complexitystudies

One of the most important skills today is critical thinking. We live in an information overflow society - the problem is not information access, but information filtering, and yes, even drawing conclusions contrary to the information being presented (because it is false/dumbed down/rests on false assumptions etc etc).

I recently read a good paper by Tim van Gelder:

van Gelder, T. J. (2005). Teaching critical thinking: some lessons from cognitive science. College Teaching, 45, 1-6.
(You can download the paper on his site.)

Tim van Gelder develops six (not exhaustive) lessons in his paper which should lead to more critical thinking.

Critical thinking is hard - humans have not evolved to think critically, we are “pattern-seeking, story-telling animals” (van Gelder quotes Michael Shermer here) - and:
“We tend to be comfortable with the first account that seems right”.

We have to practice critical thinking to get better

I feel reminded of the motto of the enlightenment, formulated by Immanuel Kant: “Sapere Aude!” - Dare to think.

Transfer: we have to reflect on our critical methods and transfer them to different domains.

People often wonder why intelligent people hold certain ideas, or worse, they give credit to some ideas because certain people who have done good work in other domains hold them. We just have to recognize that being intelligent in one domain does not exempt from stupidity in another.

Practical Theory on critical thinking supplements practice.

Cognitive Science, Pyschology, Sociology and other disciplines inform us about fallacies and cognitive biases in our thinking. If we learn about them we can become more aware of them in our daily thinking and try to actively counteract our biases.

Argument maps: Present your thinkings in diagrams instead of only in written form.

Indeed, I couldn’t agree more: writing necessarily takes a linear form, and it is difficult to convey nonlinear, highly interacting relationships in an essay. Here a picture can truly say more than a thousand words.

Belief preservation: we tend to stick with our beliefs and ignore evidence to the contrary.

Here the final quote from his paper, which is the “message” we should heed:

Belief preservation strikes right at the heart of our general processes of rational deliberation. The ideal critical thinker is aware of the phenomenon, actively monitors her thinking to detect its pernicious influence, and deploys compensatory strategies. Thus, the ideal critical thinker
• puts extra effort into searching for and attending to evidence that contradicts
what she currently believes;
• when “weighing up” the arguments for and against, gives some “extra credit” for those arguments that go against her position; and
• cultivates a willingness to change her mind when the evidence starts mounting against her.
Activities like these do not come easily. Indeed, following these strategies often feels quite perverse. However, they are there for self-protection; they can help you protect your own beliefs against your tendency to self-deception, a bias that is your automatic inheritance as a human
being. As Richard Feynman said, “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself—and you are the easiest person to fool” (Hutchings 1997).

Finally, some nice links on the topic:
Software for developing rational thinking by Tim van Gelder and his group - and they have a bunch of links on critical thinking.

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