Critical Reasoning Sharpens the Mind But Takes Mega Effort to Develop

Thinking or reasoning critically is a key cognitive skill. It means we know how to question assumptions, see the logic or lack of logic in an argument, draw sound conclusions from evidence, find root concepts and causes, generate possibilities systematically, avoid decision traps and cognitive biases, see things from multiple points of view and otherwise rigorously deal with ambiguity.

Critical thinking is so important that it has been a major area of focus since the time of the ancient Greek philosophers.   But it is not just a philosophical thing. For example, in a recent post on the Harvard Business Review’s blog How Leaders Should Think Critically, the authors argue that it is a fundamental skill for today’s business leaders and students.  Of course the same arguments apply to non-business school students and leaders as well as everyone trying to make their way in today’s complex society.

In short, enhancing critical thinking is an important option for anyone interested in building a sharper mind and will be a regular topic on this blog.

But how can you improve it?  Self-study using a book or web resource is a good way. I’ll make a couple of recommendations below. You can also scout out a class or seminar at a location near you.  For those who like a more guided approach,  you can contract the services of a tutor or philosophical counselor.

No matter how you start please be sure to share your experiences with other readers of this blog.

For a good introductory text on critical reasoning see, Thought and Knowledge: An Introduction to Critical Reasoning. It is relatively inexpensive, easy to read and covers basic and advanced topics.  It has a more psychological than philosophical orientation and provides nice chapter summaries. You can access it online on Questia here.

For a very comprehensive free treatment, check out Critical Reasoning a User’s Manual (version 3.0). It is a 640-page (3 MB) PDF. It is also available online in the document reader Scribd here.

Both these resources will take an enormous effort to get through! If you are aware of a better general introduction please comment on this post. In the meantime, I will blog on specific techniques that you can use to build critical reasoning skills with much less effort.