WGU - CRITICAL THINKING & LOGIC STUDY
GUIDE 2023 COMPLETE TERM 3
IMPEDIMENTS/BAD HABITS TO SOUND THINKING: - -- Making generalizations
unsupported by evidence
- Letting stereotypes shape our thinking
- Viewing the world from one fixed vantage point
- Forming false beliefs
- Dismissing or attacking viewpoints that conflict with our own
- Thinking deceptively about our own experiences
-EGOCENTRISM: - -the tendency to view everything in relationship to oneself.
-SOCIOCENTRISM: - -the assumption that one's own social group is inherently
superior to all others.
-CRITICAL THINKING IS CHARACTERISTICALLY: - -self-directed; self-disciplined;
self-monitored;
self-corrective; requires practicing good intellectual habits; "thinking about thinking".
-FIRST-ORDER THINKING (ORDINARY THINKING): - -spontaneous and non-
reflective; contains insight, prejudice, good and bad reasoning indiscriminately
combined
-SECOND-ORDER THINKING (CRITICAL THINKING): - -first-order thinking that is
consciously realized (i.e., analyzed, assessed, and reconstructed).
-FAIR-MINDEDNESS: - -to consider all relevant opinions equally without regard to
one's own sentiments or selfish interests; to bring an unbiased and unprejudiced
perspective to all viewpoints relevant to a situation. Involves adherence to Intellectual
Standards along with requiring the critical thinker to simultaneously embody certain
key Intellectual Traits.
-INTELLECTUAL UNFAIRNESS (opposite of fair-mindedness): - -to always see
yourself as right and just; nearly always involves an element of self-deception.
-TRAITS/VIRTUES of a CRITICAL THINKER:
*terms used by Paul & Elder
(all relate fundamentally to fair-mindedness) - --INTELLECTUAL
AUTONOMY=thinking for oneself while adhering to standards of rationality.
-INTELLECTUAL COURAGE=to develop the courage to challenge popular beliefs;
confronting ideas, views, beliefs with fairness, even when painful; examine beliefs that
one has negative feelings toward and has been dismissive of.
-INTELLECTUAL EMPATHY=to routinely inhabit the perspectives of others in order to
genuinely understand them.
, -INTELLECTUAL HUMILITY=commitment to discovering the extent of one's own
ignorance. Recognition that one does not/cannot know everything. To be conscious of
one's biases and prejudices.
-INTELLECTUAL INTEGRITY=striving to be true to one's own disciplined thinking and
holding oneself to the same standards that one expects others to meet.
-INTELLECTUAL PERSEVERANCE= the act of working one's way through intellectual
complexities despite frustrations inherent in doing so.
-CONFIDENCE IN REASON=encourages people to come to their own conclusions
through the use of their own rational faculties; to use good reasoning as the
fundamental criterion by which to judge whether to accept or reject any belief or
position.
-STRONG-SENSE CRITICAL THINKERS: - -to behave in ways that do not exploit or
otherwise harm others; work to empathize with the viewpoints of others; consistent
pursuit of fair and just; willing to listen to arguments they do not necessarily hold;
change their views when faced with better reasoning. Rather than using their thinking to
manipulate others and to hide from the truth (in a weak-sense way), they use thinking in
an ethical, reasonable manner.
-WEAK-SENSE CRITICAL THINKERS: - -fail to consider, in good faith, viewpoints
that contradict its own viewpoint; lacks fair-mindedness.
-Sophistry - -The art of winning arguments regardless of whether there are problems in
the thinking being used, regardless of whether relevant viewpoints are being ignored.
-Sophistic thinkers - -Use lower-level skills of rhetoric, or argumentation, by which
they make unreasonable thinking look reasonable and reasonable thinking look
unreasonable
-Reasoning; key question to ask - -Whenever someone is reasoning, it makes sense to
ask, "Upon what facts or information are you basing your reasoning?"
-Element: ASSUMPTIONS/PRESUPPOSED - -Reasoning begins with our
assumptions. These encompass everything we take for granted as true in order to figure
out something else. Being able to identify assumptions (others' and our own) is essential
to critical thinking.
-Element: CONCEPTS - -Reasoning takes form in concepts. Most of us take our
concepts for granted. Critical thinking requires us to be aware of the concepts we hold
and consider how they drive our reasoning.
-Element: IMPLICATIONS/CONSEQUENCES - -
-Element: INFERENCES - -
-Element: INFORMATION - -
GUIDE 2023 COMPLETE TERM 3
IMPEDIMENTS/BAD HABITS TO SOUND THINKING: - -- Making generalizations
unsupported by evidence
- Letting stereotypes shape our thinking
- Viewing the world from one fixed vantage point
- Forming false beliefs
- Dismissing or attacking viewpoints that conflict with our own
- Thinking deceptively about our own experiences
-EGOCENTRISM: - -the tendency to view everything in relationship to oneself.
-SOCIOCENTRISM: - -the assumption that one's own social group is inherently
superior to all others.
-CRITICAL THINKING IS CHARACTERISTICALLY: - -self-directed; self-disciplined;
self-monitored;
self-corrective; requires practicing good intellectual habits; "thinking about thinking".
-FIRST-ORDER THINKING (ORDINARY THINKING): - -spontaneous and non-
reflective; contains insight, prejudice, good and bad reasoning indiscriminately
combined
-SECOND-ORDER THINKING (CRITICAL THINKING): - -first-order thinking that is
consciously realized (i.e., analyzed, assessed, and reconstructed).
-FAIR-MINDEDNESS: - -to consider all relevant opinions equally without regard to
one's own sentiments or selfish interests; to bring an unbiased and unprejudiced
perspective to all viewpoints relevant to a situation. Involves adherence to Intellectual
Standards along with requiring the critical thinker to simultaneously embody certain
key Intellectual Traits.
-INTELLECTUAL UNFAIRNESS (opposite of fair-mindedness): - -to always see
yourself as right and just; nearly always involves an element of self-deception.
-TRAITS/VIRTUES of a CRITICAL THINKER:
*terms used by Paul & Elder
(all relate fundamentally to fair-mindedness) - --INTELLECTUAL
AUTONOMY=thinking for oneself while adhering to standards of rationality.
-INTELLECTUAL COURAGE=to develop the courage to challenge popular beliefs;
confronting ideas, views, beliefs with fairness, even when painful; examine beliefs that
one has negative feelings toward and has been dismissive of.
-INTELLECTUAL EMPATHY=to routinely inhabit the perspectives of others in order to
genuinely understand them.
, -INTELLECTUAL HUMILITY=commitment to discovering the extent of one's own
ignorance. Recognition that one does not/cannot know everything. To be conscious of
one's biases and prejudices.
-INTELLECTUAL INTEGRITY=striving to be true to one's own disciplined thinking and
holding oneself to the same standards that one expects others to meet.
-INTELLECTUAL PERSEVERANCE= the act of working one's way through intellectual
complexities despite frustrations inherent in doing so.
-CONFIDENCE IN REASON=encourages people to come to their own conclusions
through the use of their own rational faculties; to use good reasoning as the
fundamental criterion by which to judge whether to accept or reject any belief or
position.
-STRONG-SENSE CRITICAL THINKERS: - -to behave in ways that do not exploit or
otherwise harm others; work to empathize with the viewpoints of others; consistent
pursuit of fair and just; willing to listen to arguments they do not necessarily hold;
change their views when faced with better reasoning. Rather than using their thinking to
manipulate others and to hide from the truth (in a weak-sense way), they use thinking in
an ethical, reasonable manner.
-WEAK-SENSE CRITICAL THINKERS: - -fail to consider, in good faith, viewpoints
that contradict its own viewpoint; lacks fair-mindedness.
-Sophistry - -The art of winning arguments regardless of whether there are problems in
the thinking being used, regardless of whether relevant viewpoints are being ignored.
-Sophistic thinkers - -Use lower-level skills of rhetoric, or argumentation, by which
they make unreasonable thinking look reasonable and reasonable thinking look
unreasonable
-Reasoning; key question to ask - -Whenever someone is reasoning, it makes sense to
ask, "Upon what facts or information are you basing your reasoning?"
-Element: ASSUMPTIONS/PRESUPPOSED - -Reasoning begins with our
assumptions. These encompass everything we take for granted as true in order to figure
out something else. Being able to identify assumptions (others' and our own) is essential
to critical thinking.
-Element: CONCEPTS - -Reasoning takes form in concepts. Most of us take our
concepts for granted. Critical thinking requires us to be aware of the concepts we hold
and consider how they drive our reasoning.
-Element: IMPLICATIONS/CONSEQUENCES - -
-Element: INFERENCES - -
-Element: INFORMATION - -
