Reason and Critical Thinking (Post 1)

What is Critical Thinking?

Recently there has been a shift to promote critical thinking as part of your everyday curriculum. The assumption built into critical thinking is that it is about evaluating an argument according to the quality of the justification and the quality of the persuasion.

As students of TOK you should always be conscious that both justification and especially persuasion are not fixed properties. Read the quote below regarding what critical thinking (and argument). Can you see a pattern or emphasis in their understanding of critical thinking?

Number 1
"Sometimes we want to persuade others to accept the truth of a statement, and one way of doing this is to offer them reasons or evidence in support of this statement. This is the essence of argument. The simplest examples of arguments occur when someone, who believes some statement, will present reasons which aim at persuading others to adopt this same point of view."

Number 2
"Why all this fuss about arguments? The general answer is that unlike descriptions, jokes, stories, exclamations, questions, and explanations, arguments are attempts to prove or justify a claim. We use argument when we try rationally to persuade others of our beliefs and opinions.

The processes of justification and rational persuasion are important both socially and personally, and for both practical and intellectual reasons. When we give arguments, we try to show reasons for believing what we do, and in doing so, we gain an opportunity to explore the strength of these reasons."

Number 3
"The focus of this book is written and spoken ways of persuading us to do things and to believe things. Every day we are bombarded with messages apparently telling us what to do or not to do, what to believe or not to believe .... Some messages we just ignore, some we unreflectively obey, and some we unreflectively reject. Other we might think about and question, asking ... 'why should I believe that, or not believe it?'

When we ask the question 'why?' we're asking for a reason for doing what we are being enjoined to do, or [believing] what we are being enjoined to believe. When we ask for a reason in this way we are asking for a justification for taking the action recommended or accepting the belief - not just a reason but a good reason ....

To attempt to persuade by giving good reason is to give an argument."