Critical Thinking Skills For Dummies

Chapter 1

Entering the Exciting World of Critical Thinking

In This Chapter

Getting the big picture on thinking skills

Picking up cool tips for problem solving

Steering clear of common misconceptions

There goes another beautiful theory about to be murdered by a brutal gang of facts.

—François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, French writer and moralist (1613–1680)

Critical Thinking is about pressing points, sniffing a bit more sceptically at issues and generally looking more closely at everything. Not only at factual claims but also, and most importantly, at the ways in which people arrive at their views and ideas.

Harrumph, you may think! Why bother? Good question! I've failed plenty of job interviews in my time by being a Critical Thinker. Equally, the world has no shortage of successful people who scrupulously avoid any appearance of not only thinking critically, but thinking full-stop. My short answer is that being a Critical Thinker is still the best kind of thinker to be, even if it does sometimes mean that you're the odd one out on many issues.

In this chapter I provide an overview of Critical Thinking and what you can find in the rest of this book. I'll also cover the importance ...