SSH 105 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Critical Thinking

• School: Ryerson University
• Department: Social Sciences and Humanities
• Course: SSH 105
• Professor: Andrew Hunter

Document Summary

A question about the quality of your beliefs is the fundamental concern for critical thinking. Critical thinking is not about what you think but how you think; not the cause of a belief, but on whether it is worth believing. A belief is worth accepting if we have good reason to accept it. Critical thinking offers us a set a standards embodied in techniques, attitudes and principles that we can use to assess beliefs and determine if they are supported by good reasons. Critical thinking: the systematic evaluation or formulation of beliefs or statements by rational standards. Systematic because it involves distinct procedures and methods. Entails evaluation and formulation because it"s used both to assess existing beliefs and to devise new ones. Operates according to rational standards in that beliefs are judged by how well they are supported by reason.