In daily work or life, there are always people who will tell us which views are right and which are wrong. But what of their views can we be sure of? Which ones need our follow-up verification? A lot of questions often make us feel as if we are wrong, but we don't know how to debate them.
By reading the book "Learning to Ask Questions", you can learn critical thinking skills more systematically, always remain rational in the process of Latest Mailing Database communication and thinking, and effectively ask key questions. This article is my secondary editing of the key points in the book. The content restores the structure and ideas of the book as much as possible. Please forgive me if there is any inappropriateness.
1. Learn to ask good questions
As a thinking person, you have to make choices about how to respond to what you see and hear. One positive and admirable way to do this is to ask powerful questions that allow you to judge for yourself how valuable what you're going through really is.
1. Three aspects of critical thinking
Awareness of a set of interrelated and interlocking key issues;
The ability to appropriately ask and answer key questions;
A strong desire to proactively exploit key issues.
2. Sponge and gold rush thinking
Sponge Thinking: The more information you absorb, the stronger the foundation for complex thinking. Relatively passive, relying on the amount of information that has been acquired. However, when faced with a large amount of information, it is difficult to come up with an effective method on how to choose. For example, when reading the content of articles on the Internet constantly, it will become easy to be brainwashed by the author's point of view, which is obviously not a good way to learn or understand.
Gold rush thinking: Actively choose what to believe and ignore. Like sponge thinking, you get information during reading, but gold rush thinking requires readers to ask themselves a set of questions in order to find the best judgment or reasonable opinion.
The two ways of thinking can complement each other, which means that when doing critical thinking, you must first have a certain knowledge reserve to quickly support your own debate.
Gold Rush Thinking Checklist:
Have I asked "why" someone wants me to believe his point of view;
Did I jot down what someone else said when I thought it might be wrong;
Have I objectively evaluated what others have said?
Have I formed my own conclusions on a particular topic based on what others have reasonably said?
3. It’s best to start by asking yourself “What’s the problem with me?”
If a debate doesn't affect you very much, you shouldn't waste a lot of time and energy thinking critically. For example: focus on evaluating whether blue is the favorite color of most company executives.
4. Weak critical thinking and strong critical thinking
Weak critical thinking is the use of critical thinking to defend one's existing positions and perceptions.
Strong critical thinking is the use of critical thinking to evaluate all assertions and opinions, especially one's own.
5. Maybe we're asking the wrong question
It doesn't help us to raise a question indiscriminately as soon as we have it. We have to choose, and maybe we are simply asking the wrong question.
List of key questions:
What are the thesis and conclusions?
What is the reason?
Which words are ambiguous?
What are value assumptions and descriptive assumptions?
Are there fallacies in the reasoning process?
How strong is the evidence?
Are there alternative reasons?
Is the data deceptive?
What important information was omitted?
What reasonable conclusions can be drawn?
6. Values determine how people interact
Most of our thinking activities are not retreats alone, but often involve others. We can only keep moving forward if we are fully committed to actively interacting with others; without others, we as students often go astray. Critical thinking relies heavily on humbly listening to others to learn from others.
Key Values of Critical Thinkers: Autonomy, Curiosity, Courteousness, Convincing, Reasonable Conclusions When there is information, but there is room for it, it is best to ask yourself: Is my conclusion valid? Could it be wrong?