Oklahoma State University – Oklahoma City
Critical Thinking
Lecture Notes One
PHIL 1313
Fall 2022
Contents: What is critical thinking? (Part One)
Lecture Notes One
Critical thinking is a rich concept developing throughout the past 2,500 years. The term "critical
thinking" has roots in the mid-late 20th century. Below, we offer overlapping definitions that form a
substantive and trans-disciplinary conception of critical thinking.
Critical Thinking as Defined by the National Council for Excellence in Critical Thinking, 1987
These are statements made by Michael Scriven & Richard Paul, presented at the 8th Annual
International Conference on Critical Thinking and Education Reform, Summer 1987.
Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying,
analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation,
experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action. Its acceptable form
is based on universal intellectual values that transcend subject matter divisions: clarity, accuracy,
precision, consistency, relevance, sound evidence, good reasons, depth, breadth, and fairness.
Critical thinking — in being responsive to variable subject matter, issues, and purposes — is
incorporated in a family of interwoven modes of thinking, among them: scientific thinking, mathematical
thinking, historical thinking, anthropological thinking, economic thinking, moral thinking, and
philosophical thinking. It entails the examination of those structures or elements of thought implicit in
all reasoning: purpose, problem, or question-at-issue; assumptions; concepts; empirical grounding;
reason leading to conclusions; implications and consequences; objections from alternative viewpoints;
and frame of reference. Critical thinking can be seen as having two components:
a set of information and belief generating and processing skills
the habit, based on intellectual commitment, of using those skills to guide behavior. It is thus to
be contrasted with:
o 1) the mere acquisition and retention of information alone because it involves a
particular way in which information is sought and treated
o 2) the mere possession of a set of skills because it involves the continual use of them
