What Is Critical Thinking? - PHILO-notes Whiteboard Edition

[Music] [Music] [Music] it can be observed that some people confused critical thinking with logic or logical thinking they often thought that to have critical thinking means to be argumentative or critical of other people's ideas however critical thinking does not only involve analyzing arguments and determining their validity critical thinking is more than being argumentative or critical of other people's ideas so what is critical thinking and how does it differ from logic or logical thinking on the one hand logic as a specific branch of philosophy is defined as the science of the correct processes of thinking in particular logic deals with arguments and their validity hence when one is doing logic in a philosophical manner one is necessarily dealing with the principles that govern the validity of arguments that is whether a certain conclusion follows from given premises let us consider this example any person who is a member of a labor union is a troublemaker fred is a member of a labor union therefore fred is a troublemaker now if we determine the validity of this argument using the principles in logic then we are doing logical thinking this is precisely the business of logic in general and for more detailed discussion and the nature meaning and dynamics of logic please refer to our other whiteboard edition titled what is logic on the other hand critical thinking is understood as the ability to analyze objectively a given factor issue to form a sound judgment in other words critical thinking is a cognitive skill which includes questioning analyzing criticizing synthesizing evaluating and judging ideas or information gathered from or generated by observation experience reflection reasoning or communication critical thinking therefore is the ability to think clearly and rationally and it must be noted that logic is just a useful tool in critical thinking let us consider an example of a situation that involves or demands critical thinking Robert's wife is suffering from an ectopic pregnancy in an ectopic pregnancy the foetus developed outside the uterus usually in the fallopian tube as is well known if the fetus is not aborted then eventually as the fetus grows the fallopian tube will explode causing death to both the mother and the fetus if aborted the fetus will obviously die but at least the mother is saved however Robert and his wife are devout Catholics and they are convinced that abortion is absolutely immoral indeed Robert and his wife are faced with a huge moral dilemma but of course Robert and his wife have to make a decision whether to undergo abortion or not here Robert and his wife have to make a conscious effort to weigh things out they need to evaluate the situation holistically and even questioned their deep-seated Christian belief system indeed they need to think clearly and rationally so they may be able to come up with a sound judgment and eventually solve the problem systematically as we can see while Robert and his wife may employ illogical thinking and solving their problem it is clear that the situation does not only involve evaluating arguments the situation goes beyond the bounds of logic for sure the situation also involves thinking about thinking that is questioning one's own thoughts and belief system whatever decision Robert and his wife might arrive at whether to resort to abortion or not it is assumed that they question analyse criticize synthesize and evaluate the situation and make a sound clear and rational judgment at the end of the day that's it for now thanks for visiting us today for another whiteboard discussion here at filo notes full transcript of this video is available at Fila notes comm and to keep you updated of our newest videos simply click here and subscribe and tap the bell for notifications thanks take care [Music]

Channel: PHILO-notes

Views: 9,015

Rating: 4.9302325 out of 5

Keywords: Logic, Logical Thinking, Questioning, Analyzing, Criticizing, Synthesizing, Evaluating, Judging Ideas, Evaluating Arguments

Id: pMY4OdBKNtA

Length: 6min 4sec (364 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 25 2018