Oklahoma State University – Oklahoma City
Critical Thinking
Lecture Notes Three
PHIL 1313
Fall 2022
Contents: What is critical thinking? (Part Three)
Lecture Notes Three
Critical Thinking Defined by Edward Glaser
In a seminal study on critical thinking and education in 1941, Edward Glaser defines critical thinking as
follows “The ability to think critically, as conceived in this volume, involves three things: ( 1 ) an attitude
of being disposed to consider in a thoughtful way the problems and subjects that come within the range
of one's experiences, (2) knowledge of the methods of logical inquiry and reasoning, and (3) some skill in
applying those methods. Critical thinking calls for a persistent effort to examine any belief or supposed
form of knowledge in the light of the evidence that supports it and the further conclusions to which it
tends. It also generally requires ability to recognize problems, to find workable means for meeting those
problems, to gather and marshal pertinent information, to recognize unstated assumptions and values,
to comprehend and use language with accuracy, clarity, and discrimination, to interpret data, to
appraise evidence and evaluate arguments, to recognize the existence (or non-existence) of logical
relationships between propositions, to draw warranted conclusions and generalizations, to put to test
the conclusions and generalizations at which one arrives, to reconstruct one's patterns of beliefs on the
basis of wider experience, and to render accurate judgments about specific things and qualities in
everyday life.
( Edward M. Glaser, An Experiment in the Development of Critical Thinking, Teacher’s College, Columbia
University, 1941)
Critical thinking might be described as the ability to engage in reflective and independent thinking.
In essence, critical thinking requires you to use your ability to reason. It is about being an active learner
rather than a passive recipient of information.
Critical thinkers rigorously question ideas and assumptions rather than accepting them at face value.
They will always seek to determine whether the ideas, arguments and findings represent the entire
picture and are open to finding that they do not.
