This is the first article of a three part series titled “Critical Thinking”

What is critical thinking? Do we know what it is? How can I acquire it?

Critical Thinking is the mental process of using all the senses to gather, analyze and process information. The utilization of these techniques will help select or provide the best solution to a problem. It is important to differentiate between critical thinking and knowledge. The latter is acquisition and recital of rote information. Critical thinking is something that needs to be developed with practice. There are no steps to follow or systematic approach. For us to analyze problems or propositions to the best of our ability, we need to be aware of the source of the information, probability and our faulty logic.

INFORMATION

All types of information have a goal. Some materials are to sell you a product (advertisement) , some are to educate (like this one) and others to persuade (politics). Regardless of the medium used to share the message, the person or source of the information is aimed to provoke an action from the reader. That being buying, sharing, or choosing something or someone. When we are receiving any type of information, we need to ask “Who is saying this? and What is the goal of the message?”

Along with the purpose of the message, we have to be mindful of the objectiveness of the information. Is the author stating fact or is it an opinion or maybe it’s propaganda. The author’s purpose in conjunction with the objectiveness of information can be very deceiving. Sometimes facts and opinions can be blended in a way that you do not know the difference. The best approach is to know that facts can always be independently verifiable. Therefore you can find the facts without someone explaining or interpreting them to you.

EXAMPLE

So how does all this look in real life? Let use a fictitious pharmaceutical company (lets call it GotYou Labs) releasing a new study about their brand new drug.

“A new study published in the GotYou Labs magazine suggests that their new drug called “Happiness” has improved the life of all its participants in a control study. The news come just in time for the drug’s review by the FDA. “[Happiness] is a great new drug tested by our scientists and will be vital for our company’s future success“, said the CFO of GotYou Labs.

Now back to reality. Obviously, this type of excerpt is exaggerated for the purpose of our example. Regardless, the principles detailed above can be used to analyze statements like the one from our fictitious study. We can start dissecting the information by asking:

• Who is saying the message? The message was created by the Lab company, so it would be in their best interest to look good.
• What are they trying to do? They are trying to convince you to feel good about using their drug.
• Are they being factual, opinionated or is it propaganda? Well we can say that they could be bending the facts to present themselves in good light.

Other questions to ask:

• In the study, how sad where the participants prior to using the drug?
• Where the scientists working for the company?
• How many people where tested?

As you can see using this line of questioning helps you put the information in perspective. When we encounter new information, we should be empirically skeptic. Reviewing the basic questions about the source of the information will help us improve our reasoning.

Next week, we will address probability and likelihood. We will start to combine what we learn on this article with other methods that will help you expand your critical thinking.