Scribd
Upload
42 views1 page

Notes From "Critical Thinking - Concepts and Tools" by Dr. Richard Paul and Dr. Linda Elder

The document discusses key concepts of critical thinking. It outlines eight parts of reasoning: having a purpose, figuring something out, being based on assumptions, having a point of view, relying on evidence, using concepts and ideas, making inferences, and leading somewhere. It also lists nine universal intellectual standards for evaluating reasoning: clarity, accuracy, precision, relevance, depth, breadth, logic, significance, and fairness.

Uploaded by

api-285840727
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
42 views1 page

Notes From "Critical Thinking - Concepts and Tools" by Dr. Richard Paul and Dr. Linda Elder

The document discusses key concepts of critical thinking. It outlines eight parts of reasoning: having a purpose, figuring something out, being based on assumptions, having a point of view, relying on evidence, using concepts and ideas, making inferences, and leading somewhere. It also lists nine universal intellectual standards for evaluating reasoning: clarity, accuracy, precision, relevance, depth, breadth, logic, significance, and fairness.

Uploaded by

api-285840727
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 1

Notes from Critical Thinking concepts and tools by Dr. Richard Paul and Dr.

Linda Elder

"parts" of thinking,
All reasoning has a purpose
All reasoning is an attempt to figure something out, to settle some question, to solve some problem
All reasoning is based on assumptions
All reasoning is done from some point of view
All reasoning is based on data, information, and evidence
All reasoning is expressed through, and shaped by, concepts and ideas
All reasoning contains inferences by which we draw conclusions and give meaning to data
All reasoning leads somewhere, has implications and consequences

Universal intellectual standards are standards which must be applied to thinking whenever one is interested in
checking the quality of reasoning about a problem, issue, or situation.

Clarity Could you elaborate further? Could you give me an example? Could you illustrate what you mean?
Accuracy How could we check on that? How could we find out if that is true? How could we verify or test that?
Precision Could you be more specific? Could you give me more details? Could you be more exact?
Relevance How does that relate to the problem? How does that bear on the question? How does that help us with
the issue? Depth What factors make this a difficult problem? What are some of the complexities of this question?
What are some of the difficulties we need to deal with?
Breadth Do we need to look at this from another perspective? Do we need to consider another point of view? Do
we need to look at this in other ways?
Logic Does all this make sense together? Does your first paragraph fit in with your last? Does what you say follow
from the evidence?
Significance Is this the most important problem to consider? Is this the central idea to focus on? Which of these
facts are most important?
Fairness Do I have any vested interest in this issue? Am I sympathetically representing the viewpoints of others?

You might also like