A definition of critical thinking...

If you have ever found yourself listening to a person explaining his or her position on an issue and thinking: “Are you hearing yourself?” though you may not have realized it at the time, you were commenting on that person’s ability to think critically. If you failed to follow that thought through by evenly responding to the speaker by listing factual, objective ways in which the argument fails to sustain his or her claim, you are guilty of the same transgression.

Critical thinking is a combination of several separate practices:

1. analyzing the elements of another person’s argument in order to judge the validity of his or her’s claim,
2. considering the process by which you broke down the other person’s argument and came to a decision about it, and
3. constructing a response to the argument that is constructive and non-offensive.

Central to each of these practices is ensuring that both the other party’s argument and your own are based on solid lines of reasoning and not your own biases and prejudices. It is also important to scrutinize your own knowledge and ensure that you have the proper skills and education to pass judgment on the claim.

To think critically about a claim is to scrutinize:

• the evidence used to support it,
• the method used to obtain that evidence,
• how that evidence is interpreted, and
• if the pieces of evidence are fit together in a logical manner that sustains the claim.

Each of the practices listed above are difficult in their own way. It is not easy to see one’s own biases. Likewise, it is hard to see holes in your own argument. Crafting a response to a claim -- especially when it denies the claim -- so that it is delivered in a beneficial, civil manner is an art form that takes much practice to nurture. (Receiving such a message with an open mind so that you can think critically about it does as well.) Critical thinking is not a given skill. It is one that must be developed through experience and hard work. However, it is a skill in which it is worth investing your time and effort.