Critical Thinking Learn the Tools the Best Thinkers Use, Concise Edition

368 Pages·2005·11.86 MB·English

by  Richard Paul, Linda Elder

CRITICAL
THINKING

C O N C I S E E D I T I O N

Richard Paul
Linda Elder

Upper Saddle River, New Jersey
Columbus, Ohio

L E A R N T H E T O O L S
T H E B E S T T H I N K E R S U S E

Critical Thinking: Learn the Tools the Best Thinkers Use, Concise Edition, by Richard Paul and Linda Elder. Published by Prentice Hall.
Copyright © 2006 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Paul, Richard.
Critical thinking : learn the tools the best thinkers use / Richard Paul,
Linda Elder.
Concise ed.
p.
cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-13-170347-1
1. Critical thinking
Study and teaching (Higher)
2. Academic
achievement.
I. Elder, Linda.
II. Title.
LB2395.35.P38 2006
370.15'2
dc22
2005014358

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ISBN: 0-13-170347-1

Critical Thinking: Learn the Tools the Best Thinkers Use, Concise Edition, by Richard Paul and Linda Elder. Published by Prentice Hall.
Copyright © 2006 by Pearson Education, Inc.

iii

CONTENTS

Preface
ix

INTRODUCTION
xiii

A Start-up Definition of Critical Thinking
xiii
How Skilled Are You as a Thinker?
xiv
Good Thinking Requires Hard Work
xvi
Defining Critical Thinking
xix
The Concept of Critical Thinking
xx
Become a Critic of Your Thinking
xxii
Establish New Habits of Thought
xxiii
Develop Confidence in Your Ability to Reason and Figure Things Out
xxiii

Chapter 1
HOW THE MIND CAN DISCOVER ITSELF
1

Recognize the Mind s Three Basic Functions
1
Establish a Special Relationship to Your Mind
3
Connect Academic Subjects to Your Life
6
Learn Both Intellectually and Emotionally
7

Critical Thinking: Learn the Tools the Best Thinkers Use, Concise Edition, by Richard Paul and Linda Elder. Published by Prentice Hall.
Copyright © 2006 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Chapter 2
DISCOVER THE PARTS OF THINKING
11

Thinking Is Everywhere in Human Life
11
The Parts of Thinking
13
A First Look at the Elements of Thought 13
*
An Everyday Example: Jack and Jill 18

*
Analysis of the Example 19
*
How the Parts of Thinking Fit Together 20

The Relationship Between the Elements
21
The Elements of Thought
21
The Best Thinkers Think to Some Purpose 21
*
The Best Thinkers Take Command
of Concepts 23
*
The Best Thinkers Assess Information 25
*
The Best Thinkers
Distinguish Between Inferences and Assumptions
31
*
The Best Thinkers Think
Through Implications 37
*
The Best Thinkers Think Across Points of View 39

Conclusion
42

Chapter 3
DISCOVER UNIVERSAL STANDARDS
FOR THINKING
43

Take a Deeper Look at Universal Intellectual Standards
44
Clarity 44
*
Accuracy 45
*
Precision 47
*
Relevance 48
*
Depth 48
*

Breadth 49
*
Logic 50
*
Significance 51
*
Fairness 52

Bring Together the Elements of Reasoning and the Intellectual Standards
55
Purpose, Goal, or End in View 55
*
Question at Issue or Problem to Be Solved 57
*

Point of View or Frame of Reference 57
*
Information, Data, Experiences 58
*

Concepts, Theories, Ideas 59
*
Assumptions 59
*
Implications and Consequences 60

*
Inferences 61

Brief Guidelines for Using Intellectual Standards
62

Chapter 4
REDEFINE GRADES AS LEVELS OF
THINKING AND LEARNING
73

Develop Strategies for Self-Assessment
74
Use Student Profiles to Assess Your Performance
74

iv
CONTENTS

Critical Thinking: Learn the Tools the Best Thinkers Use, Concise Edition, by Richard Paul and Linda Elder. Published by Prentice Hall.
Copyright © 2006 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Exemplary Students (Grade of A) 75
*
High-Performing Students (Grade of B) 76
*

Mixed-Quality Students (Grade of C) 76
*
Low-Performing Students (Grade of D or F) 77

Apply the Student Profiles to Assess Your Performance
Within Specific Disciplines
78
Exemplary Thinking as a Student of Psychology (Grade of A) 78
*
High-Performing
Thinking as a Student of Psychology (Grade of B) 79
*
Mixed-Quality Thinking as a
Student of Psychology (Grade of C) 80
*
Low-Performing Thinking as a Student of
Psychology (Grade of D or F) 81

Conclusion
82

Chapter 5
LEARN TO ASK THE QUESTIONS THE
BEST THINKERS ASK
83

The Importance of Questions in Thinking
84
Questioning Your Questions
84
Dead Questions Reflect Inert Minds
86
Three Categories of Questions
87
Questions of Fact 88
*
Questions of Preference 88
*
Questions of Judgment 88

Become a Socratic Questioner
91
Focus Your Thinking on the Type of Question Being Asked 94
*
Focus Your Questions
on Universal Intellectual Standards for Thought 94
*
Focus Your Questions on the
Elements of Thought 96
*
Focus Your Questions on Prior Questions 98
*
Focus
Your Questions on Domains of Thinking 99

Conclusion
102

Chapter 6
DISCOVER HOW THE
BEST THINKERS LEARN
103

18 Ideas for Improving Your Learning
104
The Logic of a College as It Is
106
How the Best Students Learn
107
The Design of a College Class
108
Figure Out the Underlying Concept of Your Course
110
Figure Out the Form of Thinking Essential to a
Course or Subject
112

CONTENTS
v

Critical Thinking: Learn the Tools the Best Thinkers Use, Concise Edition, by Richard Paul and Linda Elder. Published by Prentice Hall.
Copyright © 2006 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Think Within the Logic of the Subject
114
A Case: The Logic of Biochemistry
115
Make the Design of the Course Work for You
118
Sample Course: American History, 1600 1800
119

Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening, and Thinking
122
Figure Out the Logic of an Article or Essay
127
Figure Out the Logic of a Textbook
128
Criteria for Evaluating an Author s Reasoning
129

Chapter 7
THE BEST THINKERS READ CLOSELY
AND WRITE SUBSTANTIVELY
133

The Interrelationship Between Reading and Writing
134
Part I: Discover Close Reading
135
Consider the Author s Purpose 136
*
Avoid Impressionistic Reading 137
*
Read
Reflectively 137
*
Think About Reading While Reading 137
*
Engage the Text
While Reading 138
*
Think of Books as Teachers 138
*
Reading Minds 138
*

The Work of Reading 139
*
Structural Reading 139
*
How to Read a Sentence
140
*
How to Read a Paragraph 140
*
How to Read a Textbook 141
*
How to
Read an Editorial 142
*
Take Ownership of What You Read: Mark It Up 142
*

The Best Readers Read to Learn 144

Part II: Discover Substantive Writing
144
Write for a Purpose 145
*
Substantive Writing 145 * The Problem of
Impressionistic Writing 146
*
Write Reflectively 146
*
How to Write a
Sentence 147
*
Write to Learn 147
*
Substantive Writing in Content Areas 147

*
Relate Core Ideas to Other Core Ideas 149
*
Writing Within Disciplines 149

*
The Work of Writing 150
*
Nonsubstantive Writing 151

Part III: Practice Close Reading and Substantive Writing
152
Paraphrasing 155
*
Exercises in the Five Levels of Close Reading and Substantive
Writing 162
*
Exploring Conflicting Ideas 175
*
Exploring Key Ideas Within
Disciplines 177
*
Analyzing Reasoning 181
*
Writing Substantively to Analyze
Reasoning: An Example 182
*
Evaluating Reasoning 187

vi
CONTENTS

Critical Thinking: Learn the Tools the Best Thinkers Use, Concise Edition, by Richard Paul and Linda Elder. Published by Prentice Hall.
Copyright © 2006 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Chapter 8
BECOME A FAIR-MINDED THINKER
189

Weak Versus Strong Critical Thinking
191
What Does Fair-Mindedness Require?
194
Intellectual Humility: The Best Thinkers Strive to Discover the Extent of Their Ignorance 195

*
Intellectual Courage: The Best Thinkers Have the Courage to Challenge Popular Beliefs 198

*
Intellectual Empathy: The Best Thinkers Empathically Enter Opposing Views 200
*

Intellectual Integrity: The Best Thinkers Hold Themselves to the Same Standards to Which
They Hold Others 201
*
Intellectual Perseverance: The Best Thinkers Do Not Give Up
Easily, But Work Their Way Through Complexities and Frustration 203
*
Confidence in
Reason: The Best Thinkers Respect Evidence and Reasoning and Value Them as Tools for
Discovering the Truth 205
*
Intellectual Autonomy: The Best Thinkers Value Their
Independence in Thought 207
*
The Best Thinkers Recognize the Interdependence of
Intellectual Virtues 210

Conclusion
212

Chapter 9
DEAL WITH YOUR IRRATIONAL MIND
213

Part I: The Best Thinkers Take Charge of Their Egocentric Nature
214
Understand Egocentric Thinking 216
*
Understand Egocentrism as a Mind Within the
Mind 218
*
Successful Egocentric Thinking 219
*
Unsuccessful Egocentric
Thinking 221
*
Rational Thinking 224
*
Two Egocentric Functions 227
*

Pathological Tendencies of the Human Mind 237
*
The Best Thinkers Challenge the
Pathological Tendencies of Their Minds 238
*
The Challenge of Rationality 240

Part II: The Best Thinkers Take Charge of Their Sociocentric Tendencies
240
The Nature of Sociocentrism 241
*
Social Stratification 245
*
Sociocentric
Thinking Is Unconscious and Potentially Dangerous 246
*
Sociocentric Uses of
Language 247
*
Disclose Sociocentric Thinking Through Conceptual Analysis 248

*
Reveal Ideology at Work Through Conceptual Analysis 249
*
The Mass Media
Foster Sociocentric Thinking 250

Conclusion
255

CONTENTS
vii

Critical Thinking: Learn the Tools the Best Thinkers Use, Concise Edition, by Richard Paul and Linda Elder. Published by Prentice Hall.
Copyright © 2006 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Chapter 10
THE STAGES OF CRITICAL THINKING
DEVELOPMENT: AT WHAT STAGE ARE YOU?
257

Stage One: The Unreflective Thinker
259
Stage Two: The Challenged Thinker
260
Stage Three: The Beginning Thinker
263
Stage Four: The Practicing Thinker
267
A Game Plan for Improvement
268
A Game Plan for Devising a Game Plan
268
Integrating Strategies One By One
271

Appendices

A Further Exercises in Close Reading and Substantive Writing
275

B Sample Analysis of the Logic of . . .
300

C
What Do We Mean by The Best Thinkers ?
309

Glossary
313

References
335

Index
337

viii
CONTENTS

Critical Thinking: Learn the Tools the Best Thinkers Use, Concise Edition, by Richard Paul and Linda Elder. Published by Prentice Hall.
Copyright © 2006 by Pearson Education, Inc.

PREFACE

Y

ou are what you think. That s right. Whatever you are doing right now is deter-
mined by the way you are thinking. Whatever you feel
all your emotions
are
determined by your thinking. Whatever you want
all your desires
are deter-
mined by your thinking. If your thinking is unrealistic, it will lead you to many disap-
pointments. If your thinking is overly pessimistic, it will deny you due recognition of
the many things in which you should properly rejoice.
Test this idea for yourself. Identify some examples of your strongest feelings or
emotions. Then identify the thinking that is correlated with those examples. For exam-
ple, if you feel excited about college, it is because you think that good things will hap-
pen to you in college. If you dread going to class, it is probably because you think it will
be boring or too difficult.
In a similar way, if the quality of your life is not what you would wish it to be, it is
most likely because it is tied to the way you think about your life. If you think about it
positively, you will feel positively about it. If you think about it negatively, you will feel
negative about it.
For example, suppose you came to college with the view that college was going to
be a lot of fun, that you were going to form good friendships with fellow students who
would respect and like you, and, what is more, that your love life would become inter-
esting and exciting. And let s suppose that hasn t happened. If this were the thrust of
your thinking, you now would feel disappointed and maybe even frustrated (depending
on how negatively you have interpreted your experience).
For most people, thinking is subconscious, never explicitly put into words. For ex-
ample, most people who think negatively would not say of themselves, I have chosen
to think about myself and my experience in a negative way. I prefer to be as unhappy as
I can make myself.

The problem is that when you are not aware of your thinking, you have no chance
of correcting it if it is poor. When thinking is subconscious, you are in no position to see
any problems in it. And, if you don t see any problems in it, you won t be motivated to
change it.
Since few people realize the powerful role that thinking plays in their lives, few gain
significant command of it. Most people are in many ways victims of their thinking; that

ix

Critical Thinking: Learn the Tools the Best Thinkers Use, Concise Edition, by Richard Paul and Linda Elder. Published by Prentice Hall.
Copyright © 2006 by Pearson Education, Inc.

is, they are hurt rather than helped by it. Most people are their own worst enemy. Their
thinking is a continual source of problems, preventing them from recognizing opportu-
nities, keeping them from exerting energy where it will do the most good, poisoning re-
lationships, and leading them down blind alleys.
Or consider your success as a student in college. The single most significant vari-
able in determining that success is the quality of your thinking. If you think well when
you study, you will study well. If you think well when you read, you will read well. If
you think well when you write, you will write well. And if you study well, read well, and
write well, you will do well in college. Certainly your instructors will play a role in your
learning. Some of them will do a better job than others of helping you learn. But even
the best teachers cannot get into your head and learn for you. Even the best teachers can-
not think for you, read for you, or write for you. If you lack the intellectual skills nec-
essary for thinking well through course content, you will not be successful in college.
Here is the key question we are putting to you in this book. If the quality of a per-
son s thinking is the single most significant determinant of both happiness and success
as it is
why not discover the tools that the best thinkers use and take the time to learn
to use them yourself? Perhaps you will not become proficient in all of them, but for every
tool you learn, there will be a payoff.
This book will alert you to the tools the best thinkers use and will exemplify the ac-
tivities and practice you can use to begin to emulate them. You will then have your des-
tiny as a thinker in your own hands. The only thing that will determine whether you
become a better and better thinker is your own willingness to practice. Here are some
of the qualities of the best thinkers.

* The best thinkers think about their thinking. They do not take thinking for
granted. They do not trust to fate to make them good in thinking. They notice
their thinking. They reflect on their thinking. They act upon their thinking.

* The best thinkers are highly purposeful. They do not simply act. They know
why they act. They know what they are about. They have clear goals and clear
priorities. They continually check their activities for alignment with their goals.

* The best thinkers have intellectual tools that they use to raise the quality
of their thinking. They know how to express their thinking clearly. They know
how to check it for accuracy and precision. They know how to keep focused on a
question and make sure that it is relevant to their goals and purposes. They know
how to think beneath the surface and how to expand their thinking to include
insights from multiple perspectives. They know how to think logically and
significantly.

* The best thinkers distinguish their thoughts from their feelings and desires.

They know that wanting something to be so does not make it so. They know that
one can be unjustifiably angry, afraid, or insecure. They do not let unexamined
emotions determine their decisions. They have discovered their minds, and
they examine the way their minds operate as a result. They take deliberate charge
of those operations. (See Chapter 1.)

* The best thinkers routinely take thinking apart. They analyze thinking.
They do not trust the mind to analyze itself automatically. They realize that the

x
PREFACE

Critical Thinking: Learn the Tools the Best Thinkers Use, Concise Edition, by Richard Paul and Linda Elder. Published by Prentice Hall.
Copyright © 2006 by Pearson Education, Inc.

art of analyzing thinking is an art one must consciously learn. They realize that it
takes knowledge (of the parts of thinking) and practice (in exercising control
over them). (See Chapter 2.)

* The best thinkers routinely evaluate thinking
determining its strengths
and weaknesses. They do not trust the mind to evaluate itself automatically.
They realize that the automatic ways that the mind evaluates itself are inherently
flawed. They realize that the art of evaluating thinking is an art one must
consciously learn. They realize that it takes knowledge (of the universal
standards for thinking) and practice (in exercising control over them). (See
Chapter 3.)

Each chapter concentrates on one dimension of the thinking tools the best thinkers
use. Each provides you with insights it is in your interest to acquire. Each can help you
discover the power of your own mind and of your potential to think systematically about
your thinking.
This book, as a whole, introduces you to the tools of mind that will help you reason
well through the problems and issues you face, whether in the classroom, in your per-
sonal life, or in your professional life. If you take these ideas seriously, and practice us-
ing them, you can take command of the thinking that ultimately will command the
quality of your life.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We would like to thank the following reviewers, who read and commented on the manu-
script in earlier forms: Bruce Bloom, DeVry University; Stephen Felder, University of
California at Irvine; Stephen Kopp, Ohio University; George Nagel, Ferris State Univer-
sity; Paige Wilmeth, University of Hawaii; and Connie Wolfe, Surrey Community College.

PREFACE
xi

DEDICATION

To all those who use their thinking to expose hypocrisy and self-
deception, and work to create
what is now but a dream within a
dream
a just and humane world.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

A special acknowledgment is due to Gerald Nosich
dedicated
thinker, exemplary scholar, lifelong friend and colleague.

Critical Thinking: Learn the Tools the Best Thinkers Use, Concise Edition, by Richard Paul and Linda Elder. Published by Prentice Hall.
Copyright © 2006 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Critical Thinking: Learn the Tools the Best Thinkers Use, Concise Edition, by Richard Paul and Linda Elder. Published by Prentice Hall.
Copyright © 2006 by Pearson Education, Inc.

xiii

1By focusing on the parts of thinking in any situation
its purpose, question, information, inferences, assump-
tions, concepts, implications, and point of view.

2By figuring out its strengths and weaknesses: the extent to which it is clear, accurate, precise, relevant, deep,
broad, logical, significant, and fair.

3By building on its strengths while reducing its weaknesses.

INTRODUCTION

The mind is its own place and in itself can make a hell of heaven or a heaven
of hell.

John Milton, Paradise Lost

There are many ways to articulate the concept of critical thinking, just as there are
many ways to articulate the meaning of any rich and substantive concept. But, as with
any concept, there is an essence to critical thinking that cannot be ignored. In this in-
troduction we introduce the essence of critical thinking. We begin to unfold its com-
plexities. We begin to show you its relevance to your life. Then we will ask you to
articulate your understanding of critical thinking, to demonstrate that you are begin-
ning to make it your own.

A START-UP DEFINITION OF
CRITICAL THINKING

Let us consider a start-up definition of critical thinking:

Critical thinking is the art of thinking about thinking while thinking in order to make think-
ing better. It involves three interwoven phases: It analyzes thinking;1 it evaluates think-
ing;2 it improves thinking.3

To think critically, you must be willing to examine your thinking and put it to
some stern tests. You must be willing to take your thinking apart (to see it as something

Critical Thinking: Learn the Tools the Best Thinkers Use, Concise Edition, by Richard Paul and Linda Elder. Published by Prentice Hall.
Copyright © 2006 by Pearson Education, Inc.

constructed out of parts). You must be willing to identify weaknesses in your thinking
(while recognizing whatever strengths it may have). And, finally, you must be willing
to reconstruct your thinking creatively to make it better (overcoming the natural ten-
dency of the mind to be rigid, to want to validate one s current thoughts rather
than improving them).
To think critically, you develop high standards for your thinking. You
learn how to step back from it and make it meet those standards. This book
will help you see how to act upon your thinking in this important and disci-
plined way, how to drag your thinking out into the light of day, take it apart,
see it for what it is, and make it better.

HOW SKILLED ARE YOU AS A THINKER?

There is nothing more practical than sound thinking. No matter what your
circumstance or goals, no matter where you are or what problems you face,
you are better off if you are in control of your thinking. As a student, shop-
per, employee, citizen, lover, friend, parent
in every realm and situation of
your life
good thinking pays off. Poor thinking, in contrast, inevitably
causes problems, wastes time and energy, and engenders frustration and pain.
Critical thinking is the disciplined art of ensuring that you use the best thinking
you are capable of in any set of circumstances. The general goal of thinking is to fig-
ure out some situation, solve some problem, answer some question, or resolve some
issue. We must all make sense of the world in which we live. How well or poorly we
do this is crucial to our well-being.
Whatever sense we make of things, we have multiple choices to make. We need
the best information to make the best choices. We need to figure out: What is really
going on in this or that situation? Does so-and-so really care about me? Am I de-
ceiving myself when I believe that. . . ? What are the likely consequences of failing

xiv
INTRODUCTION

Self-command of the
principles of critical thinking

Kept alive in the mind

By continual engagement
in everyday life

EXHIBIT I.1 Critical thinkers use theories to explain how the mind works. Then they
apply those theories to the way they live every day.

The best thinkers use their
ability to think well in
every dimension of their

lives.

The best thinkers pay
close attention to
thinking. They analyze it.
They evaluate it. They

improve it.

Critical Thinking: Learn the Tools the Best Thinkers Use, Concise Edition, by Richard Paul and Linda Elder. Published by Prentice Hall.
Copyright © 2006 by Pearson Education, Inc.

to . . . ? If I want to do . . . , what is the best way to prepare? How can I be more suc-
cessful in doing . . . ? Is this my biggest problem, or do I need to focus my attention
on that? Successfully responding to questions such as these is the daily work of
thinking.
Nothing you can do will guarantee that you will find the complete truth about
anything, but there is a way to get better at it. Excellence of thought and skill in think-
ing are real possibilities. To maximize the quality of your thinking, however, you
must learn how to become an effective critic of your thinking. And to become an ef-
fective critic of your thinking, you have to make learning about thinking a priority.
Consider for a minute all of what you have learned in your life: about sports,
money, friendship, anger and fear, love and hate, your mother and father, nature, the
city you live in, manners and taboos, human nature and human behavior. Learning is
a natural and inevitable process. We learn in many directions. One direction in which
learning is not natural is inward learning
self-knowledge, knowledge of the work-
ings of our own mind, of how and why we think as we do.
Begin by answering these
rather unusual
questions: What have you learned
about how you think? Did you ever study your thinking? What information do you
have, for example, about the intellectual processes involved in how your mind thinks?
More to the point, perhaps, what do you really know about how to analyze, evaluate,
or reconstruct your thinking? Where does your thinking come from? How much of it
is of high quality? How much of it is of poor quality? How much of your thinking is
vague, muddled, inconsistent, inaccurate, illogical, or superficial? Are you, in any
real sense, in control of your thinking? Do you know how to test it? Do you
have any conscious standards for determining when you are thinking well
and when you are thinking poorly? Have you ever discovered a significant
problem in your thinking and then changed it by a conscious act of will? If
someone asked you to teach him or her what you have learned about think-
ing thus far in your life, would you have any idea what that was or how you
learned it?
If you are like most people, the honest answers to these questions run along the
lines of: Well, I suppose I don t know much about my thinking or about thinking in
general. I suppose in my life I have more or less taken my thinking for granted. I don t
really know how it works. I have never studied it. I don t know how I test it, or even
if I do test it. It just happens in my mind automatically.

Serious study of thinking, serious thinking about thinking, is rare in human life.
It is not a subject in most schools. It is not a subject taught at home. But if you focus
your attention for a moment on the role that thinking is playing in your life, you may
come to recognize that everything you do or want or feel is influenced by your think-
ing. And if you become persuaded of that, you will be surprised that humans show so
little interest in thinking. What is more, if you start to pay attention to thinking in a
manner analogous to the way a botanist observes plants, you will be on your way to
becoming a truly exceptional person. You will begin to notice what few others notice.
You will be the rare person who is engaged in discovering what human thinking is
about. You will be the rare person who knows how and why he or she is thinking, the
rare person skilled in assessing and improving how he or she thinks.

INTRODUCTION
xv

The best thinkers make the
study of thinking second

nature.

Critical Thinking: Learn the Tools the Best Thinkers Use, Concise Edition, by Richard Paul and Linda Elder. Published by Prentice Hall.
Copyright © 2006 by Pearson Education, Inc.