Adapted from Mayfield, Thinking for Yourself text:
| Critical and Creative Thinking | |
| Creative thinking | Creative thinking leads to the invention of something new. It makes use of imagination, challenges assumptions, and engages in problem solving. |
| Critical thinking | Critical thinking brings conscious awareness, skills, and standards to the process of observing, analyzing, reasoning, evaluating, reading, and communicating. |
| Critical thinking standards | Criteria used to attain, describe, and judge excellence in critical thinking. |
| 1 Observation | |
| Accommodation | Accommodation is achieved when we can do the thinking needed to create a new schema or modify an old schema in order to explain a new experience. |
| Assimilation | Assimilation is achieved when we can integrate new experiences into existing schemas. |
| Disequilibrium | The confusion and discomfort felt when a new experience cannot be integrated into existing schemas. |
| Equilibrium | A stable inner feeling of well being that we feel when our thinking enables us to modify or create a new schema that better explains our world. |
| Hypothesis | Hypothesis is a trial idea, tentative explanation, or theory that can be tested and used to further an investigation. |
| Observe | To watch with attentive awareness. |
| Perceiving | To regard and interpret what the senses tell us. |
| Principal claim and reasons | These are the two parts of an argument. The principal claim is the thesis or conclusion. The reasons support this claim through evidence or other claims. A claim is an assertion about something. |
| Schema | Schemas are the mental files in which we store our explanations of experiences. |
| Sensing | To make use of such senses as sight, hearing, and touch. |
| Thinking | Purposeful mental activity such as reasoning, deciding, judging, believing, supposing, expecting, intending, recalling, remembering, visualizing, imagining, devising, inventing, concentrating, conceiving, considering. |
| 2 Word Precision | |
| Critical reading | Critical reading is analytical and evaluative reading based on accurate neutral comprehension of the material. |
| Definition | A concise explanation of the meaning of a word that shows us its boundaries. |
| Principal claim and reasons | These are the two parts of an argument. The principal claim is the thesis or conclusion. The reasons support this claim through evidence or other claims. A claim is an assertion about something. |
| Term and class | Term refers to the word defined and class refers to the largest family to which the term is related. |
| Thinking | Purposeful mental activity such as reasoning, deciding, judging, believing, supposing, expecting, intending, recalling, remembering, visualizing, imagining, devising, inventing, concentrating, conceiving, considering. |
| Word | Word is a sound or group of sounds that communicate meaning. These sounds are also translatable into written symbols. |
| Word concept | A concept is a abstract idea or principle conveyed in a word. |
| Word connotation | Word connotation refers to the additional shades of meaning and emotional associations that a word may carry. |
| 3 Facts | |
| Absolute | An absolute is something that is perfect, complete, always true, something never to be doubted or questioned. |
| Certain | Certain is a characteristic of something fixed, assured, or inevitable. |
| Fact | A fact is something proven to be true, real, existing or to have existed. |
| Fiction | Fiction is an idea or story based on imagination rather than reality. |
| Objective/subjective | Objective is to be impartial, free of bias or prejudice. Subjective is to be swayed by bias or prejudice rather than facts and evidence. |
| Plausibility | This standard weighs the reasonability of a event or explanation. |
| Principal claim and reasons | These are the two parts of an argument. The principal claim is the thesis or conclusion. The reasons support this claim through evidence or other claims. A claim is an assertion about something. |
| Probability | This standard estimates the likelihood that an event occurred or will occur. |
| Reliability | This is another standard: that the data was confirmed to be fact by a reputable independent source. Reliability also means that the confirmation proved dependable over time. |
| Thinking | Purposeful mental activity such as reasoning, deciding, judging, believing, supposing, expecting, intending, recalling, remembering, visualizing, imagining, devising, inventing, concentrating, conceiving, considering. |
| Verifiability | This is a standard for determining facts; that they can be tested and confirmed to be either true and/or in existence or past existence or not. |
| Verify | To verify is to test and confirm the truth, accuracy, or existence of something. |
| 4 Inference | |
| Description versus Interpretation | Pure description provides factual details that convey an accurate objective depiction of a subject. Interpretation makes inferences and judgments about the subject. |
| Evidence | Evidence is a sign or proof that something is true or that it has or had existence. |
| Generalization | A generalization is a statement derived from the study of a number of cases that summarizes something characteristic about these cases. |
| Infer | To use imagination and reasoning to fill in missing facts. To connect the dots. |
| Justify | To justify a claim means to defend and support a claim. |
| Obvious | The obvious is something that is unconcealed and easy to see. Yet we may neglect to pay close attention to the obvious because it is so familiar. |
| Principal claim and reasons | These are the two parts of an argument. The principal claim is the thesis or conclusion. The reasons support this claim through evidence or other claims. A claim is an assertion about something. |
| Thinking | Purposeful mental activity such as reasoning, deciding, judging, believing, supposing, expecting, intending, recalling, remembering, visualizing, imagining, devising, inventing, concentrating, conceiving, considering. |
| 5 Assumptions | |
| Accommodation | Accommodation is achieved when we can do the thinking needed to create a new schema or modify an old schema in order to explain a new experience. |
| Assimilation | Assimilation is achieved when we can integrate new experiences into existing schemas. |
| Assumption | Assumption is an idea whose truth can be taken for granted. |
| Assumption Layers | Assumption layers can appear beneath simple assertions. Such layers consist of multiple hidden and unexamined assumptions influenced in turn by one or more value assumptions beneath the whole. |
| Counter claim | Counter claim is a response to a claim with a defense or with another claim. |
| Disequilibrium | The confusion and discomfort felt when a new experience cannot be integrated into existing schemas. |
| Equilibrium | A stable inner feeling of well being that we feel when our thinking enables us to modify or create a new schema that better explains our world. |
| Hidden Assumption | A hidden assumption is an unclear and unstated idea assumed to be true that is integral to a line of reasoning. In an argument, it is a hidden premise that cannot be examined for truth and validity. Blind acceptance of a hidden premise can lead to the acceptance of a false or invalid conclusion. |
| Infer | To use imagination and reasoning to fill in missing facts. To connect the dots. |
| Lateral thinking | Lateral thinking solves problems by reviewing options, overcoming assumptions, and inventing new solutions. Vertical thinking follows more conventional step-by-step logic. |
| Principal claim and reasons | These are the two parts of an argument. The principal claim is the thesis or conclusion. The reasons support this claim through evidence or other claims. A claim is an assertion about something. |
| Schema | Schemas are the mental files in which we store our explanations of experiences. |
| Thesis | A thesis is a short summary statement of an idea that an essay intends to prove. It is also called the thesis statement and controlling idea. |
| Thinking | Purposeful mental activity such as reasoning, deciding, judging, believing, supposing, expecting, intending, recalling, remembering, visualizing, imagining, devising, inventing, concentrating, conceiving, considering. |
| Value or Belief Assumption | Value assumption is a belief that we take for granted, one that rarely questioned or even articulated. Remaining hidden and unexpressed, a value assumption can nevertheless shape a chain of reasoning. |
| Working Assumption | A working assumption is a trial idea, theory, strategy, or hypothesis assumed to be true in order to further an investigation. It is a conscious assumption. |
| 6 Opinions | |
| Advice | Advice is to recommend an opinion to someone else. |
| Infer | To use imagination and reasoning to fill in missing facts. To connect the dots. |
| Judgment | Judgment is a final opinion, decision, conclusion or evaluation about something. |
| Opinion | Opinion is a word used to include an unsupported belief, a supported argument, an expert’s judgment, prevailing public sentiment, and a formal statement by a court. |
| Personal taste or preference | Personal taste or preferences are forms of opinions that express likes or dislikes. They can be irrational and need not be supported with reasons. |
| Principal claim and reasons | These are the two parts of an argument. The principal claim is the thesis or conclusion. The reasons support this claim through evidence or other claims. A claim is an assertion about something. |
| Thinking | Purposeful mental activity such as reasoning, deciding, judging, believing, supposing, expecting, intending, recalling, remembering, visualizing, imagining, devising, inventing, concentrating, conceiving, considering. |
| 7 Evaluations | |
| Evaluate | To determine the value or worth of something. |
| Evaluations in word connotations | Highly connotative words can be chosen to convey a person’s likes and dislikes under the guise of offering facts. |
| Expectations | Mental constructs that anticipate the way things will be or should be. |
| Infer | To use imagination and reasoning to fill in missing facts. To connect the dots. |
| Opinion | Opinion is a word used to include an unsupported belief, a supported argument, an expert’s judgment, prevailing public sentiment, and a formal statement by a court. |
| Premature evaluation | To judge something before one has finished examining it. |
| Principal claim and reasons | These are the two parts of an argument. The principal claim is the thesis or conclusion. The reasons support this claim through evidence or other claims. A claim is an assertion about something. |
| Propaganda | Propaganda is the manipulation of public opinion for the benefit of the propagator. |
| Relativism | Relativism is the belief that concepts such as right and wrong are not absolutes but depend on situations and the cultures. |
| Skilled Evaluations | Skilled evaluations are opinions formed by experts after a careful and impartial study. |
| Thinking | Purposeful mental activity such as reasoning, deciding, judging, believing, supposing, expecting, intending, recalling, remembering, visualizing, imagining, devising, inventing, concentrating, conceiving, considering. |
| 8 Viewpoints | |
| An unconscious viewpoint | An unconscious viewpoint is a perspective unidentified by the viewer. |
| Egocentrism | Egocentrism is the assumption that one’s perspective is the only perspective. |
| Ethnocentrism | Ethnocentrism is the assumption that one’s own social or cultural group is superior to all others. |
| Exterior | To be exterior to one’s own viewpoint is to have a detached awareness of one’s viewpoint. |
| Infer | To use imagination and reasoning to fill in missing facts. To connect the dots. |
| News framing | News framing describes the way relative importance can be implied about a news item by layout design, page placement, photos, and the wording of headlines. |
| Opinion | Opinion is a word used to include an unsupported belief, a supported argument, an expert’s judgment, prevailing public sentiment, and a formal statement by a court. |
| Principal claim and reasons | These are the two parts of an argument. The principal claim is the thesis or conclusion. The reasons support this claim through evidence or other claims. A claim is an assertion about something. |
| Religiocentrism | Religiocentrism is the assumption that one’s own religion is superior to all others. |
| Thinking | Purposeful mental activity such as reasoning, deciding, judging, believing, supposing, expecting, intending, recalling, remembering, visualizing, imagining, devising, inventing, concentrating, conceiving, considering. |
| Viewpoint | A viewpoint is a personal or collective perspective consisting of memories, beliefs, and associations from which events are observed and evaluated. |
| 9 Argument | |
| Argument | An argument offers reasons to support a conclusion with the intent to persuade. |
| Conclusion | A clear statement of what an argument intends to prove or has proven. |
| Consistency | Consistency refers to standards of logical coherence as well as constancy. |
| Contradiction | A contradiction refers to a part or parts inconsistent with, or illogical to, other parts. |
| Debate question | A debate question is a neutrally stated question designed to provide a focus for pro and con positions on an issue. |
| Discrepancy | A discrepancy, like an incongruity, is something that diverges from an expected standard. |
| False Information | False information refers to information that can be proven to be untrue. |
| Implied conclusion | A conclusion understood but not explicitly stated. |
| Infer | To use imagination and reasoning to fill in missing facts. To connect the dots. |
| Irreconcilable | Irreconcilable are conflicting ideas, beliefs, or information that cannot coexist, such as contradictions. |
| Issue | An issue is a matter of dispute. |
| Missing Information | Missing information refers to essential information purposefully or inadvertently omitted from an argument or report. |
| Opinion | Opinion is a word used to include an unsupported belief, a supported argument, an expert’s judgment, prevailing public sentiment, and a formal statement by a court. |
| Principal claim and reasons | These are the two parts of an argument. The principal claim is the thesis or conclusion. The reasons support this claim through evidence or other claims. A claim is an assertion about something. |
| Reason | A statement offered to explain, justify, or support the conclusion. |
| Report | A report offers objective accounts of events and objective information. |
| Thinking | Purposeful mental activity such as reasoning, deciding, judging, believing, supposing, expecting, intending, recalling, remembering, visualizing, imagining, devising, inventing, concentrating, conceiving, considering. |
| Topic | A topic is a subject that is written or spoken about. |
| 10 Fallacies | |
| Appeal to Bandwagon | This fallacy seeks to persuade by appealing to the wisdom of the momentum of a popular opinion. |
| Appeal to False Authority | This fallacy seeks to persuade by citing fake, questionable, or inappropriate authority. |
| Appeal to Fear | This fallacy seeks to persuade by arousing fear that clouds rationality. |
| Appeal to Pity | This fallacy seeks to persuade by arousing pity. |
| Circular Reasoning | This fallacy assumes what it is supposed to prove by reasserting the conclusion, sometimes in different words, as though this conclusion needed no supporting reasons. |
| Fallacy | A fallacy is an invalid, argument that can be deceptive or misleading. |
| Fallacy of Word Ambiguity | This fallacy seeks to gain an advantage in an argument by using vague undefined words that can be interpreted in more than one way. |
| Infer | To use imagination and reasoning to fill in missing facts. To connect the dots. |
| Misleading Euphemisms | This fallacy hides meaning by creating words that make a less acceptable idea seem positive or unrecognizable. |
| Opinion | Opinion is a word used to include an unsupported belief, a supported argument, an expert’s judgment, prevailing public sentiment, and a formal statement by a court. |
| Personal Attack | This fallacy attacks a person’s character without addressing the issue. |
| Pointing to Another Wrong | This fallacy distracts attention from an admitted wrongdoing by claiming that similar actions went unnoticed and unpunished. |
| Poisoning the Well | This fallacy seeks to prejudice others against a person, group or idea so that their arguments cannot be heard on their own merits. |
| Prejudicial Language | This fallacy attempts to persuade through the use of loaded words that convey a bias. |
| Principal claim and reasons | These are the two parts of an argument. The principal claim is the thesis or conclusion. The reasons support this claim through evidence or other claims. A claim is an assertion about something. |
| Red Herring | This fallacy distracts attention away from the lack of proof for a claim by raising irrelevant issues. |
| Straw man | This fallacy misrepresents or caricatures an opponent’s position, then refutes the false replica created. |
| Thinking | Purposeful mental activity such as reasoning, deciding, judging, believing, supposing, expecting, intending, recalling, remembering, visualizing, imagining, devising, inventing, concentrating, conceiving, considering. |
| 11 Inductive Reasoning | |
| Analogical Reasoning | Analogical reasoning draws conclusions on the basis of observed correspondences. |
| Cause | A perceived source or consequence of an event. |
| Conclusion of an inductive study | To make a generalization about empirical findings that may or may not confirm the hypothesis tested. It also may not be totally certain. |
| Either-or Fallacy | This fallacy is an argument that oversimplifies a situation, asserting that there are only two choices when actually there are many. |
| Extrapolation | This is an inference based on an estimated projection of known information. |
| False Analogy | This fallacy compares two things that may have some similarities but also significant differences that are ignored for the sake of the argument. |
| Hasty Generalization | This fallacy is a conclusion based on insufficient evidence. |
| Hypothesis | Hypothesis is a trial idea, tentative explanation, or theory that can be tested and used to further an investigation. |
| Inconsistencies and Contradictions | This fallacy makes claims that are contradictory or offers evidence that contradicts the conclusion. |
| Induction | To reason about all members of a class on the basis of an examination of some members of a class. |
| Infer | To use imagination and reasoning to fill in missing facts. To connect the dots. |
| Loaded Question | This fallacy uses a biased question that seeks to obtain a predetermined answer. |
| Opinion | Opinion is a word used to include an unsupported belief, a supported argument, an expert’s judgment, prevailing public sentiment, and a formal statement by a court. |
| Pattern | A perceived design or form. |
| Principal claim and reasons | These are the two parts of an argument. The principal claim is the thesis or conclusion. The reasons support this claim through evidence or other claims. A claim is an assertion about something. |
| Questionable Statistic | This fallacy backs up an argument with statistics that are either unknowable or unsound. |
| Reasoning through enumeration | This is reasoning through counting. Reasoning draws conclusions or inferences from facts or premises. |
| Reasoning through Statistics and Probability | This occurs in inductive reasoning. Statistics is the science of collecting, organizing, and interpreting numerical data. Probability in statistics estimates the ratio of the number of actual occurrences of a specific event to the total number of possible occurrences. |
| Reasoning with hypotheses | To conceive a trial idea and use it to implement an investigation. |
| Slippery Slope | This fallacy is an unwarranted claim that permitting one event to occur will lead to an inevitable and uncontrollable chain reaction. |
| The empirical or scientific method | The empirical or scientific method is based on observation and experiment. |
| Thinking | Purposeful mental activity such as reasoning, deciding, judging, believing, supposing, expecting, intending, recalling, remembering, visualizing, imagining, devising, inventing, concentrating, conceiving, considering. |
| 12 Deductive Reasoning | |
| Deduction | Deduction is to draw an inference about a specific instance from a general principle. |
| Hidden premise | Hidden premise is a made claim in support of a conclusion that is implied but not stated. When not exposed, it can lead to the acceptance of a false conclusion. |
| Infer | To use imagination and reasoning to fill in missing facts. To connect the dots. |
| Logic | Logic is the science of good reasoning. |
| Opinion | Opinion is a word used to include an unsupported belief, a supported argument, an expert’s judgment, prevailing public sentiment, and a formal statement by a court. |
| Principal claim and reasons | These are the two parts of an argument. The principal claim is the thesis or conclusion. The reasons support this claim through evidence or other claims. A claim is an assertion about something. |
| Syllogism | A syllogism is the standardized form that makes the structure of a deductive argument visible. A syllogism consists of two premises or claims followed by a conclusion inferred from these premises. |
| Thinking | Purposeful mental activity such as reasoning, deciding, judging, believing, supposing, expecting, intending, recalling, remembering, visualizing, imagining, devising, inventing, concentrating, conceiving, considering. |
| Valid and sound | A valid deductive argument is one in which the conclusion is correctly inferred from the premises. An argument is sound when the conclusion cannot be false because the premises are true and the reasoning is valid. |