Critical Thinking Is Important to Mankind - Essay Example

Critical thinking is “the process of evaluation or categorization in terms of some previously accepted standards" (Halpern, 2003, p. 7). This process involves attitude, knowledge, and the thinking process. The thinking process involves reasoning, analyzing, arguing, testing, and making decisions. (Halpern, 2003, p. 37)

Arguments are constructed from known facts or evidence, which are presented as the premises, and conclusions are drawn from the given premises. (Salmon, 2004, p. 45) For example, the statement “All crows are black” is a statement of fact that becomes a premise. Similarly the statement, “This bird is a crow” is another fact that becomes the second premise. From these premises, it can be said that “This bird is black”, which is a conclusion.

There are two approaches for drawing conclusions –deductive and inductive. Deductive arguments proceed from the universal to the particular cases. If all the premises are true, the conclusion in a deductive argument has to be true. We can say that the conclusion is already implicitly contained in the premises in the case of a deductive argument. A deductive argument is either valid or not valid; there is no intermediate state.

Inductive arguments proceed from particular instances to draw conclusions about the universal truth applicable to all elements of a particular class. Inductive arguments expand what is contained in the premises, and draw conclusions that are probably true but not necessarily always so. Thus there is a degree of validity associated with inductive arguments. (Salmon, 2004, p. 49)

Some arguments contain unstated premises. These are facts or assumptions that are necessary for the argument to be valid but are not expressly stated. Premises may be unstated because they are perceived as universally known. For example, a joint library between San Jose University and Silicon Valley may be concluded as demonstrating the university’s commitment to promoting innovation. This conclusion might be based on the unstated premise that Silicon Valley is innovative, even though this might not be stated expressly. (McGraw-Hill, 2000) However, it is always better to state all the premises expressly in an argument. Read More