Library Home: Critical & Creative Thinking Resources: Philosophy &amp; Thinking

Ideas to ponder

Philosophy is love of wisdom, so it implies that one wants to know and understand something.

Keep in mind that different cultures have different ideas about what is considered to be wisdom:

Foundations, or the basis of study, started with the beginnings of questioning the world around us.
Critical thinking looks at the facts, or most defensible facts. This is important because emotion often creates a filter to hide or ignore uncomfortable factoids.

Creative thinking is combining known or imagined ideas in new ways.
When people have cherished beliefs/world-views that conflict with new facts, they need to use critical thinking skills to question why they do not want to accept the new “facts”.
In science, if multiple experiments find the same range of values in the results, then the results are expected to be a reliable foundation for further study.

Even scientists can be susceptible to the adage: I’ll see it when I believe it.”

The American Philosophical Association

Statement on the Role of Philosophy Programs in Higher Education
Discusses the value of philosophy to education:
(1) a philosophy program’s fundamental contributions to education
(2) a philosophy program’s contributions to an institution’s core curriculum.
(3) philosophy’s relations to other areas of inquiry
(4) the contributions that philosophers can make beyond the curriculum.
(5) different levels of philosophy programs
(6) how one might go about measuring the success of philosophy programs

Why study philosophy?

Why study philosophy? (.jmu.edu)
"The study of philosophy helps us to enhance our ability to solve problems, our communication skills, our persuasive powers, and our writing skills. Below is a description of how philosophy helps us develop these various important skills."..Including...
1. General Problem Solving Skills
2. Communication Skills
3. Persuasive Powers
4. Writing Skills
5. Understanding Other Disciplines
6. Development of Sound Methods of Research and Analysis

Vocabulary

philosophy
phi·los·o·phy
noun
• Love of wisdom
• The study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence.
wisdom
noun
• The quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgment
think
verb
• To have a particular opinion, belief, or idea about someone or something.
• To direct one's mind toward someone or something;
• To use one's mind actively to form connected ideas.
noun: think; plural noun: thinks
• an act of thinking.
belief
be·lief
noun
• an acceptance that a statement is true or that something exists.
• trust, faith, or confidence in someone or something.
fallacy
noun
• a mistaken belief, especially one based on unsound argument.
• a failure in reasoning which renders an argument invalid.
• faulty reasoning; misleading or unsound argument.

College and University Faculty (criticalthinking.org)

College and University Faculty (criticalthinking.org)
The following articles on our website are directly relevant to higher education instruction in critical thinking and are offered complimentary.

Foundation for Critical Thinking

Critical Thinking: Where to Begin

Permission to Use Our Work

Site Map

Begin Here

College and University Faculty

College and University Students

Main Library of Critical Thinking Resources

About Critical Thinking

Defining Critical Thinking

A Brief History of the Idea of Critical Thinking

Critical Thinking: Basic Questions & Answers

Our Conception of Critical Thinking

Sumner’s Definition of Critical Thinking

Research in Critical Thinking

Fundamentals of Critical Thinking

Content Is Thinking, Thinking is Content

Critical Thinking in Every Domain of Knowledge and Belief

Using Intellectual Standards to Assess Student Reasoning

Open-minded inquiry

Valuable Intellectual Traits

Universal Intellectual Standards

Thinking With Concepts

The Analysis & Assessment of Thinking

Glossary of Critical Thinking Terms

Distinguishing Between Inert Information, Activated Ignorance, Activated Knowledge

Critical Thinking: Identifying the Targets

Distinguishing Between Inferences and Assumptions

Critical Thinking Development: A Stage Theory

Becoming a Critic Of Your Thinking

Documenting the Problem

Intellectual Foundations: The Key Missing Piece in School Restructuring

Pseudo Critical Thinking in the Educational Establishment

Why Students and Teachers Don’t Reason Well

Critical Thinking in the Engineering - Novices don't know what to ask

Critical Thinking Movement: 3 Waves

Higher Education Instruction

An Overview of How to Design Instruction Using Critical Thinking Concepts

Recommendations for Departmental Self-Evaluation

A Sample Assignment Format

Critical Thinking Class: Student Understandings

Structures for Student Self-Assessment

Socratic Teaching

John Stuart Mill: On Instruction, Intellectual Development, and Disciplined Learning

Critical Thinking and Nursing

Teaching Tactics that Encourage Active Learning

Making Critical Thinking Intuitive

Strategy List: 35 Dimensions of Critical Thought

For Students

Critical Thinking in Everyday Life: 9 Strategies

Developing as Rational Persons: Viewing Our Development in Stages

How to Study and Learn (Part One)

How to Study and Learn (Part Two)

How to Study and Learn (Part Three)

How to Study and Learn (Part Four)

The Art of Close Reading (Part One)

The Art of Close Reading (Part Two)

The Art of Close Reading (Part Three)

Looking To The Future With a Critical Eye: A Message for High School Graduates

Issues in Critical Thinking

Ethical Reasoning Essential to Education

Ethics Without Indoctrination

Engineering Reasoning

Accelerating Change

Applied Disciplines: A Critical Thinking Model for Engineering

Global Change: Why C.T. is Essential To the Community College Mission

Natural Egocentric Dispositions

Diversity: Making Sense of It Through Critical Thinking

Critical Thinking, Moral Integrity and Citizenship

Critical Thinking and Emotional Intelligence

The Questioning Mind

Newton, Darwin, & Einstein

The Role of Socratic Questioning in Thinking, Teaching, & Learning

The Critical Mind is A Questioning Mind

Three Categories of Questions: Crucial Distinctions

Reading Backwards: Classic Books Online

Institutions Using Our Approach to Critical Thinking

Philosophy - Thinking about how to think.

What is Philosophy, and Why Should I Study It? (phil.washington.edu)
PHILOSOPHY TEACHES CRITICAL-THINKING SKILLS (https://www.grad.uiowa.edu/) "Collins believes the study of philosophy helps students in all fields develop important analytic skills. "
Thesis: DOES PHILOSOPHY IMPROVE CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS? In brief, the key findings of the meta-analysis are as follows: • First, there is insufficient evidence to be confident that studying philosophy improves critical thinking skills any more than studying other academic disciplines. • Second, the results indicate that studying philosophy appears to be less effective than studying critical thinking in its own right. • Third, there appear to be techniques which, if introduced into philosophy teaching, could improve the extent to which studying philosophy improves critical thinking. • Fourth, further research is desirable to gather better evidence in a number of areas.

Learning about Philosophy Seems to Improve Critical Thinking

The Impact of Teaching Philosophy for Children on Critical Openness and Reflective Skepticism in Developing Critical Thinking and Self-Efficacy " teaching philosophy for children had a positive impact on increasing self-efficacy, critical thinking, and its components (critical openness and reflective skepticism)."
The Acquisition of Scientific Knowledge via Critical Thinking: A Philosophical Approach to Science Education " this philosophical approach to science education highlights the acquisition of scientific knowledge via critical thinking"
Improving the Performance of Sixth-Grade Social Studies Students through Exposure to Philosophy. "Philosophy was incorporated into the sixth-grade world history curriculum, providing the foundation for critical thinking."
Critical Analysis: A Comparison of Critical Thinking Changes in Psychology and Philosophy Classes "The philosophy classes tested in this study, which did produce a significant improvement in WGCTA scores, also included more frequent problem-solving homework and more traditional testing than the CT class"
Scrutiny of Critical Thinking Concept "While philosophers emphasis on the nature and quality of critical thinking, psychologists focus on cognitive process and components used to investigate the practical problems. So philosophers emphasize critical thinking attitudes while psychologists focus on critical thinking skills."

College and University Students

College and University Students

Studying the following articles and pages will help you build a stronger understanding of the core concepts in critical thinking

In addition to the basic review of the definition and concept of critical thinking, the following pages and articles are recommended reading for the college, university or pre-collegiate student.