Critical Thinking

1. Critical Thinking Eng II

2. Claims • A claim is a statement that identifies your belief or position on a particular issue or topic. • Example: Both the Democratic and Republican parties have work to do after this election.

3. Types of Claims • Fact • Conjecture • Value • Policy

4. Fact • States that something is true, that an event occurred, that a cause can be identified of that a theory correctly explains a phenomenon. • Example: Obese children are at risk for heart disease and diabetes.

5. Conjecture • Suggests that something will happen in the future. • Example: The economy will improve next year.

6. Value • Asserts the worth of something – good or bad, right or wrong, best, average or worst. • Example: Ben is the best applicant. • Plagiarism is unethical.

7. Policy • Recommends a course of action or a solution to a problem. • Example: Our state should ban smoking in public places. • All college students should take a communication course.

8. Inference • Conclusion based on claims of fact. • Fact: Julia has missed the last three meetings. • Inference: Julia does not care about the meetings.

9. Inference • Fact: Five students are failing freshman English. • Inference: The students are lazy • The students don’t come to class. • The students don’t understand the topic.

10. Constructing an argument • Claim: State your position. • Data: Evidence that supports your claim. • Warrant: Explains how and why the data supports the claim • Backing: Provides support for the argument’s warrant. • Reservation: Recognizes exceptions to a claim. • Qualifier: States the degree to which a claim appears to be true.

11. Constructing an argument • The Chicago Bears are the best team in the NFC North and will win the Super Bowl. • The Bears have a 7-1 record and their defense has scored eight touchdowns off turnovers. • The Bears’ 7-1 record is better than any other team’s in the NFC North. The Bears’ defense has scored more touchdowns than some quarterbacks. • The team that was last 7-1 went on to win the Super Bowl. • The Bears will win the Super Bowl unless Cutler, Hester or Urlacher gets injured. • The Bears will probably win the Super Bowl.

12. Fallacies • Errors in thinking that leads to false or invalid claims. • Types of fallacies • Attacking the person • Appeal to authority • Appeal to popularity • Appeal to tradition • Faulty cause • Hasty generalization

13. Attacking the person • Makes irrelevant attacks against a person rather than against the content of the person’s message. • Examples – political campaign ads

14. Appeal to authority • Using a supposed expert who has no relevant knowledge or experience on this issue being discussed. • Example: “I’m not a doctor, but I play one on TV, and I recommend that you use Nick’s Cough Syrup.”

15. Appeal to popularity • Claims an action is acceptable or excusable because many people are doing it. • Example: “Most of your neighbors have agreed to support the rezoning proposal.”

16. Appeal to tradition • Claims that a certain course of action should be followed because it was always done that way. • Example: We must have our annual company picnic in August because that’s when we always schedule it.

17. Faulty cause • Claims a particular event is the cause of another event without ruling out other possible causes. • Example: We are losing sales because our sales team is not working hard enough.

18. Hasty generalizations • Conclusions based on too little evidence or too few experiences. • Example: Don’t go to that restaurant. I went there once and the service was awful.