Student View | Instructor View | Information Center View | Home
Critical Thinking
Student View

Chapter Outline
Multiple Choice Quiz
True or False
Glossary
Web Links
PowerPoint Tutorials

Feedback
Help Center



Introduction to Critical Thinking


Assumption   A belief that is taken for granted, 16--18; conscious, 17; unwarranted, 17-18
Critical thinking   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, 1-2, 222--223; barriers to, 11--20; benefits of, 8--11; standards of, 2--8
Egocentrism   The tendency to see reality as centered on oneself, 12--14
Group bias   The tendency to see one's culture or group as being superior to others, 14--15
Herd instinct   The tendency to conform, often unthinkingly, to authority or to group standards of conduct and belief, 15--16
Inconsistency   A fallacy that occurs when an arguer asserts conflicting or contradictory claims, 177--178, 188; logical versus practical, 4
Irrelevance   Lacking pertinence to the subject at issue. In logic, a statement, A, is said to be irrelevant to another statement, B, just in case A provides no evidence either for or against B, 3--4, 140, 142, 159
Logical inconsistency   Asserting or believing statements that cannot all be true at the same time, 4--5
Practical inconsistency   Being hypocritical or failing to practice what you preach, 4--5
Relevance   Pertinence to the subject at issue. In logic, a statement, A, is said to be relevant to another statement, B, just in case A provides evidence for or against B, 3--4, 222-223, 140--142, 159
Self-interested thinking   The tendency to accept and defend beliefs that accord with one's own self-interest, 12--13
Self-serving bias   The tendency to overrate oneself, 13--14
Sociocentrism   Group-centered thinking, 14--16, 23
Stereotypes   Generalizations about a group of people in which identical characteristics are assigned to all or virtually all members of the group, often without regard to the accuracy of the attributions, 17, 23
Unwarranted assumption   A belief that is taken for granted without sufficient reason or justification, 17--18, 23
Wishful thinking   Believing that something is true because you wish it were true, 20, 23