The outcome of a critical thinking process is to produce one’s own argument for one’s own
conclusion. The four skills which are required for this are as follows:
Categorising information; decoding conventions; clarifying meaning.
Detecting and analysing arguments to identify their structure, conclusion, premises (and missing premises) and logical relations; sorting out irrelevant material.
Judging the truth of statements, the credibility of sources and the strength/validity of arguments; anticipating objections and how additional information might affect an argument.
Supporting premises; formal and informal reasoning; presenting arguments and drawing conclusions; considering alternatives; justifying methods.
We believe in the values of critical thinking.
Critical thinking is firstly concerned with finding the truth.
Making, changing or suspending beliefs according to the evidence; evaluating one’s own arguments with the same level of scrutiny as others’.
Being curious and questioning; taking care to be generally well-informed; being willing to consider alternatives.
Being willing to give the other side a fair hearing; being open to divergent world views; being honest and self-critical in facing one’s own biases.
Evaluating and challenging received opinions; believing in one’s ability to reason.