Language of CT

Critical thinking (CT) involves learning concepts, developing skills, embracing ethics, and recognizing barriers. For more on this, see What is CT?

All of these elements can be discussed using a common vocabulary. This language of CT can be embedded in all school subjects. A claim that something is true because it has not yet been proven false, whether encountered in language arts or computer science, can be labelled an argument from ignorance. Evidence recalled from memory, whether discussed in English language development or chemistry, can be called remembered evidence. Evaluating a claim using a concise, repeatable, and complete method, whether in social studies or geometry, can be referred to as using a sound method.

Transferrability
By using a common Language of CT, the concepts of CT can be transferred across subjects. Ultimately, these ideas can be applied to claims encountered in everyday life, whether from purveyors of products and services, politicians, friends, or the media.

Fact
One of Maria’s vocabulary words in school was “fact” -- something that is true for everyone. So when her cousin tells her it’s a fact that boys are better at math than girls, she suspects it isn’t really so since some of the girls in her class usually do better on their math worksheets than some of the boys.

Memory Error
Jamal’s friend tells him she heard on the news that 399 people died last month in plane crashes in the US. Jamal is reminded of his language arts class where the teacher taught them about memory errors by asking them to recall details from a story they had read aloud the day before. Students disagreed on many of the answers and no one got all of them right. Jamal wonders if his friend misremembered what she heard and looks up the plane crash statistics himself, finding that there were 399 airline fatalities last year world-wide, not last month in the US.

Relative Risk and Absolute Risk
Mark reads in the newspaper that people who live in the northern half of the US, like him, have double the risk of getting multiple sclerosis as do people in the southern half. In the unit on probability in algebra class, Mark’s teacher taught them the difference between relative risk -- the chances of something happening to one group compared to another -- and absolute risk -- the chances of it happening at all. Remembering this distinction, Mark does some research and finds that the actual chances of getting multiple sclerosis if you live in the northern half of US is still only about one in a thousand.

Confirmation Bias
Susie is eligible to vote in an upcoming election that includes a measure on raising the minimum wage. In her history class, she learned how confirmation bias -- the tendency to only look for or remember evidence that supports your opinion -- led to misinformed decisions in the Bay of Pigs. Even though Susie already has an opinion on the minimum wage, she makes sure to search the internet for “reasons for” and “reasons against” raising the minimum wage, along with other versions of both phrases. In this way she makes sure she knows the arguments on both sides of the issue.

Argument from Authority
A claim that something is true just because a person, book, or other source says it is true. Arguments from authority are very weak support for a claim unless what the authority says is in turn based on good evidence and reasoning.

Argument from Ignorance
A claim that something is true because it has not yet been proven false. This is a logical error because one can make a claim about anything that has not yet been proven false, like "There is life on the planet Saturn." Just making a claim that has not or cannot be proven false does not in any way make it true.

Claim
Saying that something is true.

Confirmation Bias
Looking for or remembering only the evidence that supports a claim and not looking for or remembering the evidence the refutes it. For example, you remember looking at a clock a number of times recently and seeing 10:12 each time, which is your birthday. You therefore conclude there is something special going on when really, you just don't remember all the times you looked at the clock and saw something other than 10:12.

Causation Fallacy
Thinking that A causes B because A happens before or together with B. For example, thinking that a rooster crowing every morning causes the sun to rise.

Fact
Anything that is true for everyone.

Objective Claim
A claim that must be either true for everyone or false for everyone. A claim that something is a fact. For example, saying that the the Earth is flat is an objective claim because it must be either true for everyone or false for everyone. It cannot be true for some people and false for others. All objective claims can be evaluated as either probably true, probably false, or not enough information to say. Compare with subjective claim.

Random Sample
A sample that is chosen in a way that there is an equal chance that any part of the thing being sampled is picked.

Remembered evidence
Evidence recalled from memory. Compare with recorded evidence and physical evidence.

Sample
A small part of something that is supposed to show what the whole thing is like.

Sample Size
The number of items in a sample. The larger the sample size, the more confident we can be that the sample is the same as the whole thing that it came from.

Sound method
A way of doing something that is concise, repeatable, and complete.

Subjective Claim
A claim that can be true for some people and false for others at the same time. For example, "Cats are better than dogs" is a subjective claim because it can be both true for some people and false for other people at the same time.