“Everyone complains about his memory, and no one complains about his judgment.”
- François de La Rochefoucauld
Most of us readily agree that there’s a lot of bad thinking out there, but we’re reluctant to admit that our own thoughts and perceptions might be flawed. The truth is that we’re all susceptible to illusions, wishful thinking, and biases. I am, you are...we all are. All of our brains are error prone. If you don’t believe me, consider the image below. Which of those two tabletops is longer and thinner than the other?
Did you say the one on the left? Me too. And we’re both wrong. The surface of the table on the left is the exact size and shape as the one on the right. You can take out a ruler and check (I did). It’s an optical illusion that makes our brain see a difference that isn’t really there.
Now, you may object that this is an artificial image created by psychologists to fool us, and doesn’t apply to everyday life. So, here’s an image you might see in the real world--a few sunbeams at the end of the day. Here’s a question: Are those sunbeams diverging from each other, or are they parallel?
They’re obviously diverging, right? Wrong. Sunbeams (or crepuscular rays as scientists call them) are as parallel as a set of train tracks, because the sun is large and far away. They only seem to diverge, for the same reason train tracks do--perspective. If you look at crepuscular rays from space, you’ll see that they’re quite parallel.
Just as there are optical illusions, there are “cognitive illusions” which can derail thinking the way optical illusions derail vision. Consider this simple math problem: If a ball and a bat cost $1.10 together, and the bat costs $1.00 more than the ball, how much is the ball? Take a second to think about it.
Did you say ten cents? I did, and I was wrong. If the ball cost 10 cents, and the bat costs a dollar more than the ball, then the bat would cost $1.10. But the bat and ball together only cost $1.10. The correct answer is that the bat costs $1.05, and the ball costs 5 cents (there’s been some inflation since this puzzle was invented). Most people try to solve this problem by taking the mental shortcut of subtracting $1.00 from the total price to get the price of the ball, without thinking the problem through. We all use such shortcuts (called heuristics) all the time. Sometimes they work just fine, but other times they don’t.
The point is that our minds can deceive us when it comes to reasoning as well as perception. That’s why we need to be taught critical thinking skills. Unfortunately, most of us weren’t. I wasn’t--not in any systematic way--so I didn’t know much about this topic until I started researching it. How about you? Do you know the basic terminology of reasoning? Do you, for example, know the difference between an inductive argument and a deductive argument? Can you spot a valid deductive argument? Consider this silly little syllogism:
If lizards play fiddles, then frogs dance jigs.
Lizards play fiddles.
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Therefore, frogs dance jigs.
Is that a valid argument? Yes, it is. It just isn’t true. There’s a difference between validity and truth which most people don’t know about. I certainly never learned it in high school. That’s really my point here. I’m guessing that most readers don’t know exactly what “inductive”, “deductive”, and “valid” mean, because I didn’t know what they meant either until recently. If I’ve successfully pointed out flaws in your perception, reasoning, or knowledge, it’s because I want to convince you that everyone has them, including you and me. Luckily, most people can also learn to overcome them, or at least push back against them, by learning better critical thinking skills.
But what does “critical thinking” even mean? Isn’t that one of those buzzy catchphrases that politicians and education gurus like to throw around because it sounds good? Unfortunately it can be. And that’s a shame, because critical thinking is a real set of solid, useful skills that’s been studied for years by philosophers, psychologists, and educators. In fact, one of the main skills you need to be a good critical thinker is to define terms precisely. So let’s take a closer look at what critical thinking actually is, and why it’s about more than just thinking.
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