a central question. The third element is the assumptions that serve as the starting point or basis for reasoning about the central question. This is the background of the problem. Implications and consequences follows the end point of the reasoning process. It is what follows.
The fifth element is information. The reasoning process uses available information to determine what information should still be obtained. The sixth element, concepts, organizes and delineates the relevant concepts in the reasoning process. Concepts are defined and explained. In element 7, conclusions and interpretations are made from the reasoning process. Finally, the eighth element is point-of-view: all reasoning occurs on the basis of a certain viewpoint.
8. There are seven major standards of critical thinking. The first of these is clarity. This standard requires that thinking be clear and easily understood, without the likelihood of misunderstanding. The second standard, accuracy, is attained by using the best possible reasoning and the most reliable sources available. Accuracy could be problematic, as the requirement is to adhere to the truth or how things are - this is not always possible to determine. The third standard is importance...
Critical thinking has to be relevant to the issue being decided. In other words, it has to be sufficiently important to include in the decision-making process.
The fourth standard is sufficiency: critical thinking is sufficient when reasoning has been applied well enough to decide the issue at hand. The fifth and sixth standards, depth and breadth, focus on whether the issue has been regarded from all possible angels, and whether all related contexts have been taken into account. The seventh standard is precision, and questions whether critical thinking is applied with enough detail.
9. Chapter 7 suggests a questioning approach towards evaluating reasoning. The conclusion is to be evaluated in the light of the foregoing reasoning provided. The reasons are to be evaluated carefully for their accuracy and precision. The reasoning should furthermore be evaluated in terms of the assumptions, the relevance of reasons to the conclusion, and the support offered for the conclusion. In the evaluation process, it is then suggested that the reader ask questions about the reasons and assumptions and how these relate to the conclusion.
Several fallacies are identified in the chapter, including using terms with more than one meaning, where this could cause ambiguity, appealing to popularity to such an extent that accuracy is compromised, searching for the perfect solution, and appealing to questionable authority. The basic premise of the article is that critical thinking should be applied throughout the evaluation process. The reader should for example keep the conclusion in mind when reading through the explanations and substantiation of the conclusion, continuously investigating whether they are mutually reasonable and supportive. The reader is also to continuously question the correctness of all the assumptions and statements offered, and look for possible misleading elements.
