Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Critical thinking helps students make better academic and work decisions  As a student you have to make several decisions about which college to join, courses to take and what areas to specialize in. Going forward you need to take decisions on what career to opt for. These are not easy decisions. Critical thinking enables you to gather impartial information, evaluate it and take decisions based on solid logical reasoning. This process of evaluation and thinking through results in better decision making.  World Economic Forum survey A survey of employers by the World economy forum in 2020 about the most important skills for success in the workplace put Critical thinking amongst the top 5 skills necessary for success. Not only that, of the total of ten skills listed as skills essential for success, critical thinking was required for seven of them. In...

GRE Analytical Writing  are a test of  Critical Thinking. Analytical Thinking and Critical Thinking are synonymous. So what is Critical Thinking? Leaving alone the definitions which are useful from an academic point of view, Critical Thinking essentially is the process of  considering and evaluating all dimensions of a situation before arriving at a decision or conclusion or belief about a claim being true or false. Lets take an example: You have to make a career choice, and you decide to become a musician because you love music. Lets say you play the guitar well, and decide to be make your living out of being a lead guitarist. So you have a reason for choosing your means of livelihood. But if you are a critical thinker, you would ask a few more questions before you actually froze on the option of making a living out of playing the guitar. Some of these...

Is the customer persuaded by logical reasoning, or by emotional persuasion? When it comes to B2C sales, it is a combination of emotive factors and logical reasoning. However in a B2B environment, the decisions are largely made based on logical reasoning. Weeding out superficial factors and other influences (such as pricing) to the decision making process, what will  persuade a Business to buy a product depends on: 1. How well the offering solves the problem or meets the requirement 2. The credibility of the organization making the offering. All Sales and Marketing teams recognize the need to persuade, and at an organizational level, they do build Product and company presentations, Sales collateral intended to persuade, Case studies and Client testimonials. In Enterprise level organizations, the Sales teams largely have Critical Thinking skills, and are able to leverage these effectively, and also meaningfully modify them depending on the need for that...

The Line Drawing Fallacy, also known as the Continuum Fallacy, is a type of logical fallacy in which the alternatives are presented as either having a precise line to be drawn or having no line to be drawn at all, resulting in a false dilemma. This fallacy suggests that there is no middle ground or gray area between two extremes. The Line Drawing Fallacy occurs when we deny the concept of short and tall just because we cannot draw a precise line separating the two. For instance, a person might say that a person is either tall or short without specifying what height constitutes being tall or short. Although it is true that there is no clear, objective point at which a person becomes tall or short, denying the concept of short and tall altogether is committing the Line Drawing Fallacy. Different people may have varying definitions of what is...

This is a variation of the False Dilemma Fallacy, also called the Continuum Fallacy. It goes something like this: If Policy X does not meet all the objectives as well as we want it to (ie perfectly), then Policy X should b rejected. This principle downgrades X simply because it isn't perfect. It says in effect " Either the policy is perfect. else we must reject it"   Some examples DRS and BCCI Lets take a look at the DRS (Decision Review System in Cricket). The system offers 90 t0 95% accuracy. However the BCCI is not in favor of the system because it is not 100% Correct. This is a debatable stance. Those who believe 90 to 95% accuracy is adequate, would say that the BCCI is a victim/perpetrator of the Line Drawing Fallacy - unless it is 100% accurate, it will not accept the DRS Other examples -...

In this type of arguments, you are Presented with   a limited set of alternatives when there are actually other choices   that are worth considering in the context. Example: "Every person is either my enemy or my friend. If he is my enemy I should hate him. If he is my friend I should love him. So I should either love him or hate him." Obviously, the conclusion is too extreme because most people are neither your enemy nor your friend.   Another way to look at a False Dilemma is : It is an oversimplification that offers a limited number of options (usually two) when in reality more feasible and valid options are available. You are asked to choose between X or Y. There may be a third option Z (and maybe a fourt and fifth as well) , but that is not considered. .    This is...