9/10/2020 Introduction to Critical Thinking 1
Introduction to Critical Thinking 1. What is Thinking? 2. Types of Thinking 3. What is Critical Thinking? 7. Characteristics of 4. Critical Thinking a Critical Thinker Standards 6. Barriers to 5. Benefits of Critical Thinking Critical Thinking 2 1 9/10/2020 What is thinking? 3 What is thinking?  Bush-turkey can’t fly: A: How do you know it? D: I just know! D: I believe it. D: I am right! D: I just do!
 We just see and remember phenomena but
rarely think, ask ourselves “why?” and seek answers. 4 2 9/10/2020 What is thinking?  Bush-turkeys can’t fly: A: How do you know it?
D: Because it is a convincing argument. In
order to fly, birds need to be aerodynamic.
Bush-turkeys aren’t aerodynamic. Therefore, bush-turkeys can’t fly.
 We need to seek evidence, build up
arguments to convince others.  critical thinking 5 What is thinking? 6 3 9/10/2020 What is thinking?
 Are we thinking when/by watching this video?  No
 Critical thinking = philosophical thinking = thinking about thinking.  Analyze thinking  Evaluate thinking 7 Why does IU have this course? To help you improve your Thinking Skills  HOW TO THINK! 8 4 9/10/2020 9 What is Critical Thinking?
Critical thinking is the general term given to a wide range
of cognitive skills and intellectual dispositions needed:
 to effectively identify, analyze, and evaluate arguments and truth claims,
 to discover and overcome personal prejudices and biases,
 to formulate and present convincing reasons in support of conclusions; and
 to make reasonable, intelligent decisions about what to believe and what to do.
Cognitive, intellectual : thuộc về nhận thức, trí óc. Prejudice: định kiến an unfair and
unreasonable opinion or feeling, especially when formed without enough thought or knowledge.
Bias: thành kiến often supporting or opposing a particular person or thing in an unfair way by
allowing personal opinions to influence your judgment 10 5 9/10/2020 11
Critical Thinking Standards (CTS)
The most significant critical (intellectual) thinking standards: 1. Clarity 2. Accuracy 3. Precision 4. Relevance 5. Depth 6. Breadth 7. Logic 8. Fairness 12 6 9/10/2020 1. Clarity
 Clarity is a gateway standard. If a statement is
unclear, we cannot determine whether it is accurate or relevant.
 In fact we cannot tell anything about it because we do
not yet know what it is saying.
 Clarity in expression is a sign of intelligence
 Exploratory questions related to the Clarity Standard:  Is my thinking clear?
 Do I need to elaborate my thinking more?
 Do I need to provide an illustration of what I mean?
 Do I need to give an example from everyday life?
Clarity is the gateway standard 13 Example of Clarity
“Tóm lại, đây là bài học cho những nhà trí
thức khi nhận định, phát biểu về một tôn giáo
mà cứ ngỡ mình đã nắm vững. Nhất là Phật
giáo, không đơn thuần như những tôn giáo
khác, lại là Phật giáo Bắc truyền quá đa dạng
và dung thông, hàm tàng nhiều triết thuyết vi
diệu.” (Minh Mẫn, PGVN, 05/09/2016) 14 7 9/10/2020 Example of Clarity
Europe has a set of primary interests, which to us
have none, or a very remote relation. – Hence,
she must be engaged in frequent controversies,
the causes of which are essentially foreign to our
concerns. – Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in
us to implicate ourselves, by artificial ties in the
ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary
combinations and collisions of her friendships or enmities. (George Washington, “Farewell Address,” 1796) 15 Example of Clarity
Europe has a set of vital interests that are of little
or no concern to us. For this reason, European
nations will often become embroiled in conflicts
for reasons that don’t concern us. Therefore, we
shouldn’t form artificial ties that would get us
involved in the ordinary ups and downs of European politics. 16 8 9/10/2020 2. Accuracy
 A statement can be clear, but not accurate as in:
“Most chickens weight over 300 pounds in weight.”
 Questions related to evaluating the accuracy of thinking include:  Is my thinking accurate?
 How could I check to see if this is true?
 How could I find out if this is correct?
 How can I verify for accuracy? 17 CTS – Accuracy  Is that really true?  How could we check that?
 How could we find out if that is true? This chicken weighs over 300 pounds.
A statement can be clear but not accurate 18 9 9/10/2020 2. Precision
 Precision - A statement can be both clear and accurate, but not precise.
Example: “Yao Ming is tall.” How tall? Very tall? 2m tall?
 Questions useful in assessing precision:
 Is my thinking as precise as it needs to be?
 Do I need to be more specific?
 Do I need to give more detail?
 Do I need to be more exact?   How? 19
CTS – Precision (more specific) Yao Ming is TALL!
A statement can be both clear and accurate, but not precise 20 10 9/10/2020 Precision- example
A famous VN singer, Mỹ Linh caused an online
quarrel years ago by claiming: “If you want it to be
cheap, do not ask for clean foods”.
Facebookers insisted that she look down other people (the poor, the peasants).
• Cheap = not precise (how much is cheap? 20.000 VND/kg or 200 VND/kg?)
• Clean foods = what? Meat, fish or vegetables?
• Clean = how clean it is? GAP (well-controlled)? Organic?
• GAP food is not expensive at all. 21 4. Relevance
 A statement can be clear, accurate, and precise, but not be relevant to the issue.
 A favorite debaters’ trick is to try to distract an
audience’s attention by raising an irrelevant issue  Questioning the relevance:
 Is my thinking relevant to the issue?
 How does that relate to the question at hand?
 How does this information bear upon the problem I am concerned with?
 How does this information help me deal effectively with the issue? 22 11 9/10/2020 CTS – Relevance
He is handsome. Therefore, he will pass the Calculus 1 test. (?) I studied hard all semester, therefore I should get A+.
A statement can be clear, accurate, and precise,
but not relevant to the question at issue. 23
5. Depth (sâu sắc, có chiều sâu)
 We rightly prefer deep and complete thinking to
shallow (nông cạn) and superficial (hời hợt) thinking.
 Questions useful for evaluating depth of our critical thinking:
 What factors make up this difficult problem?
 What are the complexities of this issue?
 What are the difficulties I need to deal with?
 Is my thinking taking into account the
different perspectives I need to consider? 24 12 9/10/2020 6. Breadth (rộng, bao quát)
 The ability to recognize all sides of an issue: broad view or thinking
 Questions useful for examining breadth:
 Am I looking at this issue in a narrow minded way?
 Do I need to look at this from another perspective?
 Do I need to consider another point of view?
 Do I need to look at this situation in other ways? 25 6. Breadth (rộng, bao quát)
 What would this look like from the point of view of the student? Headache!!! You got 0 marks for “Participation”, because you didn’t participate in the class discussion at all.
A line of reasoning may be clear, accurate,
precise, relevant, and deep, but lack breadth. 26 13 9/10/2020 7. Logical correctness
 When we think, we bring a variety of thoughts
together in some order. When the combination of
thoughts is mutually supporting and makes sense in
combination, the thinking is “logical.”  Questions:
 Does this really make sense?
 Does that follow from what you said?  How does that follow?
 But before you implied this and now you are saying that; how can both be true? 27 7. Logical correctness
Bertrand Russell, in his classic essay “An Outline of
Intellectual Rubbish,” provides an amusing example:
I am sometimes shocked by the blasphemies of those
who think themselves pious—for instance, the nuns
who never take a bath without wearing a bathrobe all
the time. When asked why, since no man can see
them, they reply: “Oh, but you forget the good God.” 28 14 9/10/2020 8. Fairness
Critical thinking demands that our thinking be fair.  Open-minded
 Impartial = fair (công bằng)
 Free of distorting biases and preconceptions
Fair-mindedness is an essential Distort:
attribute of a Critical Thinker. xuyên tạc 29 9. Consistency (nhất quán)
A person holds inconsistent beliefs, at least one of those beliefs must be false.  2 kinds of inconsistency:
- Logical inconsistency: involves saying or
believing inconsistent things (i.e. things that
cannot both or all be true) about a particular matter.
- Practical inconsistency: saying one thing and doing another 30 15 9/10/2020 Consistency Example:
 MM: Key, Yogi, what do you say we eat at Toots’ tonight?
 Yogi: Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded. Example:
I'm all for equal rights for women. I just
think a woman's place is in the home. 31 Good Thinking is…
CLEAR……….....rather than........UNCLEAR
ACCURATE…....rather than…….INACCURATE
PRECISE……....rather than…….VAGUE
RELEVANT…….rather than…….IRELEVANT
CONSISTENT….rather than……INCONSISTENT
LOGICAL……….rather than……ILLOGICAL
COMPLETE……rather than……INCOMPLETE
FAIR…………….rather than…....BIASED 32 16 9/10/2020 33 Benefits of Critical Thinking  Academic Performance 
understand the arguments and beliefs of others 
Critically evaluating those arguments and beliefs 
Develop and defend one's own well-supported arguments and beliefs.  Workplace 
Helps us to reflect and get a deeper understanding
of our own and others’ decisions 
Encourage open-mindedness to change 
Aid us in being more analytical in solving problems 34 17 9/10/2020 Benefits of Critical Thinking  Daily life
 Helps us to avoid making foolish personal decisions.
 Promotes an informed and concerned citizenry
capable of making good decisions on important
social, political and economic issues.
 Aids in the development of autonomous thinkers
capable of examining their assumptions, dogmas: giáo điều, and prejudices. 35 36 18 9/10/2020 Barriers to Critical Thinking
If Critical Thinking is so important, why is it
that uncritical thinking is so common?
Why is that so many people including many
highly educated and intelligent people find
critical thinking so difficult? 37 Barriers to critical thinking 1.
Lack of relevant background information 2. Poor reading skills 3. Bias 4. Prejudice 5. Superstition 6. Peer pressure 7. Face-saving 8. Resistance to change 9. Selective perception 10. Rationalization 11. Scapegoating 38 19 9/10/2020 Barriers to Critical Thinking
Five Powerful Barriers to Critical Thinking: Self-centered thinking  self-interested thinking Egocentrism  self-serving bias Group-centered thinking  Group bias Sociocentrism
 Conformism (tâm lý bầy đàn)
Beliefs that are presumed to be true Un U w n a w rr r a r n a t n e t d e d
without adequate evidence or justification As A su s m u p m t p ito i n o s n  Assumption (giả định) Stereotyping (rập khuôn) Wishful
Believing that something is true because Thinking one wishes it were true.
The truth is “just a matter of opinion” Relativistic
 Relativism (chủ nghĩa tương đối) Thinking
 Subjectivism (chủ quan chủ nghĩa)
 Cultural relativism (tương đối văn hoá) 39 Barriers to Critical Thinking
EGOCENTRISM – the tendency to view
one’s own interests, ideas and values as superior to everyone’s else SELF-INTERESTED THINKING – SELF-SERVING
tendency to accept and defend beliefs BIAS – tendency to
that harmonize one’s own self-interest overrate oneself Tendency: khuynh hướng 40 20 9/10/2020 Self-interested thinking •
Almost no one is immune to self-interested thinking. •
Most doctors support legislation making it more
difficult for them to be sued for malpractice; most lawyers do not. •
Most factory workers support laws requiring advance
notice of plant closings; most factory owners do not. •
From a psychological standpoint, however, it is likely
that self-interest plays at least some role in shaping
the respective attitudes and beliefs. 41 Self-serving bias
• Self-serving bias is the tendency to overrate
oneself—to see oneself as better in some respect than one actually is.
• If you are like most people, you probably think of
yourself as being an unusually self-aware person. If
so, then you too are probably suffering from self- serving bias.
Ex: Drunkers always said: “I am never drunk.” 42 21 9/10/2020 Barriers to Critical Thinking
Sociocentrism: group-centred thinking
 Group bias – the tendency to see one’s own
group as being inherently better than others
(ex: fellow-countrymen club, association)
 Herd instinct (conformism) – the tendency
to follow the crowd (tâm lý bầy đàn, a dua) 43 Barriers to Critical Thinking
Unwarranted Assumptions & Stereotyping
 Assumption – something taken for granted,
something we believe to be true without any proof or conclusive evidence
 Unwarranted assumption – something taken
for granted without good reason
 Most common form is stereotyping (rập
khuôn, quơ đũa cả nắm)– making a hasty
generalization : “All Muslim are terrorist.” 44 22 9/10/2020 Barriers to Critical Thinking
Wishful thinking (mơ tưởng)
 Believing something not because you had
good evidence for it but simply because you wished it were true.
 Believing something because it makes one
feel good, not because there is good rational
grounds for thinking it is true. 45 Barriers to Critical Thinking Relativistic thinking
 Relativism is the view that truth is a matter of opinion.
 There are two popular forms of relativism:
subjectivism and cultural relativism.
 Subjectivism is the view that truth is a matter of
individual opinion. (Mày khổ là do mày, đời chẳng có gì đúng,
sai, tốt, xấu cả, lăn tăn làm gì!)
 Cultural relativism is the view that truth is a matter of social or cultural opinion.
 The most common form of relativism is moral relativism. 46 23 9/10/2020 Barriers to Critical Thinking
 Relativistic thinking - moral relativism.
 Moral subjectivism is the view that what is
morally right and good for A (individual), is
whatever A believes is morally right and good.
 Cultural moral relativism is the view that
what is morally right and good for A (an
individual), is whatever A’s society or
culture believes is morally right and good. 47 Barriers to Critical Thinking
Several serious problems with cultural moral relativism
1. Relativism makes it impossible for us to criticize
other cultures’ customs and values, even those
that intuitively seem to us to be terribly wrong.
2. Relativism makes it impossible for us to criticize
our own societies’ customs and values.
3. Relativism rules out the idea of moral progress. 48 24 9/10/2020 Barriers to Critical Thinking
Cướp lộc hội đền Gióng là 'cướp có văn hóa' 03/03/2015 19:11 GMT+7
- Nhiều người nghĩ là cướp giật, nhưng
không phải, nó cũng giống tục cướp vợ của
người H'Mông. Đây là "cướp" có văn hóa,
"cướp" trong tục lệ - Phó Ban Tuyên giáo Thành ủy HN lý giải. 49 Barriers to Critical Thinking
Lễ hội chém lợn ở Ném Thượng – Bắc Ninh
Is it too barbarian? How do you think? 50 25 9/10/2020
 Why standards of critical thinking are important to overcome the barriers of critical thinking? 51 Reference
 http://www.criticalthinking.org
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNCOO UK-bMQ
 http://www.criticalthinking.org/CTmodel/CT Model1.cfm
http://www.teachertube.com/v.php?viewkey= 8caaadb505ab52c68278 52 26