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...

Believing that if "everybody" or "many" believes it, it must be true. This is a fallacious argument that concludes that the proposition is true because many people believe it. This fallacy is also known by other names: appeal to the masses, appeal to belief, appeal to the majority, appeal to democracy, appeal to popularity, argument by consensus, consensus fallacy, authority of the many, and bandwagon fallacy   Format of this fallacy Most people believe that ''X' is true So it must be true But this kind of reasoning is not valid and it is a fallacy. Lets say a large number of people are convinced to believe that 1+1=3 . But because a large number of people believe it this does not become true. 1+1=2 always - irrespective of how many people believe otherwise. Lets look at some examples from history -At one point of time everybody believed that the...

Poisoning the well may be thought of as an Ad Hominem fallacy in advance. If poison is dumped into your well, you don't drink from it. Similarly if someone poisons your mind about X, by telling you something unfavorable about B, you may be inclined to reject anything that X says to you. This is a rhetorical device where adverse information about a target is presented to the audience. The objective is to ridicule or discredit everything the target may say. Structure Someone tells you something unfavorable about X Therefore X's claim will be false You reject what X says, since your mind has been poisoned about X Example X tells Y: The new boss got sacked from his last job New boss to Y: Here's the new marketing plan, Implementation will result in a 5% increase in market share Y to X:  The new boss told me about his...

Hasty generalization is one of the most common logical fallacies we encounter at work, study and home. Many racial prejudices we carry have their roots in hasty generalizations subsequently strengthened and perpetuated by a confirmation bias.   The Hasty Generalization fallacy is also known by many other names:  Fallacy of insufficient statistics, Fallacy of insufficient sample, Generalization from the particular, Leaping to a conclusion, Hasty induction, Law of small numbers, Unrepresentative sample, Secundum quid This fallacy is committed when a person draws a conclusion about a population based on a sample that is not large enough. It has the following form:   Sample X, which is too small, is taken from population Y.   Conclusion C is drawn about Population Y based on X  - A handful of cricketers were caught in match-fixing, and you conclude that the entire team must be guilty of being involved in match fixing. -...

The genetic fallacy is also known as the fallacy of origins. A claim is accepted to be true or false based purely on its origin or history. The origin of a Claim is presented The Claim is declared true (or false)   Examples X is a politician He is corrupt Here we conclude he is corrupt because his origins are In politics He is from India He doesn't know how to use a fork Most Indians don't use forks. Since he originated from India, It is assumed he doesn't know how to use a fork. Ayurveda was developed 2000 years back It can't be scientific Since Ayurveda originated 2000 years back - it can't be scientific. There is also a implicit assumption in this argument - that anything originating 2000 years back cannot be scientific. All these are fallacies because the claims are made based on the origin, and not...

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 -...

  Ad hominem :  In Latin "Ad Hominem" means "against the man" or "against the person."   A theory or claim is discarded not because of any evidence against it or lack of evidence for it, but because of the person who argues for it.   is rejected on the basis of some irrelevant fact about the person , making the claim or argument.   This argument is typically done as a two step process. First an attack is made against the character, circumstances, or actions   of the person. This attack is then taken as evidence against the claim or argument the person is making. Person A makes claim X. Person B attacks the character, circumstances, or actions of person A (And this is taken as evidence against the claim) Therefore the claim made by person A is false. Examples: A: The Government should enact minimum-wage legislation so that...

Begging the question means assuming the conclusion. In this type of argument, the conclusion that is sought to be proved is included in the initial premises/reason of the argument.   Begging the question or assuming the answer is a logical fallacy that occurs when the conclusion of an argument is used as a premise of that same argument; i.e., the premises would not work if the conclusion wasn't already assumed to be true   Logical Form Claim X assumes X is true. Therefore, claim X is true.  Examples A: God exists B: How do you know? A: The scriptures say so B: How do you know the scriptures are true? A: Because scriptures were written by God    Variations of Proof that God Exists   The order and magnificence of the world is evidence of God's Creation. Therefore, we know that God exists.     Somebody has created the universe...

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...

  Arguing that if an opponent were to accept some claim C1, then he or she has to accept some other closely related claim C2, which in turn commits the opponent to a still further claim C3, eventually leading to the conclusion that the opponent is committed to something absurd or obviously unacceptable.   This style of argumentation constitutes a fallacy only when it is inappropriate to think if one were to accept the initial claim, one must accept all the other claims.   An example: "The government should not prohibit drugs. Otherwise the government should also ban alcohol or cigarettes. And then fatty food and junk food would have to be regulated too. The next thing you know, the government would force us to brush our teeth and do exercises everyday."   Logical Form   1. If A then B  2. If B then C  3. If C then...