Thinking Skills: Critical Thinking and Problem Solving

1.3 Solutions not problems 15 enjoyable experience and one which can help you with many things in both your home and working lif ...

16 Unit 2 Critical thinking: the basics A claim or assertion is an expression that is supposedly true. It may be spoken or writt ...

2.1 Claims, assertions, statements 17 Another way to distinguish this claim from the other two claims is to say that it is purel ...

18 Unit 2 Critical thinking: the basics often referred to as hypotheses, even when they are generally accepted as true. Take the ...

2.1 Claims, assertions, statements 19 Grammatical note We saw earlier in the chapter that claims typically take the form of stat ...

20 Unit 2 Critical thinking: the basics In what way is each of these different from the others? (You can use a dictionary to hel ...

2.2 Judging claims 21 The moral of the story is that truth and trust are both important. People need to be able to rely on what ...

22 Unit 2 Critical thinking: the basics Judging which of these is the right way to respond to a claim is at the heart of the dis ...

2.2 Judging claims 23 truth – by 195 metres. You may have thought it was fair to say that Katya’s claim was nearly true, or appr ...

24 Unit 2 Critical thinking: the basics However, this does not mean we can never use the words ‘know’ or ‘certain’ appropriately ...

2.2 Judging claims 25 [G] is another complex claim, and one which is quite tricky to analyse accurately. First of all it is not ...

26 Unit 2 Critical thinking: the basics problem-solving skills than men. Even so, it would be a generalisation, and a vague one ...

2.2 Judging claims 27 3 Compare these two claims: [A] Polar bears will be extinct by the middle of the century. [B] Polar bea ...

28 Unit 2 Critical thinking: the basics This is a very simple argument. It consists of just one reason and a conclusion, and the ...

2.3 Argument 29 Bart (in a lowered voice): Then I’ll tell you something. If you go around talking this kind of nonsense, someone ...

30 Unit 2 Critical thinking: the basics of belief or opinion. An argument that the Earth is not flat makes practical sense only ...

2.3 Argument 31 Obviously [4] is a much stronger argument than [1]. Whether it actually convinces its audience will still depend ...

32 Unit 2 Critical thinking: the basics Summary • An argument is a complex construction in which one sentence, the conclusion, ...

2.4 Identifying arguments 33 2.4 Identifying arguments Before an argument can be reconstructed and/ or evaluated it must first b ...

34 Unit 2 Critical thinking: the basics There are three possible candidates for the conclusion of [2], if there is one. So, appl ...