critical thinking questions about books

85 Critical Thinking Questions to Carefully Examine Any Information

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The ability to think critically will often determine your success in life.

Let’s face it. Every day, we are bombarded by news, social media updates, and an avalanche of information. If you take all of this at face value, it’s easy to be deceived, misled or ripped off.

That’s why it’s important to develop a mindset that focuses on critical thinking . This is a skill that needs to be developed in the classroom. But it’s also a valuable life skill.

With that in mind, the following post will share 85 critical thinking questions you can use to increase your awareness about different problems by carefully examining available information.

Let’s get started…

Table of Contents

What Are Critical Thinking Questions?

Critical thinking questions are inquiries that help you think rationally and clearly by understanding the link between different facts or ideas. These questions create a seemingly endless learning process that lets you critique, evaluate, and develop a depth of knowledge about a given subject. Moreover, you get to reinforce your viewpoints or see things in a new way.

We make decisions every day, whether at work or home. Adopting logical, rational, and practical approaches in addressing various issues requiring critical thinking is essential in decision-making. Therefore, before arriving at a decision, always ask yourself relevant questions and carefully analyze the matter’s pros and cons.

Critical Thinking Questions When in an Argument

When you make an argument using a critical thinking approach, you focus on justified claims that are valid and based on evidence. It helps one establish a strong argument.

Do I disagree with the other person? Might the person I'm arguing with be misinformed on what they are saying?
Would I be comfortable saying what I am telling him/her if I was in front of a group of people?
What would happen if I lose this argument? Is engaging in this argument worth my time and energy? How will I feel if I lose?
Is there room for ambiguity or misinterpretation? Are we arguing because I didn't make my point explicit? Should I take my time to understand his school of thought?
Do I need some rest before saying something? Am I arguing because of other reasons other than the issues at hand? Do I need to take some time and cool down?

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Is it more important that I’m right? Am I trying to ask to prove an unnecessary point?
Is this argument inductive, deductive, or abductive? Is it a weak or strong argument that I need to engage in? Is it compelling or sound?
Is my opponent sincere? Given that they are wrong, are they willing to admit that they are wrong? Can they depend on available evidence, wherever it leads?
Are my opponents only trying to shift their burden to me? What is the best way to prove them wrong without making them feel bad?
Are the people I'm arguing with only interested in winning, or are they trying to pass some information across and help me discover the truth?

Critical Thinking Questions When Reading a Book

When you read a book, you probably ask yourself many “why” questions. Why is this a problem? Why did the character say that? Why is this important? The most challenging part of reading a book is assessing the information you are reading. These questions can help.

If I learn only two things from this book, what will they be? How will they help me? How will I apply them in my daily life?
What message are the authors trying to pass across? Are they making suggestions or providing evidence for their arguments?
Given that almost every book is about solving problems, what is the most prevalent issue that the author is trying to solve?
What is the author’s writing style? What strategy or master plan does the author employ to convey his/her main ideas throughout the book?
Do I have background information about the book’s topic? If so, how is what the author is saying different from what I already know?
What didn’t I understand from the book? Should I re-read the book to understand everything the writer is trying to convey?
Which sections of the book do I love the most, and why? Generally, do I like this book? Should I look for more books that are written by the same author?
If I had a chance to meet this book’s author, what questions would I ask him/her? What would I tell the writer about the book? Is it a great book worth recommending to your friends and family members?
Who are the main characters of the book? If there is only one main character, what overarching goal does the character accomplish?
In what ways did the protagonist change from the start of the book to the end? What caused the changes? Was the protagonist reckless in some ways? Which ways?

Critical Thinking Questions to Spot a Scam

Asking questions when you feel that a fraud or a scam is being presented to you is a good way to stretch your critical thinking muscles. Are you being emailed or messaged by a stranger? Or maybe there are other red flags you are unsure about. If so, ask these questions.

Does it seem to be too good to be true? Is this stranger pushy or trying to lure me into making a poor decision?
When trying out online dating: Is my new “friend” professing strong feelings towards me although we’ve only interacted for a few hours?
Why is a stranger calling me to ask about my Social Security Number (SSN), personal contact information, or bank details while claiming they are from the bank or a phone company?
When buying products online, why does the seller ask me to pay for goods using an insecure payment option like Bitcoin or money order?
Does the email I have received have any spelling or grammatical errors? Is the language used overly formal or informal?
If I do a quick search about the exact words of the email I received, does Google indicate it's a fraud or scam?
Why should a stranger manipulate me using obvious questions like “Would you want to be rich or poor?” While they already know the answer?
Is the email asking me to download an attachment? Or click a link to some insecure website?
Is the person trying to make me feel selfish or guilty for not sending them money, whether for a donation or buying a product?
Is the stranger portraying a sense of urgency and using pressure tactics? Are they telling me that their family member needs urgent medical attention?

Critical Thinking Questions About Your Life

It can also help to ask yourself a few critical thinking questions about your life. This way, you can gather basic information and uncover solutions to problems you might not have otherwise thought of.

Where do I wish to be in a few years, probably two, three, or five years? What short-term and long-term goals should I set?
What have I achieved so far from the time I set my previous goals? What should I be grateful for?
Do I have any values that guide me in life? If so, what are these values? Am I always true to these values?
Am I always worried about what people around me think? Can I act independently without the need to meet social expectations?
What should people say about me at my funeral? Would they talk about how good I made them feel or how rich and flashy I was?
If I wasn't afraid of anyone or anything, what would I have done? What if I didn't have any fear in me?
If today was my last day, what extraordinary thing would I do? Can I do it right now?
What should I do with the things that matter the most to me?
What things will make the greatest difference in my future life if I take action now?
How should I react when I feel unwanted by the people I love the most? Should I tell them?

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Critical Thinking Questions for a Debate or Discussion

When you are in the middle of a debate or discussion, you need to know that what you are saying is fact, have evidence to support your claim, and position yourself as an expert in what you are saying. Here are some critical thinking questions to ask when you are in a debate or discussion.

Is there fairness in this discussion? Is the moderator supporting one side? Do they want to make one side look stupid or wrong?
What is the aim of this discussion? Is there a major problem that needs to be solved? If so, how can I help solve it?
Who are the people affected by this discussion? If they were here, what would they say?
Do my views on this discussion matter? If I raise my point, will I be redundant?
What am I supposed to learn from this debate, and how can I use what I have learned in my daily life?
Does the audience seem to be biased towards one side? Are they booing one side? What can I do even if it's our opponents being booed?
Who are the discussion panel members? What views have they held about this kind of discussion or any other related discussions in the past?
How can I make my point without being ambiguous? Before I speak, should I take down some notes to avoid any confusion during my speech?
Am I ready to apologize if I make a mistake during the discussion? If so, what are the limits?
What information does my team, or I need before this discussion?

Critical Thinking Questions About Lying

Admitting when you are wrong, choosing not to cheat, and sharing constructive feedback are all ways to show your honesty. Here are some critical thinking skills to ask regarding lying.

Will the lie hurt those I am telling, or will it help them? What if being honest might cause my friend unnecessary pain?
Should I be the one telling this person a lie, or I let someone else do it?
Will I be the one hurt if I tell this lie? Will my friend feel I am a betrayer? Will it affect our friendship?
Do they answer my questions in detail, or are they always trying to ignore and dodge the main problem?
What if I ask these people the same question using different terms and wording? Will they give me the same response?
Did the tone of my friend suddenly change after I asked him/her this question? Do they sound louder, faster, or slower compared to how they usually speak?
Does this person have something to gain by lying to me? What is their motive?
Does this person take a sudden pause or hesitate more than usual when responding to my question?
When I look at these people's faces, do their facial expressions match what they say?
Should I believe this person or not? What are my intuitions? Does it look like they are telling the truth?
Do they blink like other days when I ask them questions? Are they always trying to avoid direct eye contact?
Why do they seem uncomfortable when it’s just a normal conversation?

Critical Thinking Questions When Presented With a Claim

Critical thinking is much more than just evaluating whether a claim is true or not. It also means a critical thinker reflects on what follows from true claims.

What does this claim mean, and what are its implications? What if it's a false claim?
Which of my morals, values, or beliefs do I have to give up to accept this claim?
Do professionals in this field agree or disagree with the claim that has been made?
Do they have evidence to back their claim? Which is the most robust evidence to support the claim?
What argument can I come up with to refute this claim? Or what is the best view that can support this claim?
Who is the primary source of the claim being made? Is the basis of the claim reliable?
Is it a claim, or it's just an opinion?
Is the claim likely to be 100% false, true, or partially true?
Am I allowed to refute the claim and table my evidence, or is it one-sided?

Critical Thinking Interview Questions

Critical thinking skills are valuable in any industry or field and for almost all roles. During a job interview, you will be asked questions so the potential employer can assess your skills and see how you use logic. Your critical thinking ability is just one vital part that can play into your professional development.

Is there a time you had to convince someone to use an alternate approach to solve a problem?
Have you ever had to make a difficult decision quickly?
How would you handle a situation where your supervisor handled something wrong or made a mistake?
What is one of the most difficult decisions you have ever had to make at work?
How would you solve a disagreement between coworkers when approaching a project?
Can you describe a time when you anticipated a problem ahead of time and took the appropriate steps to stop the problem from becoming an issue?
If you discover a cheaper way to do something or a better solution to a problem and try to explain it to your supervisor, but they don’t understand, what do you do?

Critical Thinking Questions for Kids

We can’t leave the kids out either. Critical thinking questions for kids get them thinking and talking. It also allows a parent to get to know their child better.

How many grains of sand do you think are on the beach?
What would happen if it stopped raining?
Do you think there is life on other planets?
Should children be able to set their own bedtimes?
How would you describe what a tree looks like without saying green or leaves?
Can you name five different emotions?
Can you talk for five minutes without uttering “um?”

What Are the Basic Principles of Critical Thinking?

Your critical thinking skills involve gathering complete information, understanding and defining terms, questioning the methods by which we get facts, questioning the conclusions, and looking for hidden assumptions and biases.

Additionally, we can’t expect to find all of the answers, and we need to take the time to examine the big picture of it all.

Here are the basic principles:

Disposition: Someone with critical thinking skills is often skeptical, open-minded, and practices fair-mindedness. They can look at different viewpoints and change positions if the evidence and reason lead them to do so.
Criteria: In order to think critically, one must also apply criteria. Certain conditions must be met before someone believes in something. The information needs to be from credible sources.
Argument: An argument is simply a statement or proposition that is shown with supporting evidence. When you use your critical thinking skills, you identify, evaluate, and construct your argument.
Reasoning: With critical thinking comes reasoning. You must examine logical relationships among the statements being made.
Point of View: Critical thinkers can see things from different perspectives and different points of view.

What Are Good Analysis Questions?

Analysis is a part of critical thinking that allows you to examine something carefully. Someone with analytical skills can examine the information presented, understand what that information means, and then properly explain that information to others. Analysis in critical thinking provides more clarity on the information you process.

When analyzing, you may ask yourself, “how do I know this,” how would I solve this problem,” and “why does it matter?”

Why Is Critical Thinking an Important Skill?

Critical thinking skills allow you to express thoughts, ideas, and beliefs in a better way. It also leads to improved communication while allowing others to understand you better. Critical thinking fosters creativity and encourages out-of-the-box thinking. This is a skill that can be applied to many different areas of your life.

For example, knowing the answers to critical thinking questions for a job interview will better prepare you for the interview. Many employers, during questioning, are likely to ask you critical thinking questions to assess if you have the ability to evaluate information effectively so you can make more informed decisions.

Final Thoughts on Critical Thinking Questions

Although it's common to get torn between making two or more choices, nobody wants to make the wrong decision. The only thing you can do to avoid this is use critical thinking questions to examine your situation. The answers to these questions will help you make informed decisions and help you comprehend crucial matters in your life.

Want to learn more about critical thinking and decision-making using a real-life example? Here is how Jeff Bezos uses critical thinking to make some of the most challenging life decisions.

Finally, if you want to ask better questions, then watch this short, 20-minute course to learn how to have a great conversation with virtually anyone .

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Critical thinking definition

Critical thinking, as described by Oxford Languages, is the objective analysis and evaluation of an issue in order to form a judgement.

Active and skillful approach, evaluation, assessment, synthesis, and/or evaluation of information obtained from, or made by, observation, knowledge, reflection, acumen or conversation, as a guide to belief and action, requires the critical thinking process, which is why it's often used in education and academics.

Some even may view it as a backbone of modern thought.

However, it's a skill, and skills must be trained and encouraged to be used at its full potential.

People turn up to various approaches in improving their critical thinking, like:

Developing technical and problem-solving skills
Engaging in more active listening
Actively questioning their assumptions and beliefs
Seeking out more diversity of thought
Opening up their curiosity in an intellectual way etc.

Is critical thinking useful in writing?

Critical thinking can help in planning your paper and making it more concise, but it's not obvious at first. We carefully pinpointed some the questions you should ask yourself when boosting critical thinking in writing:

What information should be included?
Which information resources should the author look to?
What degree of technical knowledge should the report assume its audience has?
What is the most effective way to show information?
How should the report be organized?
How should it be designed?
What tone and level of language difficulty should the document have?

Usage of critical thinking comes down not only to the outline of your paper, it also begs the question: How can we use critical thinking solving problems in our writing's topic?

Let's say, you have a Powerpoint on how critical thinking can reduce poverty in the United States. You'll primarily have to define critical thinking for the viewers, as well as use a lot of critical thinking questions and synonyms to get them to be familiar with your methods and start the thinking process behind it.

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100+ Critical Thinking Questions for Students To Ask About Anything

Critical thinkers question everything.

In an age of “fake news” claims and constant argument about pretty much any issue, critical thinking skills are key. Teach your students that it’s vital to ask questions about everything, but that it’s also important to ask the right sorts of questions. Students can use these critical thinking questions with fiction or nonfiction texts. They’re also useful when discussing important issues or trying to understand others’ motivations in general.

“Who” Critical Thinking Questions

Questions like these help students ponder who’s involved in a story and how the actions affect them. They’ll also consider who’s telling the tale and how reliable that narrator might be.

Is the protagonist?
Is the antagonist?
Caused harm?
Is harmed as a result?
Was the most important character?

Is responsible?
Is most directly affected?
Should have won?
Will benefit?
Would be affected by this?

Makes the decisions?

“What” Critical Thinking Questions

Ask questions that explore issues more deeply, including those that might not be directly answered in the text.

Background information do I know or need to know?
Is the main message?
Are the defining characteristics?

Questions or concerns do I have?
Don’t I understand?
Evidence supports the author’s conclusion?
Would it be like if … ?
Could happen if … ?
Other outcomes might have happened?
Questions would you have asked?
Would you ask the author about … ?
Was the point of … ?
Should have happened instead?
Is that character’s motive?
Else could have changed the whole story?

Can you conclude?
Would your position have been in that situation?
Would happen if … ?
Makes your position stronger?
Was the turning point?
Is the point of the question?
Did it mean when … ?
Is the other side of this argument?
Was the purpose of … ?
Does ______ mean?
Is the problem you are trying to solve?
Does the evidence say?
Assumptions are you making?
Is a better alternative?
Are the strengths of the argument?

Are the weaknesses of the argument?
Is the difference between _______ and _______?

“Where” Critical Thinking Questions

Think about where the story is set and how it affects the actions. Plus, consider where and how you can learn more.

Would this issue be a major problem?
Are areas for improvement?
Did the story change?
Would you most often find this problem?

Are there similar situations?
Would you go to get answers to this problem?
Can this be improved?
Can you get more information?
Will this idea take us?

“When” Critical Thinking Questions

Think about timing and the effect it has on the characters or people involved.

Is this acceptable?
Is this unacceptable?

Does this become a problem?
Is the best time to take action?
Will we be able to tell if it worked?
Is it time to reassess?
Should we ask for help?
Is the best time to start?
Is it time to stop?
Would this benefit society?

Has this happened before?

“Why” Critical Thinking Questions

Asking “why” might be one of the most important parts of critical thinking. Exploring and understanding motivation helps develop empathy and make sense of difficult situations.

Is _________ happening?
Have we allowed this to happen?
Should people care about this issue?

Is this a problem?
Did the character say … ?
Did the character do … ?
Is this relevant?
Did the author write this?
Did the author decide to … ?
Is this important?

Did that happen?
Is it necessary?
Do you think I (he, she, they) asked that question?
Is that answer the best one?
Do we need this today?

“How” Critical Thinking Questions

Use these questions to consider how things happen and whether change is possible.

Do we know this is true?
Does the language used affect the story?
Would you solve … ?
Is this different from other situations?

Is this similar to … ?
Would you use … ?
Does the location affect the story?
Could the story have ended differently?
Does this work?
Could this be harmful?
Does this connect with what I already know?
Else could this have been handled?
Should they have responded?

Would you feel about … ?
Does this change the outcome?
Did you make that decision?
Does this benefit you/others?
Does this hurt you/others?
Could this problem be avoided?

What are your favorite critical thinking questions? Come exchange ideas on the WeAreTeachers HELPLINE group on Facebook .

Plus, check out 10 tips for teaching kids to be awesome critical thinkers ., you might also like.

Examples of critical thinking skills like correlation tick-tac-Toe, which teaches analysis skills and debates which teach evaluation skills.

5 Critical Thinking Skills Every Kid Needs To Learn (And How To Teach Them)

Teach them to thoughtfully question the world around them. Continue Reading

A Crash Course in Critical Thinking

What you need to know—and read—about one of the essential skills needed today..

Posted April 8, 2024 | Reviewed by Michelle Quirk

In research for "A More Beautiful Question," I did a deep dive into the current crisis in critical thinking.
Many people may think of themselves as critical thinkers, but they actually are not.
Here is a series of questions you can ask yourself to try to ensure that you are thinking critically.

Conspiracy theories. Inability to distinguish facts from falsehoods. Widespread confusion about who and what to believe.

These are some of the hallmarks of the current crisis in critical thinking—which just might be the issue of our times. Because if people aren’t willing or able to think critically as they choose potential leaders, they’re apt to choose bad ones. And if they can’t judge whether the information they’re receiving is sound, they may follow faulty advice while ignoring recommendations that are science-based and solid (and perhaps life-saving).

Moreover, as a society, if we can’t think critically about the many serious challenges we face, it becomes more difficult to agree on what those challenges are—much less solve them.

On a personal level, critical thinking can enable you to make better everyday decisions. It can help you make sense of an increasingly complex and confusing world.

In the new expanded edition of my book A More Beautiful Question ( AMBQ ), I took a deep dive into critical thinking. Here are a few key things I learned.

First off, before you can get better at critical thinking, you should understand what it is. It’s not just about being a skeptic. When thinking critically, we are thoughtfully reasoning, evaluating, and making decisions based on evidence and logic. And—perhaps most important—while doing this, a critical thinker always strives to be open-minded and fair-minded . That’s not easy: It demands that you constantly question your assumptions and biases and that you always remain open to considering opposing views.

In today’s polarized environment, many people think of themselves as critical thinkers simply because they ask skeptical questions—often directed at, say, certain government policies or ideas espoused by those on the “other side” of the political divide. The problem is, they may not be asking these questions with an open mind or a willingness to fairly consider opposing views.

When people do this, they’re engaging in “weak-sense critical thinking”—a term popularized by the late Richard Paul, a co-founder of The Foundation for Critical Thinking . “Weak-sense critical thinking” means applying the tools and practices of critical thinking—questioning, investigating, evaluating—but with the sole purpose of confirming one’s own bias or serving an agenda.

In AMBQ , I lay out a series of questions you can ask yourself to try to ensure that you’re thinking critically. Here are some of the questions to consider:

Why do I believe what I believe?
Are my views based on evidence?
Have I fairly and thoughtfully considered differing viewpoints?
Am I truly open to changing my mind?

Of course, becoming a better critical thinker is not as simple as just asking yourself a few questions. Critical thinking is a habit of mind that must be developed and strengthened over time. In effect, you must train yourself to think in a manner that is more effortful, aware, grounded, and balanced.

For those interested in giving themselves a crash course in critical thinking—something I did myself, as I was working on my book—I thought it might be helpful to share a list of some of the books that have shaped my own thinking on this subject. As a self-interested author, I naturally would suggest that you start with the new 10th-anniversary edition of A More Beautiful Question , but beyond that, here are the top eight critical-thinking books I’d recommend.

The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark , by Carl Sagan

This book simply must top the list, because the late scientist and author Carl Sagan continues to be such a bright shining light in the critical thinking universe. Chapter 12 includes the details on Sagan’s famous “baloney detection kit,” a collection of lessons and tips on how to deal with bogus arguments and logical fallacies.

Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments Into Extraordinary Results , by Shane Parrish

The creator of the Farnham Street website and host of the “Knowledge Project” podcast explains how to contend with biases and unconscious reactions so you can make better everyday decisions. It contains insights from many of the brilliant thinkers Shane has studied.

Good Thinking: Why Flawed Logic Puts Us All at Risk and How Critical Thinking Can Save the World , by David Robert Grimes

A brilliant, comprehensive 2021 book on critical thinking that, to my mind, hasn’t received nearly enough attention . The scientist Grimes dissects bad thinking, shows why it persists, and offers the tools to defeat it.

Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know , by Adam Grant

Intellectual humility—being willing to admit that you might be wrong—is what this book is primarily about. But Adam, the renowned Wharton psychology professor and bestselling author, takes the reader on a mind-opening journey with colorful stories and characters.

Think Like a Detective: A Kid's Guide to Critical Thinking , by David Pakman

The popular YouTuber and podcast host Pakman—normally known for talking politics —has written a terrific primer on critical thinking for children. The illustrated book presents critical thinking as a “superpower” that enables kids to unlock mysteries and dig for truth. (I also recommend Pakman’s second kids’ book called Think Like a Scientist .)

Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters , by Steven Pinker

The Harvard psychology professor Pinker tackles conspiracy theories head-on but also explores concepts involving risk/reward, probability and randomness, and correlation/causation. And if that strikes you as daunting, be assured that Pinker makes it lively and accessible.

How Minds Change: The Surprising Science of Belief, Opinion and Persuasion , by David McRaney

David is a science writer who hosts the popular podcast “You Are Not So Smart” (and his ideas are featured in A More Beautiful Question ). His well-written book looks at ways you can actually get through to people who see the world very differently than you (hint: bludgeoning them with facts definitely won’t work).

A Healthy Democracy's Best Hope: Building the Critical Thinking Habit , by M Neil Browne and Chelsea Kulhanek

Neil Browne, author of the seminal Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking, has been a pioneer in presenting critical thinking as a question-based approach to making sense of the world around us. His newest book, co-authored with Chelsea Kulhanek, breaks down critical thinking into “11 explosive questions”—including the “priors question” (which challenges us to question assumptions), the “evidence question” (focusing on how to evaluate and weigh evidence), and the “humility question” (which reminds us that a critical thinker must be humble enough to consider the possibility of being wrong).

Warren Berger is a longtime journalist and author of A More Beautiful Question .

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What Is Critical Thinking? | Definition & Examples

What Is Critical Thinking? | Definition & Examples

Published on May 30, 2022 by Eoghan Ryan . Revised on May 31, 2023.

Critical thinking is the ability to effectively analyze information and form a judgment .

To think critically, you must be aware of your own biases and assumptions when encountering information, and apply consistent standards when evaluating sources .

Critical thinking skills help you to:

Identify credible sources
Evaluate and respond to arguments
Assess alternative viewpoints
Test hypotheses against relevant criteria

Why is critical thinking important, critical thinking examples, how to think critically, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about critical thinking.

Critical thinking is important for making judgments about sources of information and forming your own arguments. It emphasizes a rational, objective, and self-aware approach that can help you to identify credible sources and strengthen your conclusions.

Critical thinking is important in all disciplines and throughout all stages of the research process . The types of evidence used in the sciences and in the humanities may differ, but critical thinking skills are relevant to both.

In academic writing , critical thinking can help you to determine whether a source:

Is free from research bias
Provides evidence to support its research findings
Considers alternative viewpoints

Outside of academia, critical thinking goes hand in hand with information literacy to help you form opinions rationally and engage independently and critically with popular media.

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Critical thinking can help you to identify reliable sources of information that you can cite in your research paper . It can also guide your own research methods and inform your own arguments.

Outside of academia, critical thinking can help you to be aware of both your own and others’ biases and assumptions.

Academic examples

However, when you compare the findings of the study with other current research, you determine that the results seem improbable. You analyze the paper again, consulting the sources it cites.

You notice that the research was funded by the pharmaceutical company that created the treatment. Because of this, you view its results skeptically and determine that more independent research is necessary to confirm or refute them. Example: Poor critical thinking in an academic context You’re researching a paper on the impact wireless technology has had on developing countries that previously did not have large-scale communications infrastructure. You read an article that seems to confirm your hypothesis: the impact is mainly positive. Rather than evaluating the research methodology, you accept the findings uncritically.

Nonacademic examples

However, you decide to compare this review article with consumer reviews on a different site. You find that these reviews are not as positive. Some customers have had problems installing the alarm, and some have noted that it activates for no apparent reason.

You revisit the original review article. You notice that the words “sponsored content” appear in small print under the article title. Based on this, you conclude that the review is advertising and is therefore not an unbiased source. Example: Poor critical thinking in a nonacademic context You support a candidate in an upcoming election. You visit an online news site affiliated with their political party and read an article that criticizes their opponent. The article claims that the opponent is inexperienced in politics. You accept this without evidence, because it fits your preconceptions about the opponent.

There is no single way to think critically. How you engage with information will depend on the type of source you’re using and the information you need.

However, you can engage with sources in a systematic and critical way by asking certain questions when you encounter information. Like the CRAAP test , these questions focus on the currency , relevance , authority , accuracy , and purpose of a source of information.

When encountering information, ask:

Who is the author? Are they an expert in their field?
What do they say? Is their argument clear? Can you summarize it?
When did they say this? Is the source current?
Where is the information published? Is it an academic article? Is it peer-reviewed ?
Why did the author publish it? What is their motivation?
How do they make their argument? Is it backed up by evidence? Does it rely on opinion, speculation, or appeals to emotion ? Do they address alternative arguments?

Critical thinking also involves being aware of your own biases, not only those of others. When you make an argument or draw your own conclusions, you can ask similar questions about your own writing:

Am I only considering evidence that supports my preconceptions?
Is my argument expressed clearly and backed up with credible sources?
Would I be convinced by this argument coming from someone else?

If you want to know more about ChatGPT, AI tools , citation , and plagiarism , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

ChatGPT vs human editor
ChatGPT citations
Is ChatGPT trustworthy?
Using ChatGPT for your studies
What is ChatGPT?
Chicago style
Paraphrasing

Plagiarism

Types of plagiarism
Self-plagiarism
Avoiding plagiarism
Academic integrity
Consequences of plagiarism
Common knowledge

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Critical thinking refers to the ability to evaluate information and to be aware of biases or assumptions, including your own.

Like information literacy , it involves evaluating arguments, identifying and solving problems in an objective and systematic way, and clearly communicating your ideas.

Critical thinking skills include the ability to:

You can assess information and arguments critically by asking certain questions about the source. You can use the CRAAP test , focusing on the currency , relevance , authority , accuracy , and purpose of a source of information.

Ask questions such as:

Who is the author? Are they an expert?
How do they make their argument? Is it backed up by evidence?

A credible source should pass the CRAAP test and follow these guidelines:

The information should be up to date and current.
The author and publication should be a trusted authority on the subject you are researching.
The sources the author cited should be easy to find, clear, and unbiased.
For a web source, the URL and layout should signify that it is trustworthy.

Information literacy refers to a broad range of skills, including the ability to find, evaluate, and use sources of information effectively.

Being information literate means that you:

Know how to find credible sources
Use relevant sources to inform your research
Understand what constitutes plagiarism
Know how to cite your sources correctly

Confirmation bias is the tendency to search, interpret, and recall information in a way that aligns with our pre-existing values, opinions, or beliefs. It refers to the ability to recollect information best when it amplifies what we already believe. Relatedly, we tend to forget information that contradicts our opinions.

Although selective recall is a component of confirmation bias, it should not be confused with recall bias.

On the other hand, recall bias refers to the differences in the ability between study participants to recall past events when self-reporting is used. This difference in accuracy or completeness of recollection is not related to beliefs or opinions. Rather, recall bias relates to other factors, such as the length of the recall period, age, and the characteristics of the disease under investigation.

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Introduction to Logic and Critical Thinking

(10 reviews)

Matthew Van Cleave, Lansing Community College

Publisher: Matthew J. Van Cleave

Language: English

Formats Available

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Learn more about reviews.

Reviewed by "yusef" Alexander Hayes, Professor, North Shore Community College on 6/9/21

Formal and informal reasoning, argument structure, and fallacies are covered comprehensively, meeting the author's goal of both depth and succinctness. read more

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

Formal and informal reasoning, argument structure, and fallacies are covered comprehensively, meeting the author's goal of both depth and succinctness.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

The book is accurate.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

While many modern examples are used, and they are helpful, they are not necessarily needed. The usefulness of logical principles and skills have proved themselves, and this text presents them clearly with many examples.

Clarity rating: 5

It is obvious that the author cares about their subject, audience, and students. The text is comprehensible and interesting.

Consistency rating: 5

The format is easy to understand and is consistent in framing.

Modularity rating: 5

This text would be easy to adapt.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The organization is excellent, my one suggestion would be a concluding chapter.

Interface rating: 5

I accessed the PDF version and it would be easy to work with.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

The writing is excellent.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

This is not an offensive text.

Reviewed by Susan Rottmann, Part-time Lecturer, University of Southern Maine on 3/2/21

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

I reviewed this book for a course titled "Creative and Critical Inquiry into Modern Life." It won't meet all my needs for that course, but I haven't yet found a book that would. I wanted to review this one because it states in the preface that it fits better for a general critical thinking course than for a true logic course. I'm not sure that I'd agree. I have been using Browne and Keeley's "Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking," and I think that book is a better introduction to critical thinking for non-philosophy majors. However, the latter is not open source so I will figure out how to get by without it in the future. Overall, the book seems comprehensive if the subject is logic. The index is on the short-side, but fine. However, one issue for me is that there are no page numbers on the table of contents, which is pretty annoying if you want to locate particular sections.

Content Accuracy rating: 4

I didn't find any errors. In general the book uses great examples. However, they are very much based in the American context, not for an international student audience. Some effort to broaden the chosen examples would make the book more widely applicable.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

I think the book will remain relevant because of the nature of the material that it addresses, however there will be a need to modify the examples in future editions and as the social and political context changes.

Clarity rating: 3

The text is lucid, but I think it would be difficult for introductory-level students who are not philosophy majors. For example, in Browne and Keeley's "Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking," the sub-headings are very accessible, such as "Experts cannot rescue us, despite what they say" or "wishful thinking: perhaps the biggest single speed bump on the road to critical thinking." By contrast, Van Cleave's "Introduction to Logic and Critical Thinking" has more subheadings like this: "Using your own paraphrases of premises and conclusions to reconstruct arguments in standard form" or "Propositional logic and the four basic truth functional connectives." If students are prepared very well for the subject, it would work fine, but for students who are newly being introduced to critical thinking, it is rather technical.

It seems to be very consistent in terms of its terminology and framework.

Modularity rating: 4

The book is divided into 4 chapters, each having many sub-chapters. In that sense, it is readily divisible and modular. However, as noted above, there are no page numbers on the table of contents, which would make assigning certain parts rather frustrating. Also, I'm not sure why the book is only four chapter and has so many subheadings (for instance 17 in Chapter 2) and a length of 242 pages. Wouldn't it make more sense to break up the book into shorter chapters? I think this would make it easier to read and to assign in specific blocks to students.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

The organization of the book is fine overall, although I think adding page numbers to the table of contents and breaking it up into more separate chapters would help it to be more easily navigable.

Interface rating: 4

The book is very simply presented. In my opinion it is actually too simple. There are few boxes or diagrams that highlight and explain important points.

The text seems fine grammatically. I didn't notice any errors.

The book is written with an American audience in mind, but I did not notice culturally insensitive or offensive parts.

Overall, this book is not for my course, but I think it could work well in a philosophy course.

Reviewed by Daniel Lee, Assistant Professor of Economics and Leadership, Sweet Briar College on 11/11/19

This textbook is not particularly comprehensive (4 chapters long), but I view that as a benefit. In fact, I recommend it for use outside of traditional logic classes, but rather interdisciplinary classes that evaluate argument read more

Comprehensiveness rating: 3 see less

To the best of my ability, I regard this content as accurate, error-free, and unbiased

The book is broadly relevant and up-to-date, with a few stray temporal references (sydney olympics, particular presidencies). I don't view these time-dated examples as problematic as the logical underpinnings are still there and easily assessed

Clarity rating: 4

My only pushback on clarity is I didn't find the distinction between argument and explanation particularly helpful/useful/easy to follow. However, this experience may have been unique to my class.

To the best of my ability, I regard this content as internally consistent

I found this text quite modular, and was easily able to integrate other texts into my lessons and disregard certain chapters or sub-sections

The book had a logical and consistent structure, but to the extent that there are only 4 chapters, there isn't much scope for alternative approaches here

No problems with the book's interface

The text is grammatically sound

Cultural Relevance rating: 4

Perhaps the text could have been more universal in its approach. While I didn't find the book insensitive per-se, logic can be tricky here because the point is to evaluate meaningful (non-trivial) arguments, but any argument with that sense of gravity can also be traumatic to students (abortion, death penalty, etc)

No additional comments

Reviewed by Lisa N. Thomas-Smith, Graduate Part-time Instructor, CU Boulder on 7/1/19

The text covers all the relevant technical aspects of introductory logic and critical thinking, and covers them well. A separate glossary would be quite helpful to students. However, the terms are clearly and thoroughly explained within the text,... read more

The content is excellent. The text is thorough and accurate with no errors that I could discern. The terminology and exercises cover the material nicely and without bias.

The text should easily stand the test of time. The exercises are excellent and would be very helpful for students to internalize correct critical thinking practices. Because of the logical arrangement of the text and the many sub-sections, additional material should be very easy to add.

The text is extremely clearly and simply written. I anticipate that a diligent student could learn all of the material in the text with little additional instruction. The examples are relevant and easy to follow.

The text did not confuse terms or use inconsistent terminology, which is very important in a logic text. The discipline often uses multiple terms for the same concept, but this text avoids that trap nicely.

The text is fairly easily divisible. Since there are only four chapters, those chapters include large blocks of information. However, the chapters themselves are very well delineated and could be easily broken up so that parts could be left out or covered in a different order from the text.

The flow of the text is excellent. All of the information is handled solidly in an order that allows the student to build on the information previously covered.

The PDF Table of Contents does not include links or page numbers which would be very helpful for navigation. Other than that, the text was very easy to navigate. All the images, charts, and graphs were very clear

I found no grammatical errors in the text.

Cultural Relevance rating: 3

The text including examples and exercises did not seem to be offensive or insensitive in any specific way. However, the examples included references to black and white people, but few others. Also, the text is very American specific with many examples from and for an American audience. More diversity, especially in the examples, would be appropriate and appreciated.

Reviewed by Leslie Aarons, Associate Professor of Philosophy, CUNY LaGuardia Community College on 5/16/19

This is an excellent introductory (first-year) Logic and Critical Thinking textbook. The book covers the important elementary information, clearly discussing such things as the purpose and basic structure of an argument; the difference between an argument and an explanation; validity; soundness; and the distinctions between an inductive and a deductive argument in accessible terms in the first chapter. It also does a good job introducing and discussing informal fallacies (Chapter 4). The incorporation of opportunities to evaluate real-world arguments is also very effective. Chapter 2 also covers a number of formal methods of evaluating arguments, such as Venn Diagrams and Propositional logic and the four basic truth functional connectives, but to my mind, it is much more thorough in its treatment of Informal Logic and Critical Thinking skills, than it is of formal logic. I also appreciated that Van Cleave’s book includes exercises with answers and an index, but there is no glossary; which I personally do not find detracts from the book's comprehensiveness.

Overall, Van Cleave's book is error-free and unbiased. The language used is accessible and engaging. There were no glaring inaccuracies that I was able to detect.

Van Cleave's Textbook uses relevant, contemporary content that will stand the test of time, at least for the next few years. Although some examples use certain subjects like former President Obama, it does so in a useful manner that inspires the use of critical thinking skills. There are an abundance of examples that inspire students to look at issues from many different political viewpoints, challenging students to practice evaluating arguments, and identifying fallacies. Many of these exercises encourage students to critique issues, and recognize their own inherent reader-biases and challenge their own beliefs--hallmarks of critical thinking.

As mentioned previously, the author has an accessible style that makes the content relatively easy to read and engaging. He also does a suitable job explaining jargon/technical language that is introduced in the textbook.

Van Cleave uses terminology consistently and the chapters flow well. The textbook orients the reader by offering effective introductions to new material, step-by-step explanations of the material, as well as offering clear summaries of each lesson.

This textbook's modularity is really quite good. Its language and structure are not overly convoluted or too-lengthy, making it convenient for individual instructors to adapt the materials to suit their methodological preferences.

The topics in the textbook are presented in a logical and clear fashion. The structure of the chapters are such that it is not necessary to have to follow the chapters in their sequential order, and coverage of material can be adapted to individual instructor's preferences.

The textbook is free of any problematic interface issues. Topics, sections and specific content are accessible and easy to navigate. Overall it is user-friendly.

I did not find any significant grammatical issues with the textbook.

The textbook is not culturally insensitive, making use of a diversity of inclusive examples. Materials are especially effective for first-year critical thinking/logic students.

I intend to adopt Van Cleave's textbook for a Critical Thinking class I am teaching at the Community College level. I believe that it will help me facilitate student-learning, and will be a good resource to build additional classroom activities from the materials it provides.

Reviewed by Jennie Harrop, Chair, Department of Professional Studies, George Fox University on 3/27/18

While the book is admirably comprehensive, its extensive details within a few short chapters may feel overwhelming to students. The author tackles an impressive breadth of concepts in Chapter 1, 2, 3, and 4, which leads to 50-plus-page chapters that are dense with statistical analyses and critical vocabulary. These topics are likely better broached in manageable snippets rather than hefty single chapters.

The ideas addressed in Introduction to Logic and Critical Thinking are accurate but at times notably political. While politics are effectively used to exemplify key concepts, some students may be distracted by distinct political leanings.

The terms and definitions included are relevant, but the examples are specific to the current political, cultural, and social climates, which could make the materials seem dated in a few years without intentional and consistent updates.

While the reasoning is accurate, the author tends to complicate rather than simplify -- perhaps in an effort to cover a spectrum of related concepts. Beginning readers are likely to be overwhelmed and under-encouraged by his approach.

Consistency rating: 3

The four chapters are somewhat consistent in their play of definition, explanation, and example, but the structure of each chapter varies according to the concepts covered. In the third chapter, for example, key ideas are divided into sub-topics numbering from 3.1 to 3.10. In the fourth chapter, the sub-divisions are further divided into sub-sections numbered 4.1.1-4.1.5, 4.2.1-4.2.2, and 4.3.1 to 4.3.6. Readers who are working quickly to master new concepts may find themselves mired in similarly numbered subheadings, longing for a grounded concepts on which to hinge other key principles.

Modularity rating: 3

The book's four chapters make it mostly self-referential. The author would do well to beak this text down into additional subsections, easing readers' accessibility.

The content of the book flows logically and well, but the information needs to be better sub-divided within each larger chapter, easing the student experience.

The book's interface is effective, allowing readers to move from one section to the next with a single click. Additional sub-sections would ease this interplay even further.

Grammatical Errors rating: 4

Some minor errors throughout.

For the most part, the book is culturally neutral, avoiding direct cultural references in an effort to remain relevant.

Reviewed by Yoichi Ishida, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Ohio University on 2/1/18

This textbook covers enough topics for a first-year course on logic and critical thinking. Chapter 1 covers the basics as in any standard textbook in this area. Chapter 2 covers propositional logic and categorical logic. In propositional logic, this textbook does not cover suppositional arguments, such as conditional proof and reductio ad absurdum. But other standard argument forms are covered. Chapter 3 covers inductive logic, and here this textbook introduces probability and its relationship with cognitive biases, which are rarely discussed in other textbooks. Chapter 4 introduces common informal fallacies. The answers to all the exercises are given at the end. However, the last set of exercises is in Chapter 3, Section 5. There are no exercises in the rest of the chapter. Chapter 4 has no exercises either. There is index, but no glossary.

The textbook is accurate.

The content of this textbook will not become obsolete soon.

The textbook is written clearly.

The textbook is internally consistent.

The textbook is fairly modular. For example, Chapter 3, together with a few sections from Chapter 1, can be used as a short introduction to inductive logic.

The textbook is well-organized.

There are no interface issues.

I did not find any grammatical errors.

This textbook is relevant to a first semester logic or critical thinking course.

Reviewed by Payal Doctor, Associate Professro, LaGuardia Community College on 2/1/18

This text is a beginner textbook for arguments and propositional logic. It covers the basics of identifying arguments, building arguments, and using basic logic to construct propositions and arguments. It is quite comprehensive for a beginner book, but seems to be a good text for a course that needs a foundation for arguments. There are exercises on creating truth tables and proofs, so it could work as a logic primer in short sessions or with the addition of other course content.

The books is accurate in the information it presents. It does not contain errors and is unbiased. It covers the essential vocabulary clearly and givens ample examples and exercises to ensure the student understands the concepts

The content of the book is up to date and can be easily updated. Some examples are very current for analyzing the argument structure in a speech, but for this sort of text understandable examples are important and the author uses good examples.

The book is clear and easy to read. In particular, this is a good text for community college students who often have difficulty with reading comprehension. The language is straightforward and concepts are well explained.

The book is consistent in terminology, formatting, and examples. It flows well from one topic to the next, but it is also possible to jump around the text without loosing the voice of the text.

The books is broken down into sub units that make it easy to assign short blocks of content at a time. Later in the text, it does refer to a few concepts that appear early in that text, but these are all basic concepts that must be used to create a clear and understandable text. No sections are too long and each section stays on topic and relates the topic to those that have come before when necessary.

The flow of the text is logical and clear. It begins with the basic building blocks of arguments, and practice identifying more and more complex arguments is offered. Each chapter builds up from the previous chapter in introducing propositional logic, truth tables, and logical arguments. A select number of fallacies are presented at the end of the text, but these are related to topics that were presented before, so it makes sense to have these last.

The text is free if interface issues. I used the PDF and it worked fine on various devices without loosing formatting.

1. The book contains no grammatical errors.

The text is culturally sensitive, but examples used are a bit odd and may be objectionable to some students. For instance, President Obama's speech on Syria is used to evaluate an extended argument. This is an excellent example and it is explained well, but some who disagree with Obama's policies may have trouble moving beyond their own politics. However, other examples look at issues from all political viewpoints and ask students to evaluate the argument, fallacy, etc. and work towards looking past their own beliefs. Overall this book does use a variety of examples that most students can understand and evaluate.

My favorite part of this book is that it seems to be written for community college students. My students have trouble understanding readings in the New York Times, so it is nice to see a logic and critical thinking text use real language that students can understand and follow without the constant need of a dictionary.

Reviewed by Rebecca Owen, Adjunct Professor, Writing, Chemeketa Community College on 6/20/17

This textbook is quite thorough--there are conversational explanations of argument structure and logic. I think students will be happy with the conversational style this author employs. Also, there are many examples and exercises using current events, funny scenarios, or other interesting ways to evaluate argument structure and validity. The third section, which deals with logical fallacies, is very clear and comprehensive. My only critique of the material included in the book is that the middle section may be a bit dense and math-oriented for learners who appreciate the more informal, informative style of the first and third section. Also, the book ends rather abruptly--it moves from a description of a logical fallacy to the answers for the exercises earlier in the text.

The content is very reader-friendly, and the author writes with authority and clarity throughout the text. There are a few surface-level typos (Starbuck's instead of Starbucks, etc.). None of these small errors detract from the quality of the content, though.

One thing I really liked about this text was the author's wide variety of examples. To demonstrate different facets of logic, he used examples from current media, movies, literature, and many other concepts that students would recognize from their daily lives. The exercises in this text also included these types of pop-culture references, and I think students will enjoy the familiarity--as well as being able to see the logical structures behind these types of references. I don't think the text will need to be updated to reflect new instances and occurrences; the author did a fine job at picking examples that are relatively timeless. As far as the subject matter itself, I don't think it will become obsolete any time soon.

The author writes in a very conversational, easy-to-read manner. The examples used are quite helpful. The third section on logical fallacies is quite easy to read, follow, and understand. A student in an argument writing class could benefit from this section of the book. The middle section is less clear, though. A student learning about the basics of logic might have a hard time digesting all of the information contained in chapter two. This material might be better in two separate chapters. I think the author loses the balance of a conversational, helpful tone and focuses too heavily on equations.

Consistency rating: 4

Terminology in this book is quite consistent--the key words are highlighted in bold. Chapters 1 and 3 follow a similar organizational pattern, but chapter 2 is where the material becomes more dense and equation-heavy. I also would have liked a closing passage--something to indicate to the reader that we've reached the end of the chapter as well as the book.

I liked the overall structure of this book. If I'm teaching an argumentative writing class, I could easily point the students to the chapters where they can identify and practice identifying fallacies, for instance. The opening chapter is clear in defining the necessary terms, and it gives the students an understanding of the toolbox available to them in assessing and evaluating arguments. Even though I found the middle section to be dense, smaller portions could be assigned.

The author does a fine job connecting each defined term to the next. He provides examples of how each defined term works in a sentence or in an argument, and then he provides practice activities for students to try. The answers for each question are listed in the final pages of the book. The middle section feels like the heaviest part of the whole book--it would take the longest time for a student to digest if assigned the whole chapter. Even though this middle section is a bit heavy, it does fit the overall structure and flow of the book. New material builds on previous chapters and sub-chapters. It ends abruptly--I didn't realize that it had ended, and all of a sudden I found myself in the answer section for those earlier exercises.

The simple layout is quite helpful! There is nothing distracting, image-wise, in this text. The table of contents is clearly arranged, and each topic is easy to find.

Tiny edits could be made (Starbuck's/Starbucks, for one). Otherwise, it is free of distracting grammatical errors.

This text is quite culturally relevant. For instance, there is one example that mentions the rumors of Barack Obama's birthplace as somewhere other than the United States. This example is used to explain how to analyze an argument for validity. The more "sensational" examples (like the Obama one above) are helpful in showing argument structure, and they can also help students see how rumors like this might gain traction--as well as help to show students how to debunk them with their newfound understanding of argument and logic.

The writing style is excellent for the subject matter, especially in the third section explaining logical fallacies. Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this text!

Reviewed by Laurel Panser, Instructor, Riverland Community College on 6/20/17

This is a review of Introduction to Logic and Critical Thinking, an open source book version 1.4 by Matthew Van Cleave. The comparison book used was Patrick J. Hurley’s A Concise Introduction to Logic 12th Edition published by Cengage as well as... read more

Competing with Hurley is difficult with respect to comprehensiveness. For example, Van Cleave’s book is comprehensive to the extent that it probably covers at least two-thirds or more of what is dealt with in most introductory, one-semester logic courses. Van Cleave’s chapter 1 provides an overview of argumentation including discerning non-arguments from arguments, premises versus conclusions, deductive from inductive arguments, validity, soundness and more. Much of Van Cleave’s chapter 1 parallel’s Hurley’s chapter 1. Hurley’s chapter 3 regarding informal fallacies is comprehensive while Van Cleave’s chapter 4 on this topic is less extensive. Categorical propositions are a topic in Van Cleave’s chapter 2; Hurley’s chapters 4 and 5 provide more instruction on this, however. Propositional logic is another topic in Van Cleave’s chapter 2; Hurley’s chapters 6 and 7 provide more information on this, though. Van Cleave did discuss messy issues of language meaning briefly in his chapter 1; that is the topic of Hurley’s chapter 2.

Van Cleave’s book includes exercises with answers and an index. A glossary was not included.

Reviews of open source textbooks typically include criteria besides comprehensiveness. These include comments on accuracy of the information, whether the book will become obsolete soon, jargon-free clarity to the extent that is possible, organization, navigation ease, freedom from grammar errors and cultural relevance; Van Cleave’s book is fine in all of these areas. Further criteria for open source books includes modularity and consistency of terminology. Modularity is defined as including blocks of learning material that are easy to assign to students. Hurley’s book has a greater degree of modularity than Van Cleave’s textbook. The prose Van Cleave used is consistent.

Van Cleave’s book will not become obsolete soon.

Van Cleave’s book has accessible prose.

Van Cleave used terminology consistently.

Van Cleave’s book has a reasonable degree of modularity.

Van Cleave’s book is organized. The structure and flow of his book is fine.

Problems with navigation are not present.

Grammar problems were not present.

Van Cleave’s book is culturally relevant.

Van Cleave’s book is appropriate for some first semester logic courses.

Chapter 1: Reconstructing and analyzing arguments

1.1 What is an argument?
1.2 Identifying arguments
1.3 Arguments vs. explanations
1.4 More complex argument structures
1.5 Using your own paraphrases of premises and conclusions to reconstruct arguments in standard form
1.6 Validity
1.7 Soundness
1.8 Deductive vs. inductive arguments
1.9 Arguments with missing premises
1.10 Assuring, guarding, and discounting
1.11 Evaluative language
1.12 Evaluating a real-life argument

Chapter 2: Formal methods of evaluating arguments

2.1 What is a formal method of evaluation and why do we need them?
2.2 Propositional logic and the four basic truth functional connectives
2.3 Negation and disjunction
2.4 Using parentheses to translate complex sentences
2.5 “Not both” and “neither nor”
2.6 The truth table test of validity
2.7 Conditionals
2.8 “Unless”
2.9 Material equivalence
2.10 Tautologies, contradictions, and contingent statements
2.11 Proofs and the 8 valid forms of inference
2.12 How to construct proofs
2.13 Short review of propositional logic
2.14 Categorical logic
2.15 The Venn test of validity for immediate categorical inferences
2.16 Universal statements and existential commitment
2.17 Venn validity for categorical syllogisms

Chapter 3: Evaluating inductive arguments and probabilistic and statistical fallacies

3.1 Inductive arguments and statistical generalizations
3.2 Inference to the best explanation and the seven explanatory virtues
3.3 Analogical arguments
3.4 Causal arguments
3.5 Probability
3.6 The conjunction fallacy
3.7 The base rate fallacy
3.8 The small numbers fallacy
3.9 Regression to the mean fallacy
3.10 Gambler's fallacy

Chapter 4: Informal fallacies

4.1 Formal vs. informal fallacies
4.1.1 Composition fallacy
4.1.2 Division fallacy
4.1.3 Begging the question fallacy
4.1.4 False dichotomy
4.1.5 Equivocation
4.2 Slippery slope fallacies
4.2.1 Conceptual slippery slope
4.2.2 Causal slippery slope
4.3 Fallacies of relevance
4.3.1 Ad hominem
4.3.2 Straw man
4.3.3 Tu quoque
4.3.4 Genetic
4.3.5 Appeal to consequences
4.3.6 Appeal to authority

Answers to exercises Glossary/Index

Ancillary Material

About the book.

This is an introductory textbook in logic and critical thinking. The goal of the textbook is to provide the reader with a set of tools and skills that will enable them to identify and evaluate arguments. The book is intended for an introductory course that covers both formal and informal logic. As such, it is not a formal logic textbook, but is closer to what one would find marketed as a “critical thinking textbook.”

About the Contributors

Matthew Van Cleave , PhD, Philosophy, University of Cincinnati, 2007. VAP at Concordia College (Moorhead), 2008-2012. Assistant Professor at Lansing Community College, 2012-2016. Professor at Lansing Community College, 2016-

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Philosophy Books

The best books on critical thinking, recommended by nigel warburton.

Thinking from A to Z by Nigel Warburton

Do you know your straw man arguments from your weasel words? Nigel Warburton , Five Books philosophy editor and author of Thinking from A to Z, selects some of the best books on critical thinking—and explains how they will help us make better-informed decisions and construct more valid arguments.

Interview by Cal Flyn , Deputy Editor

Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World by Carl Bergstrom & Jevin West

Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About The World — And Why Things Are Better Than You Think by Hans Rosling

Black Box Thinking: The Surprising Truth About Success by Matthew Syed

The Art of Thinking Clearly by Rolf Dobelli

The best books on Critical Thinking - Critical Thinking: Your Guide to Effective Argument, Successful Analysis and Independent Study by Tom Chatfield

Critical Thinking: Your Guide to Effective Argument, Successful Analysis and Independent Study by Tom Chatfield

The best books on Critical Thinking - Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World by Carl Bergstrom & Jevin West

1 Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World by Carl Bergstrom & Jevin West

2 thinking, fast and slow by daniel kahneman, 3 factfulness: ten reasons we're wrong about the world — and why things are better than you think by hans rosling, 4 black box thinking: the surprising truth about success by matthew syed, 5 the art of thinking clearly by rolf dobelli, 6 critical thinking: your guide to effective argument, successful analysis and independent study by tom chatfield.

I t’s been just over two years since you explained to us what critical thinking is all about. Could you update us on any books that have come out since we first spoke?

Calling Bullshit by Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West started life as a course at the University of Washington. It is a book—a handbook really—written with the conviction that bullshit, particularly the kind that is circulated on the Internet, is damaging democracy , and that misinformation and disinformation can have very serious consequences. Bullshitters don’t care about truth. But truth is important, and this book shows why. It is focussed on examples from science and medicine, but ranges more widely too. It’s a lively read. It covers not just verbal bullshit, bullshit with statistics (particularly in relation to big data) and about causation, but also has a chapter on bullshit data visualisations that distract from the content they are about, or present that data in misleading ways. Like all good books on critical thinking this one includes some discussion of the psychology of being taken in by misleading contributions to public debate.

In How To Make the World Add Up , Tim Harford gives us ten rules for thinking better about numbers, together with a Golden Rule (‘Be curious’). Anyone who has listened to his long-running radio series More or Less will know how brilliant Tim is at explaining number-based claims – as I read it, I hallucinated Tim’s reassuring, sceptical, reasonable, amused, and patient voice. He draws on a rich and fascinating range of examples to teach us (gently) how not to be taken in by statistics and poorly supported claims. There is some overlap with Calling Bullshit , but they complement each other. Together they provide an excellent training in how not to be bamboozled by data-based claims.

[end of update. The original interview appears below]

___________________________

We’re here to talk about critical thinking. Before we discuss your book recommendations, I wonder if you would first explain: What exactly is critical thinking, and when should we be using it?

There’s a whole cluster of things that go under the label ‘critical thinking’. There’s what you might call formal logic , the most extreme case of abstractions. For example take the syllogism: if all men are mortal, and Socrates is a man, you can deduce from that structure of arguments that Socrates is mortal. You could put anything in the slots of ‘men,’ ‘Socrates,’ ‘mortal’, and whatever you put in, the argument structure remains valid. If the premises are true, the conclusion must be true. That kind of logic, which can be represented using letters and signs rather than words, has its place. Formal logic is a quasi-mathematical (some would say mathematical) subject.

But that’s just one element of critical thinking. Critical thinking is broader, though it encompasses that. In recent years, it’s been very common to include discussion of cognitive biases—the psychological mistakes we make in reasoning and the tendencies we have to think in certain patterns which don’t give us reliably good results. That’s another aspect: focussing on the cognitive biases is a part of what’s sometimes called ‘informal logic’, the sorts of reasoning errors that people make, which can be described as fallacious. They’re not, strictly speaking, logical fallacies, always. Some of them are simply psychological tendencies that give us unreliable results.

The gambler’s fallacy is a famous one: somebody throwing a die that isn’t loaded has thrown it three times without getting a six, and then imagines that, by some kind of law of averages, the fourth time they’re more likely to get a six, because they haven’t yet got one yet. That’s just a bad kind of reasoning, because each time that you roll the dice, the odds are the same: there’s a one in six chance of throwing a six. There’s no cumulative effect and a dice doesn’t have a memory. But we have this tendency, or certainly gamblers often do, to think that somehow the world will even things out and give you a win if you’ve had a series of losses. That’s a kind of informal reasoning error that many of us make, and there are lots of examples like that.

I wrote a little book called Thinking from A to Z which was meant to name and explain a whole series of moves and mistakes in thinking. I included logic, some cognitive biases, some rhetorical moves, and also (for instance) the topic of pseudo-profundity, whereby people make seemingly deep statements that are in fact shallow. The classical example is to give a seeming paradox—to say, for example ‘knowledge is just a kind of ignorance,’ or ‘virtue is only achieved through vice.’ Actually, that’s just a rhetorical trick, and once you see it, you can generate any number of such ‘profundities’. I suppose that would fall under rhetoric, the art of persuasion: persuading people that you are a deeper thinker than you are. Good reasoning isn’t necessarily the best way to persuade somebody of something, and there are many devious tricks that people use within discussion to persuade people of a particular position. The critical thinker is someone who recognises the moves, can anatomise the arguments, and call them to attention.

So, in answer to your question: critical thinking is not just pure logic . It’s a cluster of things. But its aim is to be clear about what is being argued, what follows from the given evidence and arguments, and to detect any cognitive biases or rhetorical moves that may lead us astray.

Many of the terms you define and illustrate in Thinking from A to Z— things like ‘straw man’ arguments and ‘weasel words’—have been creeping into general usage. I see them thrown around on Twitter. Do you think that our increased familiarity with debate, thanks to platforms like Twitter, has improved people’s critical thinking or made it worse?

I think that improving your critical thinking can be quite difficult. But one of the ways of doing it is to have memorable labels, which can describe the kind of move that somebody’s making, or the kind of reasoning error, or the kind of persuasive technique they’re using.

For example, you can step back from a particular case and see that somebody’s using a ‘weak analogy’. Once you’re familiar with the notion of a weak analogy, it’s a term that you can use to draw attention to a comparison between two things which aren’t actually alike in the respects that somebody is implying they are. Then the next move of a critical thinker would be to point out the respects in which this analogy doesn’t hold, and so demonstrate how poor it is at supporting the conclusion provided. Or, to use the example of weasel words—once you know that concept, it’s easier to spot them and to speak about them.

Social media, particularly Twitter, is quite combative. People are often looking for critical angles on things that people have said, and you’re limited in words. I suspect that labels are probably in use there as a form of shorthand. As long as they’re used in a precise way, this can be a good thing. But remember that responding to someone’s argument with ‘that’s a fallacy’, without actually spelling out what sort of fallacy it is supposed to be, is a form of dismissive rhetoric itself.

There are also a huge number of resources online now which allow people to discover definitions of critical thinking terms. When I first wrote Thinking from A to Z , there weren’t the same number of resources available. I wrote it in ‘A to Z’ form, partly just as a fun device that allows for lots of cross references, but partly because I wanted to draw attention to the names of things. Naming the moves is important.

“People seem to get a kick out of the idea of sharing irrelevant features—it might be a birthday or it might be a hometown—with somebody famous. But so what?”

The process of writing the book improved my critical thinking quite a lot, because I had to think more precisely about what particular terms meant and find examples of them that were unambiguous. That was the hardest thing, to find clear-cut examples of the various moves, to illustrate them. I coined some of the names myself: there’s one in there which is called the ‘Van Gogh fallacy,’ which is the pattern of thought when people say: ‘Well, Van Gogh had red hair, was a bit crazy, was left-handed, was born on the 30th of March, and, what do you know, I share all those things’—which I do happen to do—‘and therefore I must be a great genius too.’

I love that. Well, another title that deals with psychological biases is the first critical thinking book that you want to discuss, Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow . Why did you choose this one?

This is an international bestseller by the Nobel Prize-winning behavioural economist—although he’s principally a psychologist—Daniel Kahneman. He developed research with Amos Tversky, who unfortunately died young. I think it would have been a co-written book otherwise. It’s a brilliant book that summarizes their psychological research on cognitive biases (or its patterns of thinking) which all of us are prone to, which aren’t reliable.

There is a huge amount of detail in the book. It summarizes a lifetime of research—two lifetimes, really. But Kahneman is very clear about the way he describes patterns of thought: as using either ‘System One’ or ‘System Two.’ System One is the fast, intuitive, emotional response to situations where we jump to a conclusion very quickly. You know: 2 + 2 is 4. You don’t think about it.

System Two is more analytical, conscious, slower, methodical, deliberative. A more logical process, which is much more energy consuming. We stop and think. How would you answer 27 × 17? You’d have to think really hard, and do a calculation using the System Two kind of thinking. The problem is that we rely on this System One—this almost instinctive response to situations—and often come out with bad answers as a result. That’s a framework within which a lot of his analysis is set.

I chose this book because it’s a good read, and it’s a book you can keep coming back to—but also because it’s written by a very important researcher in the area. So it’s got the authority of the person who did the actual psychological research. But it’s got some great descriptions of the phenomena he researches, I think. Anchoring, for instance. Do you know about anchoring?

I think so. Is that when you provide an initial example that shapes future responses? Perhaps you’d better explain it.

That’s more or less it. If you present somebody with an arbitrary number, psychologically, most people seem prone when you ask them a question to move in the direction of that number. For instance, there’s an experiment with judges. They were being asked off the cuff: What would be a good sentence for a particular crime, say shoplifting? Maybe they’d say it would be a six-month sentence for a persistent shoplifter.

But if you prime a judge by giving an anchoring number—if you ask, ‘Should the sentence for shoplifting be more than nine months?’ They’re more like to say on average that the sentence should be eight months than they would have been otherwise. And if you say, ‘Should it be punished by a sentence of longer than three months?’ they’re more likely to come down in the area of five , than they would otherwise.

So the way you phrase a question, by introducing these numbers, you give an anchoring effect. It sways people’s thinking towards that number. If you ask people if Gandhi was older than 114 years old when he died, people give a higher answer than if you just asked them: ‘How old was Gandhi when he died?’

I’ve heard this discussed in the context of charity donations. Asking if people will donate, say, £20 a month returns a higher average pledge than asking for £1 a month.

People use this anchoring technique often with selling wine on a list too. If there’s a higher-priced wine for £75, then somehow people are more drawn to one that costs £40 than they would otherwise have been. If that was the most expensive one on the menu, they wouldn’t have been drawn to the £40 bottle, but just having seen the higher price, they seem to be drawn to a higher number. This phenomenon occurs in many areas.

And there are so many things that Kahneman covers. There’s the sunk cost fallacy, this tendency that we have when we give our energy, or money, or time to a project—we’re very reluctant to stop, even when it’s irrational to carry on. You see this a lot in descriptions of withdrawal from war situations. We say: ‘We’ve given all those people’s lives, all that money, surely we’re not going to stop this campaign now.’ But it might be the rational thing to do. All that money being thrown there, doesn’t mean that throwing more in that direction will get a good result. It seems that we have a fear of future regret that outweighs everything else. This dominates our thinking.

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What Kahneman emphasizes is that System One thinking produces overconfidence based on what’s often an erroneous assessment of a situation. All of us are subject to these cognitive biases, and that they’re extremely difficult to remove. Kahneman’s a deeply pessimistic thinker in some respects; he recognizes that even after years of studying these phenomena he can’t eliminate them from his own thinking. I interviewed him for a podcast once , and said to him: ‘Surely, if you teach people critical thinking, they can get better at eliminating some of these biases.’ He was not optimistic about that. I’m much more optimistic than him. I don’t know whether he had empirical evidence to back that up, about whether studying critical thinking can increase your thinking abilities. But I was surprised how pessimistic he was.

Interesting.

Unlike some of the other authors that we’re going to discuss . . .

Staying on Kahneman for a moment, you mentioned that he’d won a Nobel Prize, not for his research in psychology per se but for his influence on the field of economics . His and Tversky’s ground-breaking work on the irrationality of human behaviour and thinking forms the spine of a new field.

Let’s look at Hans Rosling’s book next, this is Factfulness . What does it tell us about critical thinking?

Rosling was a Swedish statistician and physician, who, amongst other things, gave some very popular TED talks . His book Factfulness , which was published posthumously—his son and daughter-in-law completed the book—is very optimistic, so completely different in tone from Kahneman’s. But he focuses in a similar way on the ways that people make mistakes.

We make mistakes, classically, in being overly pessimistic about things that are changing in the world. In one of Rosling’s examples he asks what percentage of the world population is living on less than $2 a day. People almost always overestimate that number, and also the direction in which things are moving, and the speed in which they’re moving. Actually, in 1966, half of the world’s population was in extreme poverty by that measure, but by 2017 it was only 9%, so there’s been a dramatic reduction in global poverty. But most people don’t realise this because they don’t focus on the facts, and are possibly influenced by what they may have known about the situation in the 1960s.

If people are asked what percentage of children are vaccinated against common diseases, they almost always underestimate it. The correct answer is a very high proportion, something like 80%. Ask people what the life expectancy for every child born today is, the global average, and again they get it wrong. It’s over 70 now, another surprisingly high figure. What Rosling’s done as a statistician is he’s looked carefully at the way the world is.

“Pessimists tend not to notice changes for the better”

People assume that the present is like the past, so when they’ve learnt something about the state of world poverty or they’ve learnt about health, they often neglect to take a second reading and see the direction in which things are moving, and the speed with which things are changing. That’s the message of this book.

It’s an interesting book; it’s very challenging. It may be over-optimistic. But it does have this startling effect on the readers of challenging widely held assumptions, much as Steven Pinker ‘s The Better Angels of Our Nature has done. It’s a plea to look at the empirical data, and not just assume that you know how things are now. But pessimists tend not to notice changes for the better. In many ways, though clearly not in relation to global warming and climate catastrophe, the statistics are actually very good for humanity.

That’s reassuring.

So this is critical thinking of a numerical, statistical kind. It’s a bit different from the more verbally-based critical thinking that I’ve been involved with. I’m really interested to have my my assumptions challenged, and Factfulness is a very readable book. It’s lively and thought-provoking.

Coming back to what you said about formal logic earlier, statistics is another dense subject which needs specialist training. But it’s one that has a lot in common with critical thinking and a lot of people find very difficult—by which I mean, it’s often counter-intuitive.

One of the big problems for an ordinary reader looking at this kind of book is that we are not equipped to judge the reliability of his sources, and so the reliability of the conclusions that he draws. I think we have to take it on trust and authority and hope that, given the division of intellectual labour, there are other statisticians looking at his work and seeing whether he was actually justified in drawing the conclusions that he drew. He made these sorts of public pronouncements for a long time and responded to critics.

But you’re right that there is a problem here. I believe that most people can equip themselves with tools for critical thinking that work in everyday life. They can learn something about cognitive biases; they can learn about reasoning and rhetoric, and I believe that we can put ourselves as members of a democracy in a position where we think critically about the evidence and arguments that are being presented to us, politically and in the press. That should be open to all intelligent people, I think. It is not a particularly onerous task to equip yourself with a basic tools of thinking clearly.

Absolutely. Next you wanted to talk about Five Books alumnus Matthew Syed ‘s Black Box Thinking .

Yes, quite a different book. Matthew Syed is famous as a former international table tennis player, but—most people probably don’t know this—he has a first-class degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) from Oxford as well.

This book is really interesting. It’s an invitation to think differently about failure. The title, Black Box Thinking, comes from the black boxes which are standardly included in every passenger aircraft, so that if an accident occurs there’s a recording of the flight data and a recording of the audio communications as the plane goes down. When there’s a crash, rescuers always aim to recover these two black boxes. The data is then analysed, the causes of the crash, dissected and scrutinized, and the information shared across the aeronautic industry and beyond.

Obviously, everybody wants to avoid aviation disasters because they’re so costly in terms of loss of human life. They undermine trust in the whole industry. There’s almost always some kind of technical or human error that can be identified, and everybody can learn from particular crashes. This is a model of an industry where, when there is a failure, it’s treated as a very significant learning experience, with the result that airline travel has become a very safe form of transport.

This contrasts with some other areas of human endeavour, such as, sadly, much of healthcare, where the information about failures often isn’t widely shared. This can be for a number of reasons: there may be a fear of litigation—so if a surgeon does something unorthodox, or makes a mistake, and somebody as a result doesn’t survive an operation, the details of exactly what happened on the operating table will not be widely shared, typically, because there is this great fear of legal comeback.

The hierarchical aspects of the medical profession may have a part to play here, too. People higher up in the profession are able to keep a closed book, and not share their mistakes with others, because it might be damaging to their careers for people to know about their errors. There has been, historically anyway, a tendency for medical negligence and medical error, to be kept very quiet, kept hidden, hard to investigate.

“You can never fully confirm an empirical hypothesis, but you can refute one by finding a single piece of evidence against it”

What Matthew Syed is arguing is that we need to take a different attitude to failure and see it as the aviation industry does. He’s particularly interested in this being done within the healthcare field, but more broadly too. It’s an idea that’s come partly from his reading of the philosopher Karl Popper, who described how science progresses not by proving theories true, but by trying to disprove them. You can never fully confirm an empirical hypothesis, but you can refute one by finding a single piece of evidence against it. So, in a sense, the failure of the hypothesis is the way by which science progresses: conjecture followed by refutation, not hypothesis followed by confirmation.

As Syed argues, we progress in all kinds of areas is by making mistakes. He was a superb table-tennis player, and he knows that every mistake that he made was a learning experience, at least potentially, a chance to improve. I think you’d find the same attitude among musicians, or in areas where practitioners are very attentive to the mistakes that they make, and how those failures can teach them in a way that allows them to make a leap forward. The book has a whole range of examples, many from industry, about how different ways of thinking about failure can improve the process and the output of particular practices.

When we think of bringing up kids to succeed, and put emphasis on avoiding failure, we may not be helping them develop. Syed’s argument is that we should make failure a more positive experience, rather than treat it as something that’s terrifying, and always to be shied away from. If you’re trying to achieve success, and you think, ‘I have to achieve that by accumulating other successes,’ perhaps that’s the wrong mindset to achieve success at the higher levels. Perhaps you need to think, ‘Okay, I’m going to make some mistakes, how can I learn from this, how can I share these mistakes, and how can other people learn from them too?’

That’s interesting. In fact, just yesterday I was discussing a book by Atul Gawande, the surgeon and New Yorker writer, called The Checklist Manifesto . In that, Gawande also argues that we should draw from the success of aviation, in that case, the checklists that they run through before take-off and so on, and apply it to other fields like medicine. A system like this is aiming to get rid of human error, and I suppose that’s what critical thinking tries to do, too: rid us of the gremlins in machine.

Well, it’s also acknowledging that when you make an error, it can have disastrous consequence. But you don’t eliminate errors just by pretending they didn’t occur. With the Chernobyl disaster , for instance, there was an initial unwillingness to accept the evidence in front of people’s eyes that a disaster had occurred, combined with a fear of being seen to have messed up. There’s that tendency to think that everything’s going well, a kind of cognitive bias towards optimism and a fear of being responsible for error, but it’s also this unwillingness to see that in certain areas, admission of failure and sharing of the knowledge that mistakes have occurred is the best way to minimize failure in the future.

Very Beckettian . “Fail again. Fail better.”

Absolutely. Well, shall we move onto to Rolf Dobelli’s 2013 book, The Art of Thinking Clearly ?

Yes. This is quite a light book in comparison with the others. It’s really a summary of 99 moves in thinking, some of them psychological, some of them logical, some of them social. What I like about it is that he uses lots of examples. Each of the 99 entries is pretty short, and it’s the kind of book you can dip into. I would think it would be very indigestible to read it from cover to cover, but it’s a book to keep going back to.

I included it because it suggests you can you improve your critical thinking by having labels for things, recognising the moves, but also by having examples which are memorable, through which you can learn. This is an unpretentious book. Dobelli doesn’t claim to be an original thinker himself; he’s a summariser of other people’s thoughts. What he’s done is brought lots of different things together in one place.

Just to give a flavour of the book: he’s got a chapter on the paradox of choice that’s three pages long called ‘Less is More,’ and it’s the very simple idea that if you present somebody with too many choices, rather than freeing them and improving their life and making them happier, it wastes a lot of their time, even destroys the quality of their life.

“If you present somebody with too many choices, it wastes a lot of their time”

I saw an example of this the other day in the supermarket. I bumped into a friend who was standing in front of about 20 different types of coffee. The type that he usually buys wasn’t available, and he was just frozen in this inability to make a decision between all the other brands that were in front of him. If there’d only been one or two, he’d have just gone for one of those quickly.

Dobelli here is summarising the work of psychologist Barry Schwartz who concluded that generally, a broader selection leads people to make poorer decisions for themselves. We think going into the world that what we need is more choice, because that’ll allow us to do the thing we want to do, acquire just the right consumable, or whatever. But perhaps just raising that possibility, the increased number of choices will lead us to make poorer choices than if we had fewer to choose between.

Now, that’s the descriptive bit, but at the end of this short summary, he asks ‘So what can you do about this practically?’ His answer is that you should think carefully about what you want before you look at what’s on offer. Write down the things you think you want and stick to them. Don’t let yourself be swayed by further choices. And don’t get caught up in a kind of irrational perfectionism. This is not profound advice, but it’s stimulating. And that’s typical of the book.

You can flip through these entries and you can take them or leave them. It’s a kind of self-help manual.

Oh, I love that. A critical thinking self-help book .

It really is in that self-help genre, and it’s nicely done. He gets in and out in a couple of pages for each of these. I wouldn’t expect this to be on a philosophy reading list or anything like that, but it’s been an international bestseller. It’s a clever book, and I think it’s definitely worth dipping into and coming back to. The author is not claiming that it is the greatest or most original book in the world; rather, it’s just a book that’s going to help you think clearly. That’s the point.

Absolutely. Let’s move to the final title, Tom Chatfield’s Critical Thinking: Your Guide to Effective Argument, Successful Analysis and Independent Study . We had Tom on Five Books many moons ago to discuss books about computer games . This is rather different. What makes it so good?

Well, this is a different kind of book. I was trying to think about somebody reading this interview who wants to improve their thinking. Of the books I’ve discussed, the ones that are most obviously aimed at that are Black Box Thinking , the Dobelli book, and Tom Chatfield’s Critical Thinking . The others are more descriptive or academic. But this book is quite a contrast with the Dobelli’s. The Art of Thinking Clearly is a very short and punchy book, while Tom’s is longer, and more of a textbook. It includes exercises, with summaries in the margins, it’s printed in textbook format. But that shouldn’t put a general reader off, because I think it’s the kind of thing you can work through yourself and dip into.

It’s clearly written and accessible, but it is designed to be used on courses as well. Chatfield teaches a point, then asks you to test yourself to see whether you’ve learnt the moves that he’s described. It’s very wide-ranging: it includes material on cognitive biases as well as more logical moves and arguments. His aim is not simply to help you think better, and to structure arguments better, but also to write better. It’s the kind of book that you might expect a good university to present to the whole first year intake, across a whole array of courses. But I’m including it here more as a recommendation for the autodidact. If you want to learn to think better: here is a course in the form of a book. You can work through this on your own.

It’s a contrast with the other books as well, so that’s part of my reason for putting it in there, so there’s a range of books on this list.

Definitely. I think Five Books readers, almost by definition, tend towards autodidacticism, so this is a perfect book recommendation. And, finally, to close: do you think that critical thinking is something that more people should make an effort to learn? I suppose the lack of it might help to explain the rise of post-truth politics.

It’s actually quite difficult to teach critical thinking in isolation. In the Open University’s philosophy department, when I worked there writing and designing course materials, we decided in the end to teach critical thinking as it arose in teaching other content: by stepping back from time to time to look at the critical thinking moves being made by philosophers, and the critical thinking moves a good student might make in response to them. Pedagogically, that often works much better than attempting to teach critical thinking as a separate subject in isolation.

This approach can work in scientific areas too. A friend of mine has run a successful university course for zoologists on critical thinking, looking at correlation and cause, particular types of rhetoric that are used in write ups and experiments, and so on, but all the time driven by real examples from zoology. If you’ve got some subject matter, and you’ve got examples of people reasoning, and you can step back from it, I think this approach can work very well.

But in answer to your question, I think that having some basic critical thinking skills is a prerequisite of being a good citizen in a democracy . If you are too easily swayed by rhetoric, weak at analysing arguments and the ways that people use evidence, and prone to all kinds of biases that you are unaware of, how can you engage politically? So yes, all of us can improve our critical thinking skills, and I do believe that that is an aspect of living the examined life that Socrates was so keen we all should do.

December 4, 2020

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Nigel Warburton

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Best Books on Critical Thinking

Dive into the realm of logic and reason with this collection – the most recommended books on critical thinking, curated based on frequent recommendations from leading book blogs and publications..

Literature & Fiction
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Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking (6th Edition)

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Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking (6th Edition) 6th Edition

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ISBN-10 0130891347
ISBN-13 978-0130891341
Edition 6th
Publisher Pearson College Div
Publication date July 5, 2000
Language English
Dimensions 5.75 x 0.5 x 9.25 inches
Print length 221 pages
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Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking

Editorial Reviews

"I have assigned ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS to a wide range of students in a wide range of courses over my fourteen years as a college professor. First-year college students have used the book to analyze and evaluate arguments about contemporary business issues. College juniors and seniors have used the book to analyze and evaluate legal arguments, and issues related to race and gender. Many of my students tell me the book has changed the way they read, write, and argue." Andrea Giampetro-Meyer, J.D., Loyola College in Maryland

"I think ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS is one of the most valuable resources currently available for higher education courses as well as for other contexts. Virtually any course could benefit from the addition of this book and the integration of the authors' approach to critical thinking. I myself have used the book for several years in a variety of courses and know that it has truly enhanced my students' rational thinking processes." Norrine L. Ostrowski, Ph.D., University of Minnesota-Morris

"As an instructor I like the approach ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS takes. It is practical and uses a cross-disciplinary approach. Asking the "right" questions is a technique that can be used in any discipline at any level." Valeri Farmer-Dougan, Illinois State University

From the Back Cover

The success of previous editions of this book is potent testimony to our collective curiosity about what to believe. Our minds are under assault by experts and scam artists alike. Sorting among all their claims about what to eat, do, and believe is an incredibly difficult responsibility. We know that we need all the help we can get to protect ourselves from the dangers implicit in nonsense. It is in that spirit of watchful curiosity that we join with our readers in using this sixth edition of Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking.

The sixth edition builds on the advice of hundreds of readers, many of whom care enough about the book and critical thinking to suggest how we could "do it better." The tone of their comments almost always reflects their general satisfaction with the approach, while suggesting a tweaking here and there that, they believe, would make the book even more useful. We have attempted to be attentive to as many of these suggestions as we could, while maintaining the strengths of earlier editions. Individual readers who do not see their suggestions included will surely understand that writing for a general audience requires us to omit many valuable components that we would include were we writing for a more specialized group of readers.

Thus, like its predecessors, this sixth edition is much more a joint work than the title page suggests. It is increasingly difficult for us to determine where our contributions end and where those of our readers begin. We hope that this edition reflects any wisdom that may have been lurking in former editions, while taking advantage of fresh insights gleaned from our own teaching and the caring suggestions of others.

Like this edition of Asking the Right Questions, critical thinking is both old and new. Systematic evaluation of arguments based on explicit rational criteria is as old as recorded history. Terminology changes, emphases emerge, and worthwhile disputes about the criteria for rational conversation break out. But the habit of questioning the quality of the reasoning for a belief or contention is implicit in our daily living.

Certainly, individuals may not be particularly skilled at this questioning process, but it is hard to imagine what it would mean to always and ever accept as true whatever we hear. Critical thinking thus has staying power. All of us can be confident that the interest in critical thinking will outlive us. So this book is part of a very old, yet enduring, tradition. Our interest in critical thinking ties us together in an important respect: We want to think carefully before we make a belief our own.

From the start of this book's history, we have been motivated by our personal experiences and observations. First, we have been dismayed by the degree to which students and citizens in general increasingly depend on "experts," textbook writers, teachers, lawyers, politicians, journalists, and TV commentators. As the complexity of the world seems to increase at an accelerating rate, there is a greater tendency to become passive absorbers of information, uncritically accepting what we see and hear. We are concerned that too many of us are not actively making personal choices about what to accept and what to reject.

Thus, the need for such a book is now even more pronounced. The use of "sound bites," the popularity of simplistic arguments, and the amount of information to which we are exposed every day have all increased dramatically. To encourage us all to use critical thinking more frequently as an antidote to this "information explosion" is our dream for Asking the Right Questions.

Our experience in teaching critical-thinking skills to our students over a number of years has convinced us that when individuals with diverse abilities are taught these skills in a simplified format, they can learn to apply them successfully. In the process, they develop greater confidence in their ability to make rational choices about social issues, even those with which they have formerly had little experience.

Another motivating factor for the book has been our inability to find materials with which to teach the skills we wanted students to learn. We did not want a philosophy text, but rather a book that, while informal in nature, would outline basic critical-thinking skills explicitly, concisely, and simply. We did not find such a book.

Thus, we have written a text that does a number of things that other books have failed to do. This text develops an integrated series of question-asking skills that can be applied widely. These skills are discussed in an informal style. (We have written to a general audience, not to any specialized group.)

The development of Asking the Right Questions has leaned heavily on our joint experience of sixty years as teachers of critical thinking. Our ideas have evolved in response to numerous classroom experiences with students at many different levels, from freshman to Ph.D. students.

These experiences have taught us certain emphases that are particularly effective in learning critical thinking. For example, we provide many opportunities for readers to apply their skills and to receive immediate feedback following the practice application. The book is replete with examples of writing devoted to controversial contemporary topics. The breadth of topics introduces the average reader to numerous controversies with which he or she may have little familiarity. The book is coherently organized, in that critical questions are discussed sequentially as the reader progresses from understanding to evaluating. In addition, it integrates cognitive and value dimensionsa very important aspect of critical thinking and personal decision making.

One feature that deserves to be highlighted is the applicability of Asking the Right Questions to numerous life experiences extending far beyond the classroom. The habits and attitudes associated with critical thinking are transferable to consumer, medical, legal, and general ethical choices. When our surgeon says surgery is needed, it can be life sustaining to seek answers to critical questions.

To make this general applicability apparent and to provide an element of cohesiveness to the book, each chapter begins with brief exchanges concerning the desirability of capital punishment. We all care about this issue, and critical thinking enables us to express our concerns in a more reasonable fashion. The exchange should be read both before and after the applicable chapter. It is our hope that the second reading will be more satisfying.

In addition, the sixth edition includes the following new features:

Creation of a Web site with additional practice passages. This addition is our response to the most oft-repeated request from current readers.
Completely revised comprehensive example of the critical questions at work in Chapter 14.
Inclusion of hints for using the critical thinking questions as an aid to writing and speaking.
Revision of almost half of the practice passages to reflect changing student interests.
Highlighting of those chapter sections that explain how to use the critical questions to evaluate arguments.
Inclusion of end-of-chapter Internet practice opportunities.
Addition of a "Final Word" emphasizing the need to use critical thinking skills in a constructive manner.

Each new element has emerged from the teaching experience of numerous colleagues.

Who would find Asking the Right Questions especially beneficial? Because of our teaching experiences with readers representing many levels of ability, we have difficulty envisioning any academic course or program for which this book would not be useful. In fact, the first five editions have been used in law, English, pharmacy, philosophy, education, psychology, sociology, religion, and social science courses, as well as in numerous high school classrooms.

A few uses for the book seem especially appropriate. Teachers in general education programs may want to begin their courses by assigning it as a coherent response to their students' requests to explain what is expected of them. English courses that emphasize expository writing could use this text both as a format for evaluating arguments prior to constructing an essay and as a checklist of problems that the writer should attempt to avoid as he or she writes. The book is especially functional in courses for training prospective teachers and graduate assistants because it makes explicit much that teachers will want to encourage in their students. Supplementing their current content with our step-by-step description of the process of critical reading and thinking may enrich courses in study-skill development. The text can also be used as the central focus of courses designed specifically to teach critical reading and thinking skills.

While Asking the Right Questions stems primarily from our classroom experiences, it is written so that it can guide the reading and listening habits of almost everyone. The skills that it seeks to develop are those that any critical reader needs in order for reading to serve as a basis for rational decisions. The critical questions stressed in the book can enhance anyone's reasoning, regardless of the extent of his or her formal education.

This sixth edition owes special debts to many people. Many readers of earlier editions have cared enough about this project to suggest improvements. Several have been especially helpful. Carrie Williamson has made numerous contributions to this edition. Her continued success as a learner is the type of legacy that this book hopes to facilitate in some small way. As always, Andrea Giampetro-Meyer of Loyola College in Baltimore has provided us with much dependable advice. We also wish to acknowledge the following Prentice Hall reviewers: Brian Allan Wooters, Metropolitan Community College; Naomi Werne, Wichita State University; and Valeri Farmer-Dougan, Illinois State University.

While our students are always a major source of suggested improvements, a few distinguished themselves in that regard. The sixth edition depended heavily on improvements suggested by Kathleen Maloy, Amanda Sanford, Justin Esarey, Kari Freeman, and Elizabeth Barre.

M. Neil Browne Stuart M. Keeley

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Pearson College Div; 6th edition (July 5, 2000)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 221 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0130891347
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0130891341
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.4 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.75 x 0.5 x 9.25 inches
#1,731 in Philosophy of Logic & Language
#1,811 in Rhetoric (Books)
#8,471 in Literary Criticism & Theory

About the authors

Stuart m. keeley.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

M. Neil Browne

What to include? Hmm.

For 53 years I taught critical thinking to undergraduates at a state university. I have a Ph.D. in Economics and a J.D.; both globs of training I am sure affect my blind spots and any insights that might creep into what I say. I have co-authored 64 books, many of them in multiple editions. The most successful of the lot, Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking is in 12 editions and 16 languages. Its success led to dozens of consulting activities with government agencies, corporations and univrsities, including the National Security Agency, 3 of the Military Academies, dozens of universities, Toyota Pacific, and the Social Security Administration. In addition, I have had the privilege of keynoting International Critical Thinking Confernces on 4 continents.

In 2023 I am publishing 2 new books:

A Healthy Democracy’s Best Hope: Developing the Critical Thinking Habit

FRIENDLY Critical Thinking: Harnessing Questions to Teach and LEARN

Nancy (wife) and I travel extensively and are active participants in the Senior Olympics, dance festivals, songwriters’ conventions, tennis, and fishing. We only reluctantly are unable to attend every International Film Festival.

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Best Children’s Books on Critical Thinking: Top Picks for Young Minds in 2023

Introducing children to critical thinking at an early age is essential for their cognitive development. Engaging in thought-provoking activities not only helps sharpen their mental skills but also nurtures their curiosity and creativity. One effective approach to teaching critical thinking is to use children’s books as a resource.

Children’s books on critical thinking provide a fun and interactive way for kids to explore complex ideas and develop their logical thinking abilities. They encourage the young ones to question, analyze, and evaluate information, as well as to make connections between ideas. These books can be a great addition to any parent’s or educator’s toolkit in helping shape the minds of future problem solvers and decision-makers.

When looking for the best children’s books on critical thinking , pay attention to the age appropriateness, content, and illustrations. Choose books that are engaging, relatable, and cover a wide range of topics. Furthermore, look for books that promote open-ended questions, problem-solving, and deductive reasoning. These elements will work together to create an enjoyable learning experience that captivates children’s attention while developing their critical thinking skills.

We immersed ourselves in countless children’s books and took into account the most important factors to narrow down our selection of the best titles that focus on nurturing critical thinking in young minds. Our top picks are not only interesting and age-appropriate but also offer valuable lessons for children to grasp and explore.

Best Children’s Books on Critical Thinking

To help foster a love for learning and strengthen critical thinking skills, we’ve curated a list of the best children’s books on critical thinking. Dive in and explore our top picks to inspire your little thinkers!

Think Like a Detective: A Kid’s Guide to Critical Thinking (Adventures in Thinking)

An excellent choice for parents who want to introduce their children to critical thinking through a fun and engaging story.

Keeps children engaged with a detective theme
Encourages problem-solving and analytical skills
Suitable for ages 5-10
Only 42 pages, which might be too short for some readers
Not part of a larger series
Published independently, so quality may vary

As we delved into “Think Like a Detective: A Kid’s Guide to Critical Thinking,” we found it to be an exciting and thought-provoking children’s book that helps develop critical thinking skills in a fun way. The detective theme and accessible language make it enjoyable for young readers, who quickly become absorbed in the stories and challenges presented in the book.

The activities and questions embedded in the narrative promote problem-solving, analytical skills, and the importance of asking follow-up questions. This encourages children to consider different perspectives and assess the validity of claims – skills that are increasingly important in today’s society.

On the downside, the book is relatively short with just 42 pages, which might leave some readers wanting more. Additionally, this book is not part of a larger series and is published independently. While this doesn’t necessarily affect the content, some might prefer more established or extensive resources on critical thinking for children.

Overall, “Think Like a Detective: A Kid’s Guide to Critical Thinking” is an entertaining and effective way to introduce your children to the world of critical thinking. The engaging nature of the book will surely captivate young readers, as they develop essential life skills in the process.

What Should Danny Do? (The Power to Choose Series)

A highly engaging and interactive book for children that teaches the importance of making good choices.

Excellent interactive element for making choices
Visually appealing and well-illustrated
Useful for children aged 4-7 years
May not be as engaging for older children
Some potential for repetitive outcomes
Missing pages in some copies

As we read “What Should Danny Do?” for the first time, we were immediately impressed by the quality and design of the book. The embossed cover and slick pages enhance the overall feel of the book, making it a visual and tactile treat for young readers.

The interactive concept of the book is what truly sets it apart, encouraging children to make choices on behalf of the character, Danny. Through their choices, kids quickly learn that their decisions can shape the outcome of the story, teaching them about responsibility and the power of choice. This format not only keeps young readers engaged but also sparks valuable conversations for families.

The illustrations are colorful and eye-catching, capturing the attention of both parents and children alike. Additionally, the book is suitable for 4-7-year-olds, making it an ideal resource for early readers who are learning to navigate the world of decision-making.

One limitation we noticed was that older children may quickly figure out the two choices presented in each scenario, potentially losing interest more easily. However, the book’s primary target audience remains younger children, so this may not be a significant concern for most.

A word of caution: some customers have reported receiving copies with missing pages, so be sure to double-check your copy before diving into the adventure with your child.

In conclusion, “What Should Danny Do?” is a fantastic resource for teaching children about the power of making good choices. The interactive element, high-quality design, and thoughtful presentation make it an engaging and educational addition to any child’s library.

School Zone – Thinking Skills Workbook

This engaging workbook is perfect for enhancing critical thinking skills in young children from ages 3 to 5.

Develops problem-solving abilities
Encourages logic and reasoning
Fun and age-appropriate activities
Some pages might be too simple
Not a very thick book
Occasional reports of pages arriving already colored

The School Zone – Thinking Skills Workbook is an excellent resource to help children aged 3 to 5 develop their critical thinking skills through fun, engaging activities. We found the content of this workbook to be age-appropriate and loved that it covers various problem-solving exercises and logic and reasoning puzzles.

Upon using the workbook, we found that it kept our preschooler interested and engaged for extended periods. However, some of the activities were a bit too simple, and our child breezed through them quickly. Although not a very thick book, the variety of tasks still made it a valuable addition to our learning resources.

One minor issue we encountered was that a few pages in the workbook arrived pre-colored, which was disappointing. However, this seems to be an isolated issue rather than a widespread problem.

In conclusion, the School Zone – Thinking Skills Workbook is a fantastic tool for parents seeking to enhance their child’s critical thinking abilities. The workbook’s variety of activities and age-appropriate content makes it an excellent choice for young learners. While it may have some drawbacks, its affordable price and engaging content make it worth considering in your search for the best children’s books on critical thinking.

Difficult Riddles For Smart Kids: 300 Difficult Riddles And Brain Teasers Families Will Love

We believe this book is a fantastic choice for families looking to enhance their children’s critical thinking skills through engaging and challenging riddles.

Entertaining for a wide age range
Encourages family bonding and interaction
Enhances critical thinking abilities
Some riddles may be overused
Visual appeal could be improved
May not be suitable for very young children

When we tried out this book with our children, we noticed that it provided hours of entertainment and bonding for the whole family. The riddles and brain teasers range in difficulty, challenging both kids and adults alike. We appreciated the opportunities for critical thinking and problem-solving that the book offers to children aged 8 to 12.

However, we noticed that some of the riddles might be familiar to those who enjoy riddles in general, which could cause some repetition. Nevertheless, it’s still a great choice for introducing new and exciting riddles to your kids, especially if it’s their first foray into this type of activity.

The one area where the book could improve is its visual appeal. While it doesn’t detract from the quality of the content, more engaging illustrations or design could help draw children in and make it even more enticing.

In conclusion, we highly recommend “Difficult Riddles For Smart Kids: 300 Difficult Riddles And Brain Teasers Families Will Love” as a valuable and entertaining resource for developing critical thinking skills in children. It’s not only a great way to challenge your kids but also an enjoyable activity to bring the family together and spark meaningful conversations.

Buying Guide

When choosing the best children’s books on critical thinking, several important factors should be considered, ensuring the book is engaging, insightful, and age-appropriate. We will discuss these factors to help you make an informed decision.

Age appropriateness: It is crucial to select a book that matches the age group of the child you’re buying it for. Too simple, and the child may lose interest; too complex, and they may struggle to understand the concepts. Review the recommended age on the book cover or within the product description before purchasing.

Relevance of topics: The book should cover relatable themes and stories. This will help children make connections to their personal experiences and apply critical thinking skills more easily. Look for books dealing with topics they are familiar with or books that leverage their interests.

Problem-solving opportunities: The best critical thinking books should include a variety of problem-solving tasks for children to practice. Activities such as puzzles, riddles, and brainteasers can make the learning process more engaging and enjoyable, while also promoting critical thinking skills.

Inclusivity & diversity: Books that incorporate diverse characters and cultural backgrounds can teach children to be open-minded and consider multiple perspectives. By exposing children to various viewpoints, they can learn to think more critically about the world around them.

Illustrations & visuals : Engaging illustrations can greatly enhance a child’s reading experience. Visual aids in books can help clarify concepts and keep children interested in the material. Opt for books with well-presented illustrations to better engage children and improve their overall comprehension of the content.

By considering these factors, you can select the most suitable children’s critical thinking book to promote effective learning and develop a young reader’s analytical skills.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are some age-appropriate critical thinking books for kids.

There are several age-appropriate critical thinking books for children. For young readers aged 4-6 years, some suitable titles include “The Curious Garden” by Peter Brown and “Not a Box” by Antoinette Portis. For kids aged 7-9 years, we recommend “The Day the Crayons Quit” by Drew Daywalt and “What Do You Do With a Problem?” by Kobi Yamada. For older readers aged 10-12, consider “Escape From Mr. Lemoncello’s Library” by Chris Grabenstein and “The Mysterious Benedict Society” by Trenton Lee Stewart.

Which children’s books promote critical literacy?

Books that promote critical literacy encourage readers to question the narrative, identify bias, and analyze the structure of the story. Some examples include “The True Story of the Three Little Pigs” by Jon Scieszka, “Voices in the Park” by Anthony Browne, and “The Other Side” by Jacqueline Woodson.

How can critical thinking activities be incorporated in children’s books?

Authors can incorporate critical thinking activities into children’s books by presenting open-ended questions, moral dilemmas, or puzzles within the story. Encouraging children to discuss these topics with parents or peers helps develop reasoning, communication, and problem-solving skills. Interactive elements such as mazes, spot-the-difference, and logic puzzles can also engage readers in critical thinking.

What are the best critical thinking stories for kids?

Some of the best critical thinking stories for children include “The Most Magnificent Thing” by Ashley Spires, “The Dot” by Peter Reynolds, and “The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes” by Mark Pett and Gary Rubinstein. These stories teach valuable lessons about perseverance, self-reflection, creativity, and learning from challenges.

Are there any philosophy books for children?

Yes, there are several philosophy books for children that introduce complex ideas in a simplified and engaging way. Some popular titles are “Big Ideas for Little Philosophers” series by Duane Armitage, “Philosophy Files” by Stephen Law, and “World of Wonder: Meet the Philosophers” by Laura Buller.

How can logical fallacies be taught to kids through books?

Books can help teach logical fallacies by introducing them through engaging stories or characters. For example, “The Fallacy Detective” by Nathaniel Bluedorn and Hans Bluedorn uses humor and dialogue to introduce 38 common fallacies. Another example is “An Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments” by Ali Almossawi, which uses whimsical illustrations and beginner-friendly explanations to teach logical fallacies.

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Natalie Brown: Challenging LDS Church orthodoxy, even at BYU, can help students build their faith

Critical thinking is key to navigating the religious questions that will inevitably arise..

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Students walk between classes on the BYU campus in Provo in 2022. Tribune guest columnist Natalie Brown says higher education needs to teach students to think critically, arguing that can help them build a more robust faith.

Latter-day Saint apostle Jeffrey R. Holland’s “musket fire” speech will soon become required reading for incoming students at Brigham Young University. In this speech, Holland encourages the school’s faculty to expend more effort defending The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ position on same-sex marriage. He points to concerns raised by some members that insufficient orthodoxy on campus might be causing students to leave the faith or experience “confusion.” Holland also signals the possibility that adherence to BYU’s mission might mean retreating from the American educational establishment at a “future time,” even at the cost of “professional affiliations and certifications.”

There is nothing surprising about a church-owned school teaching the church’s positions. It is appropriate, of course, that students reflect critically on the history and aims of the university education they are receiving. The content of this speech and its inclusion in the curriculum, however, have concerned some that BYU is more interested in cultivating minds that defend a particular viewpoint than think critically about the ideas they encounter. It is difficult, after all, to have a robust conversation about a sermon by an apostle at a university controlled by the church, particularly when that sermon implicitly endorses members complaining to church leadership about viewpoints expressed in the classroom and has left many LGBTQ students feeling less safe.

The speech assumes a fundamental tension between the historic purposes of a university education in teaching students to encounter and think critically about a range of ideas and the church’s legitimate interest in building its faith. These aims, however, are not necessarily in tension. Encountering a range of thinkers, including those who might challenge church orthodoxy, can be the best preparation for maintaining faith.

In full disclosure, I did not attend BYU. I went to the University of Chicago, a school known today for its robust commitment to free speech on campus . At the time, the University of Chicago was best known in Latter-day Saint circles for its association with apostle Dallin H. Oaks , who graduated from and later taught at its law school. In attending the school, Oaks was following in the footsteps of earlier Latter-day Saints. In the 1930s, the church, in fact, called scholars to attend the University of Chicago Divinity School to prepare to teach in the Church Educational System . Although the church oscillates between embracing and distancing itself from secular education, saints who sought education in universities outside of Utah played large roles in shaping the Mormon experience.

How higher ed can lead to higher faith

(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) President Dallin H. Oaks, first counselor in the governing First Presidency, speaks at General Conference in 2023. Oaks graduated from — and later taught at — the University of Chicago Law School.

By the time I went to Chicago in the early 2000s, Latter-day Saints were often more suspicious of outside learning than eager to bring it to Zion. Attending the University of Chicago was admirable for Oaks, but many people worried that I was headed toward apostasy and spinsterhood. Today, I credit my education in Chicago for helping me cultivate a testimony that has proved resilient over time. It did so by teaching me to lean into my questions and dig deeper into ideas and history rather than defend a particular viewpoint or turn a blind eye to the facts.

The University of Chicago requires students to take an extensive core curriculum that introduces them to the key thinkers throughout intellectual history and across the political spectrum. We read foundational conservative figures of Western thought as well as theorists of race and gender. We examined their assumptions, their historical contexts and their political motivations. We did not avoid ideas. We were given the tools to evaluate what we encountered.

The people who warned me against Chicago assumed that I would leave the church if I encountered ideas that challenged the faith’s teachings. Instead, critically studying a variety of perspectives allowed me to place the church in its historical context, consider sacred text complexly, and extend grace to the humans running the church. Sometimes, my education led me to the conclusion that certain church practices were a product of history rather than eternal truth — an insight that gave me patience while waiting for change. Often, my education helped me make sense of practices that seem odd today.

I was unfazed, for example, when people argued that polygamy , multiple accounts of the “ First Vision ” or Joseph Smith using a seer stone to bring about the Book of Mormon disproved the church. These supposedly dispositive facts were consistent, or at least not incompatible with, my more general understanding of history, relationships and the writing process. An education that allows us to think with historical and intellectual nuance matters, given that concerns about history and the Book of Mormon rank among the top reasons that members leave the church .

Confront the facts

(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) Apostle Jeffrey R. Holland speaks to faculty at Brigham Young University on Aug. 23, 2021.

Today, students have access to every argument on the internet. They need the ability to discern good arguments from bad in an era when many members are being misled by disinformation and conspiracy theories . Students need the ability to understand and converse civilly with those who disagree with them. They need a solid grasp of the facts within our own history and in the larger world. These cross-cultural skills are particularly required for students who we hope will serve as missionaries and leaders in their communities. They are unlikely to be acquired through an education that focuses on defending a single viewpoint, ensuring students’ intellectual comfort or sequestering students from wider debates.

Indeed, the church itself recently caused an avoidable social media firestorm when it posted a factually inaccurate message about women’s power and authority in the Latter-day Saint community compared to other religions. Failing to think critically about the assertions we make, however well intended, does not result in arguments that hold up over time. A robust faith must account for and grapple with reality.

I do not need to distort facts, gloss over history or ignore the lived experiences of other people to maintain my faith. There are parts of church history and current policy that disappoint me. I understand why many members who are more sophisticated thinkers than I am decide that the individual costs of continued participation are too high. Yet what I have learned in secular settings has not been a deal-breaker for my faith.

My testimony is narrow but resilient: I believe in a God who loves us, and I have found that love in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I see his love, grace and individual guidance — alongside the pain and human missteps — as I allow myself to dive deeper into the messiness of our history and culture. When I encounter dirt on the church, I dig deeper until I have a stronger foundation.

Studying Holland’s speech should be the beginning, not the end, of an ongoing and important conversation. We should study what Holland and other apostles have said about the aims of a church education. We should study what people outside our faith have said, too. There is every reason to model for Latter-day Saint students how to think critically about the ideas they will inevitably discover.

(Courtesy) Natalie Brown, Salt Lake Tribune guest columnist.

Natalie Brown is a Latter-day Saint based in Colorado. She is writing in her personal capacity. Her views do not necessarily reflect those of the church or her employer.

Donate to the newsroom now. The Salt Lake Tribune, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) public charity and contributions are tax deductible

Critical Thinking Questions

Explain how the 1920s was a decade of contradictions. What does the relationship between mass immigration and the rise of the Second Ku Klux Klan tell us about American attitudes? How might we reconcile the decade as the period of both the flapper and prohibition?

What new opportunities did the 1920s provide for women and African Americans? What new limitations did this era impose?

Discuss what the concept of “modernity” meant in the 1920s. How did art and innovation in the decade reflect the new mood of the postwar era?

Explain how technology took American culture in new and different directions. What role did motion pictures and radio play in shaping cultural attitudes in the United States?

Discuss how politics of the 1920s reflected the new postwar mood of the country. What did the Harding administration’s policies attempt to achieve, and how?

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Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/us-history/pages/1-introduction

Authors: P. Scott Corbett, Volker Janssen, John M. Lund, Todd Pfannestiel, Sylvie Waskiewicz, Paul Vickery
Publisher/website: OpenStax
Book title: U.S. History
Publication date: Dec 30, 2014
Location: Houston, Texas
Book URL: https://openstax.org/books/us-history/pages/1-introduction
Section URL: https://openstax.org/books/us-history/pages/24-critical-thinking-questions

© Jan 11, 2024 OpenStax. Textbook content produced by OpenStax is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License . The OpenStax name, OpenStax logo, OpenStax book covers, OpenStax CNX name, and OpenStax CNX logo are not subject to the Creative Commons license and may not be reproduced without the prior and express written consent of Rice University.

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Our mission is to improve educational access and learning for everyone. OpenStax is part of Rice University, which is a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit. Give today and help us reach more students. Help.
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