Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Week 1
Introduction & Basic Concept Of Critical Reasoning
INTRODUCTION
What is Reasoning?
Reasoning is the act of process of drawing
conclusions from acts, evidence, etc.
Reasoning well is a skill which is valuable to
anyone who wants to understand and deal with
the natural and social works.
Critical evaluation means identifying positive
as well as negative aspects.
Intellectual Responsibilities
REASONS
Empirical Questions
Are questions about what the facts are.
They are not matters of opinion, and they are not
best answered by guessing. They can only be
answered by checking to see what the facts are.
Relevance
Prediction
Testing
Our beliefs are much more likely to be true if they
are based on evidence. It isnt
Scientists>>>theory
Feedback
Testing our ideas is one way of getting feedback.
Without feedback telling us how accurate our
reasoning has been we wont be able to learn from
our mistakes.
Quick Fixes
Persuasion
We often try to persuade others to accept our view or
position.
Biases
Fallacies
Bad reasoning is said to be Fallacious. If our
reasoning is biased we are likely to commit fallacies.
Safeguards
Affective reasons
Sources:
Cottrell, S., (2005), Critical Thinking Skills,
Palgrave: Basingstoke