topical index: critical thinking - The Skeptic's Dictionary

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head><title>topical index: critical thinking - The Skeptic's Dictionary - Skepdic.com</title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="_style/style.css" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="_style/printstyle.css" media="print"/> <link rel="shortcut icon" href="s1.ico"> <script>(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.0"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script>  <script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=ra-5487a05a7e027f30" async="async"></script>  </head> <body> <div class="container"> <div class="header"> <div class="logo"> <img src="_images/logo_01.png" alt="The Skeptic's Dictionary" width="270" height="60" border="0" />           by <a href="http://skepdic.com/refuge/bio.html">Robert Todd Carroll</a> * est. 1994 </div> <div class="slogan"> <img src="_images/slogan_01.gif" alt="A Collection of Strange Beliefs, Amusing Deceptions, and Dangerous Delusions" width="362" height="30" /> </div> </div> <div class="menu"> <ul> <li></li><li><a href="index.html">Home</a></li> <li><a href="news/">Newsletter</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/feedback.html">Feedback</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/faq.html">FAQ & Interviews</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/tour.html">Site Map</a></li> </ul> </div> <div class="middle"> <div class="left"> <h2>Topical Indexes</h2> <ul class="nav_1"> <li><a href="tialtmed.html">Alternatives to Medicine</a> </li> <li><a href="ticrypto.html">Cryptozoology</a> </li> <li><a href="tialien.html">ETs & UFOs</a> </li> <li><a href="tifraud.html">Frauds, Hoaxes, Conspiracies</a> </li> <li><a href="tijunk.html">Junk Science</a> </li> <li><a href="tilogic.html">Logic & Perception</a> </li> <li><a href="tinewage.html">New Age</a> </li> <li><a href="tipara.html">Paranormal</a> </li> <li><a href="tiscience.html">Science & Philosophy</a> </li> <li><a href="tisuper.html">Supernatural</a> </li> <li> </li> </ul> <h2>Other Writings</h2> <ul class="nav_2"> <li><a href="http://sd4kids.skepdic.com/">Mysteries and Science for Kids</a></li> <li> <a href="http://59ways.blogspot.com/"> Unnatural Acts blog</a></li> <li> <a href="skeptimedia/skeptimediaarchive.html"> Skeptimedia</a></li> <li><a href="refuge/funkarchive.html"> Mass Media Funk</a> </li> <li><a href="refuge/bunkarchive.html"> Mass Media Bunk</a> </li> <li><a href="refuge/harmarchive.html"> What's the Harm?</a> </li> <li><a href="news/">Newsletter Archives</a> </li> <li><a href="refuge/wwwbunk.html"> Internet Bunk</a> </li> <li><a href="refuge/2good.html"> Too good to be true</a> </li> <li><a href="refuge/essays.html"> Skeptical Essays</a> </li> <li><a href="refuge/randr.html"> Book Reviews</a> </li> <li><a href="refuge/suburbanmyths.html"> Suburban Myths</a> </li> <li><a href="refuge/memoriam.html"> In Memoriam</a> </li><li></li> </ul> <h2>Other Resources</h2> <ul class="nav_3"> <li><a href="hollow.html">A Skeptic's Halloween</a> </li> <li><a href="refuge/getinvolved.html"> Get involved</a> </li> <li><a href="future.html">Future Topics?</a> </li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/permissions.html"> Permission to print</a> </li> <li><a href="report/">Site Statistics</a> </li> </ul> </div> <div class="content"> <div class="it"> <h2 align="center" style="text-align: center"><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=roberttoddcarrol&l=as2&o=1&a=B00154JDAI" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;"></h2> <h2>From Abracadabra to Zombies | <a href="contents.html">View All</a> </h2> <ul class="alphabet"> <li><a href="contents.html#A">a</a></li> <li><a href="contents.html#B">b</a></li> <li><a href="contents.html#C">c</a></li> <li><a href="contents.html#D">d</a></li> <li><a href="contents.html#E">e</a></li> <li><a href="contents.html#F">f</a></li> <li><a href="contents.html#G">g</a></li> <li><a href="contents.html#H">h</a></li> <li><a href="contents.html#I">i</a></li> <li><a href="contents.html#J">j</a></li> <li><a href="contents.html#K">k</a></li> <li><a href="contents.html#L">l</a></li> <li><a href="contents.html#M">m</a></li> <li><a href="contents.html#N">n</a></li> <li><a href="contents.html#O">o</a></li> <li><a href="contents.html#P">p</a></li> <li><a href="contents.html#Q">q</a></li> <li><a href="contents.html#R">r</a></li> <li><a href="contents.html#S">s</a></li> <li><a href="contents.html#T">t</a></li> <li><a href="contents.html#U">u</a></li> <li><a href="contents.html#V">v</a></li> <li><a href="contents.html#W">w</a></li> <li><a href="contents.html#X">x</a></li> <li><a href="contents.html#Y">y</a></li> <li><a href="contents.html#Z">z</a></li> </ul> <webContent> <h2>critical thinking</h2> The goal of critical thinking is to arrive at the most reasonable beliefs and take the most reasonable actions. We have evolved, however, not to seek the truth, but to survive and reproduce. Critical thinking is an unnatural act. By nature, we're driven to confirm and defend our current beliefs, even to the point of irrationality. We are prone to reject evidence that conflicts with our beliefs and to attack those who offer such evidence. The items below are listed in alphabetical order. For someone new to the subject, I suggest the following order of reading: 1) several essays I've written on the difficulty of changing minds: <a href="http://skepdic.com/skeptimedia/skeptimedia32.html"> Belief Armor</a>, <a href="http://skepdic.com/essays/evaluatingexperience.html"> Evaluating Personal Experience</a>, <a href="http://skepdic.com/essays/palpablyuntrue.html">Why Do People Believe in the Palpably Untrue?</a>, <a href="http://skepdic.com/essays/defendingfalsehoods.html"> Defending Falsehoods</a>, and <a href="http://skepdic.com/skeptimedia/skeptimedia4.html"> Why Woo-woo Wins</a>. 2) the following entries: <a href="http://skepdic.com/confirmbias.html">confirmation bias</a>, <a href="http://skepdic.com/cognitivedissonance.html"> cognitive dissonance</a>, <a href="http://skepdic.com/communalreinforcement.html">communal reinforcement</a>, <a href="http://skepdic.com/motivatedreasoning.html"> motivated reasoning</a>, <a href="http://skepdic.com/backfireeffect.html">backfire effect</a>, <a href="http://skepdic.com/memory.html">memory</a>, and <a href="http://skepdic.com/refuge/ctlessons/lesson13.html">perception deception</a>. <webContent><h1>topical index: critical thinking</h1> <a name="A">A</a> <a letter="A" href="adhoc.html">ad hoc hypothesis</a> <a letter="A" href="adhominem.html">ad hominem</a> <a letter="A" href="adpopulum.html">ad populum fallacy</a> <a letter="A" href="affectbias.html">affect bias</a> <a letter="A" href="affirmingtheconsequent.html">affirming the consequent</a> <a letter="A" href="anchoring.html">anchoring effect</a> <a letter="A" href="apophenia.html">apophenia</a> <a letter="A" HREF="authorty.html">appeal to authority</a> <a letter="A" href="tradition.html">appeal to tradition</a> <a letter="A" HREF="ignorance.html">argument to ignorance</a> <a letter="A" href="autokinetic.html">autokinetic effect</a> <a letter="A" href="availability.html">availability error</a> <a name="B">B</a> <a letter="B" href="barnum.html">Barnum effect</a> <a href="backfireeffect.html">backfire effect</a> <a letter="B" href="begging.html">begging the question</a> <a name="C">C</a> <a letter="C" href="changeblindness.html">change blindness</a> <a letter="C" href="cleverhans.html">Clever Hans phenomenon</a> <a letter="C" href="cleverlinda.html">clever Linda phenomenon</a> <a letter="C" href="clustering.html">clustering illusion</a> <a letter="C" href="cognitivedissonance.html">cognitive dissonance</a> <a letter="C" href="lawofnumbers.html">coincidence</a> <a letter="C" href="coldread.html">cold reading</a> <a letter="C" href="communalreinforcement.html">communal reinforcement</a> <a letter="C" href="conditioning.html">conditioning</a> <a letter="C" href="confab.html">confabulation</a> <a letter="C" href="confirmbias.html">confirmation bias</a> <a letter="C" href="continuedinfluenceeffect.html">continued influence effect</a> <a letter="C" href="control.html">control group study</a> <a name="D">D</a> <a letter="D" href="debiasing.html">debiasing</a> <a letter="D" href="inductiondeduction.html">deduction</a> <a letter="D" href="denyingtheantecedent.html">denying the antecedent</a> <a letter="D" HREF="dvinefal.html">divine fallacy</a> <a name="E">E</a> <a letter="E" href="evaluatingevidence.html">evaluating evidence</a> <a name="F">F</a> <a letter="F" href="faceonmars.html">face on Mars</a> <a letter="F" href="fallacies.html">fallacies</a> <a letter="F" href="filedrawer.html">file-drawer effect</a> <a letter="F" href="falsedichotomy.html">false dichotomy</a> <a letter="F" href="falseimplication.html">false implication</a> <a letter="F" href="falsememory.html">false memory</a> <a letter="F" href="forer.html">Forer effect</a> <a name="G">G</a> <a letter="G" href="gamblers.html">gambler's fallacy</a> <a name="H">H</a> <a letter="H" href="hiddenpersuaders.html">hidden persuaders</a> <a letter="H" href="hindsightbias.html">hindsight bias</a> <a letter="H" href="hsp.html">hypersensory perception</a> <a name="I">I</a> <a letter="I" href="ideomotor.html">ideomotor effect</a> <a letter="I" href="ignorance2.html">ignorance as a hindrance to critical thinking</a> <a letter="I" href="inattentionalblindness.html">inattentional blindness</a> <a letter="I" href="inductiondeduction">induction</a> <a letter="I" href="infrasound.html">infrasound</a> <a name="L">L</a> <a letter="L" href="lawofnumbers.html">law of truly large numbers</a> <a letter="L" href="littlewood.html">Littlewood's law of miracles</a> <a name="M">M</a> <a letter="M" href="magicalthinking.html">magical thinking</a> <a letter="M" href="memory.html">memory</a> <a letter="M" href="motivatedreasoning.html">motivated reasoning</a> <a name="N">N</a> <a letter="N" href="nastyeffect.html">nasty effect</a> <a letter="N" href="pseudosc.html">nonfalsifiability</a> <a letter="N" href="nonsequitur.html">non sequitur</a> <a name="O">O</a> <a letter="O" HREF="occam.html">Occam's razor</a> <a letter="O" href="opinions.html">opinions</a> <a name="P">P</a> <a letter="P" href="pareidol.html">pareidolia</a> <a letter="P" href="perceptiondeception.html">perception deception</a> <a letter="P" href="placebo.html">placebo effect</a> <a letter="P" href="posoutbias.html">positive-outcome bias</a> <a letter="P" href="posthoc.html">post hoc reasoning</a> <a letter="P" href="pragmatic.html">pragmatic fallacy</a> <a letter="P" href="proportionalitybias.html">proportionality bias</a> <a name="R">R</a> <a letter="R" href="recencybias.html">recency bias</a> <a letter="R" href="regressive.html">regressive fallacy</a> <a letter="R" href="replication.html">replication</a> <a letter="R" href="replication2.html">replication revisited</a> <a letter="R" href="representativeness.html">representativeness error</a> <a letter="R" href="retfalse.html">retrospective falsification</a> <a name="S">S</a> <a letter="S" href="http://skepdic.com/selectionbias.html">selection bias</a> <a letter="S" href="selectiv.html">selective thinking</a> <a letter="S" href="selfdeception.html">self-deception</a> <a letter="S" href="shoehorning.html">shoehorning</a> <a letter="S" href="singlecause.html">single-cause bias/fallacy/illusion</a> <a letter="S" href="strawman.html">straw man fallacy</a> <a letter="S" href="subjectivevalidation.html">subjective validation</a> <a letter="S" href="subliminal.html">subliminal</a> <a letter="S" href="sunkcost.html">sunk-cost fallacy</a> <a letter="S" href="suppressedevidence.html">suppressed evidence</a> <a name="T">T</a> <a letter="T" href="testimon.html">testimonials (anecdotal evidence)</a> <a letter="T" href="texas.html">Texas-sharpshooter fallacy</a> <a name="V">V</a> <a letter="V" href="validity.html">validity</a> <a name="W">W</a> <a letter="W" href="wassoncardproblem.html">Wason Card Problem</a> <a letter="W" href="wishfulthinking.html">wishful thinking</a> See also blogs <a href="http://59ways.blogspot.com/">Unnatural Acts that can improve your thinking</a>: postings about cognitive biases, logical fallacies, and illusions. Click <a href="http://59ways.blogspot.com/p/index-of-unnatural-acts-that-can.html">here</a> for an alphabetical index of postings so far. Skeptimedia <a href="skeptimedia/skeptimedia1.html"> Miraculous Deception - miracles, faith healing, self-deception</a> <a href="skeptimedia/skeptimedia6.html"> Using ghost stories to teach critical thinking</a> <a href="skeptimedia/skeptimedia15.html"> Evaluating Acupuncture Studies:Laughable vs. Dangerous Delusions</a> <a href="skeptimedia/skeptimedia16.html"> Disasters</a> <a href="skeptimedia/skeptimedia20.html"> The Paralyzing Precautionary Principle</a> <a href="skeptimedia/skeptimedia27.html"> Statistics and Medical Studies</a> <a href="skeptimedia/skeptimedia35.html"> Fraud and Bias in Medical Research</a> <a href="skeptimedia/skeptimedia94.html"> Creating Your Own Pseudoscience - part 1</a> <a href="skeptimedia/skeptimedia95.html"> Creating Your Own Pseudoscience - part 2</a> essays <a href="http://skepdic.com/essays/reflections.html">2010: A Time for Reflection</a> <a href="essays/dowsingfordollars.html">Dowsing for Dollars: Fighting High-Tech Promises with Low-Tech Critical Thinking Skills</a> <a href="essays/energyhealing.htm"> Energy Healing: Looking in All the Wrong Places</a> <a href="essays/gsandsv.html">Gary Schwartz's Subjective Validation of Mediums</a> <a href="essays/ctcontrol.html">Critical Thinking and Control Groups</a> <a href="refuge/bunk27.html">9/11 Conspiracies: the War on Critical Thinking</a> <a href="essays/teachingCT.pdf">Teaching Critical Thinking</a> <a href="essays/anythinggoes.html">Clever Irrationality</a> Presentation on Teaching Critical Thinking <a href="essays/teachingCT.html">Teaching Critical Thinking</a> (html version) <a href="essays/teachingCT.pdf">(click here for pdf version)</a> - expanded commentary from my <a href="http://skepdic.com/ct/">CT workshop presentation at The Amazing Meeting V</a> - <a href="http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/jref-store.html?page=shop.product_details&product_id=2&flypage=flypage.tpl&pop=0&vmcchk=1">Available on DVD</a> Free downloads of chapters from my textbook on Critical thinking, Becoming a Critical Thinker, 2nd ed. <a href="refuge/ctlessons/ch1.pdf">Chapter One, Critical Thinking</a> <a href="refuge/ctlessons/ch2.pdf">Chapter Two: Language and Critical Thinking</a> <a href="refuge/ctlessons/ch3.pdf">Chapter Three: Sources </a> <a href="http://skepdic.com/refuge/ctlessons/ch4.pdf">Chapter Four: Identifying Arguments</a> <a href="http://skepdic.com/refuge/ctlessons/ch5.pdf">Chapter Five: Evaluating Arguments</a> <a href="http://skepdic.com/refuge/ctlessons/ch6.pdf">Chapter Six: Evaluating Extended Arguments</a> <a href="http://skepdic.com/refuge/ctlessons/ch7.pdf">Chapter Seven: Sampling and Analogical Reasoning</a> <a href="refuge/ctlessons/ch8.pdf">Chapter Eight: Causal reasoning</a> <a href="refuge/ctlessons/ch9.pdf">Chapter Nine: Science and Pseudoscience</a> <a href="refuge/ctlessons/answers.pdf">Answers to selected exercises</a> <a href="http://skepdic.com/refuge/ctlessons/glossary.pdf">Glossary</a> <h3>book reviews </h3> <a href="http://skepdic.com/refuge/kahneman.html">Thinking, Fast and Slow聽</a>by Daniel Kahneman (2011) <a href="refuge/theinvisiblegorilla.html">The Invisible Gorilla: And Other Ways Our Intuitions Deceive Us </a>by Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons (Crown 2010) <a href="refuge/groopman.html">How Doctors Think</a> by Jerome Groopman, M.D. (Houghton Mifflin 2007) <a href="refuge/bausell.html">Snake Oil Science: The Truth about Complementary and Alternative Medicine</a>  by R. Barker Bausell (Oxford 2007). <a href="refuge/taverne.html"> The March of Unreason: Science, Democracy, and the New Fundamentalism</a> by Dick Taverne (Oxford 2006). <a href="refuge/persuaders.html">The Power of Persuasion - How We're Bought and Sold </a> by Robert Levine (John Wiley & Sons 2003), <a href="refuge/persuaders.html">Don't Get Taken! - Bunco and Bunkum Exposed - How to Protect Yourself</a><a href="refuge/persuaders.html"> </a> by Robert A. Steiner (Wide-Awake Books 1989), and <a href="refuge/persuaders.html">The Full Facts Book of Cold Reading (third edition) </a> by Ian Rowland (Ian Rowland Limited 2002). <a href="refuge/schacter.html">Searching for Memory - the brain, the mind, and the past</a> by Daniel L. Schacter (Basic Books 1996). <a href="refuge/sagan.html">The Demon-Haunted World - Science as a Candle in the Dark</a> by Carl Sagan (Random House 1995). <a href="http://skepdic.com/refuge/tart.html">The End of Materialism: How Evidence of the Paranormal is Bringing Science and Spirit Together</a> by Charles T. Tart, Ph.D. (New Harbinger 2009) <a href="http://skepdic.com/refuge/afterlife.html">The Afterlife Experiments: Breakthrough Scientific Evidence of Life After Death</a> by Gary Schwartz (Atria 2003) <a href="http://skepdic.com/refuge/entangledreview.html">Entangled Minds: Extrasensory Experiences in a Quantum Reality</a> by Dean Radin (Paraview Pocket Books 2006) <a href="http://skepdic.com/refuge/radin1.html">The Conscious Universe: The Scientific Truth of Psychic Phenomena</a> by Dean Radin (HarperOne 1997) <a href="http://skepdic.com/refuge/blum.html"> Ghost Hunters - William James and the Hunt for Scientific Proof of Life After Death</a> by Deborah Blum (Penguin Press 2006). further reading <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0205506682/roberttoddcarrolA/" style="text-decoration: none"> Browne, M. Neil & Stuart M. Keeley. Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking (Prentice Hall, 2009)</a>. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0536600600/roberttoddcarrolA/" style="text-decoration: none"> Carroll, Robert Todd. Becoming a Critical Thinker - A Guide for the New Millennium (Boston: Pearson Custom Publishing, 2000).</a> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0495095060/roberttoddcarrolA/" style="text-decoration: none"> Damer, T. Edward. Attacking Faulty Reasoning: A Practical Guide to Fallacy-Free Arguments 4th edition (Wadsworth Pub Co, 2008)</a>. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0374275637/roberttoddcarrolA/">Kahneman, Daniel.聽Thinking, Fast and Slow聽(Kindle 2011)聽</a>. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0073386677/roberttoddcarrolA/" style="text-decoration: none"> Moore, Brooke Noel and Richard Parker. Critical Thinking (McGraw Hill, 2008).</a> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=1405181222/roberttoddcarrolA/" style="text-decoration: none"> Smith, Jonathan. 2009. Pseudoscience and Extraordinary Claims of the Paranormal: A Critical Thinker's Toolkit. Wiley-Blackwell.</a> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0195377923/roberttoddcarrolA/" style="text-decoration: none"> Vaughn, Lewis. 2009. The Power of Critical Thinking: Effective Reasoning About Ordinary and Extraordinary Claims. Oxford University Press.</a></webContent> </div> </div> <div class="right"> <div class="right_it"> <div class="search"> <form method="get" action="http://www.google.com/custom" target="_top"> <input type="hidden" name="domains" value="skepdic.com" /> <input type="text" name="q" maxlength="255" value="" size="20" /> <input type="submit" name="sa" value="Search" /> <div class="search_2"> <input type="radio" name="sitesearch" value="" /> Web     <input type="radio" name="sitesearch" value="skepdic.com" checked="checked" /> Skepdic.com <img src="_images/logo_google.gif" alt="Google" width="48" height="19" /> </div> <input type="hidden" name="client" value="pub-3542920166946725" /> <input type="hidden" name="forid" value="1" /> <input type="hidden" name="ie" value="ISO-8859-1" /> <input type="hidden" name="oe" value="ISO-8859-1" /> <input type="hidden" name="cof" value="GALT:#008000;GL:1;DIV:#336699;VLC:663399;AH:center;BGC:FFFFFF;LBGC:336699;ALC:0000FF;LC:0000FF;T:000000;GFNT:0000FF;GIMP:0000FF;FORID:1;" /> <input type="hidden" name="hl" value="en" /> </form> </div> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Guide-Critical-Thinking-Developing-ebook/dp/B01E1O1Q1C?ie=UTF8&keywords=greg%20r.%20haskins&qid=1460249362&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1"><img src="http://skepdic.com/essays/coverhaskins.jpg" width="231" height="350" /></a> <a href="http://skepdic.com/authorpage.html">Books by R. 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topical index: critical thinking - The Skeptic's Dictionary - Skepdic.com