《ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS》A Guide to Critical Thinking EIGHTH EDITION

Chapter 1 opinions to respond? The book you are about to read contains the best answ we know. You need to build skills and attitudes that will enable you to decide for yourself which opinions to make your own a thoughtful person you must make a choice about how you will react to what you see and hear. One alternative is to just accept whatever you encounter; doing so automatically results in your making someone else's opin ion your own. A more active alternative consists of asking questions in an effort to reach a personal decision about the worth of what you have experienced This book is written for those who prefer the second alternative Critical Thinking to the rescue Listening and reading critically-that is, reacting with systematic evaluation to what you have heard and read--requires a set of skills and attitudes. These skills and attitudes are built around a series of related critical questions. while we will learn them one by one, our goal is to be able to use them together to dentify the best decision available We could have expressed them as a list of things you should do, but a sys- tem of questions is more consistent with the spirit of curiosity, wonder, and intellectual adventure essential to critical thinking Thinking carefully is always an unfinished project, a story looking for an ending that will never arrive. Criti cal questions provide a stimulus and direction for critical thinking; they move us forward toward a continual, ongoing search for better opinions, decisions, or judgments Consequently, critical thinking, as we will use the term, refers to the 1. awareness of a set of interrelated critical questions 2. ability to ask and answer critical questions at appropriate times; and the 3. desire to actively use the critical questions The goal of this book is to encourage you in all three of these dimensions Questions require the person being asked the question to act in response. By our questions, we are saying to the person: I am curious; I want to know more; help me. This request shows respect for the other person. The questions exist to inform and provide direction for all who hear them. In that respect, critical thinking begins with the desire to improve what we think. The point of your questions is that you need help to have a deeper understanding or appreciation what is being said

2 Chapter 1 opinions to respond? The book you are about to read contains the best answer we know. You need to build skills and attitudes that will enable you to decide for yourself which opinions to make your own. As a thoughtful person you must make a choice about how you will react to what you see and hear. One alternative is to just accept whatever you encounter; doing so automatically results in your making someone else's opin￾ion your own. A more active alternative consists of asking questions in an effort to reach a personal decision about the worth of what you have experienced. This book is written for those who prefer the second alternative. Critical Thinking to the Rescue Listening and reading critically—that is, reacting with systematic evaluation to what you have heard and read—requires a set of skills and attitudes. These skills and attitudes are built around a series of related critical questions. While we will learn them one by one, our goal is to be able to use them together to identify the best decision available. We could have expressed them as a list of things you should do, but a sys￾tem of questions is more consistent with the spirit of curiosity, wonder, and intellectual adventure essential to critical thinking. Thinking carefully is always an unfinished project, a story looking for an ending that will never arrive. Criti￾cal questions provide a stimulus and direction for critical thinking; they move us forward toward a continual, ongoing search for better opinions, decisions, or judgments. Consequently, critical thinking, as we will use the term, refers to the following: 1. awareness of a set of interrelated critical questions; 2. ability to ask and answer critical questions at appropriate times; and the 3. desire to actively use the critical questions. The goal of this book is to encourage you in all three of these dimensions. Questions require the person being asked the question to act in response. By our questions, we are saying to the person: I am curious; I want to know more; help me. This request shows respect for the other person. The questions exist to inform and provide direction for all who hear them. In that respect, critical thinking begins with the desire to improve what we think. The point of your questions is that you need help to have a deeper understanding or appreciation of what is being said

The Benefit of Asking the Right Questions 3 The critical questions will be shared with you one question at a time. As a package, they will be useful whenever you choose to react to what you are earing or reading. They are also useful in improving your own writing and speaking because they will assist you when you 1. react critically to an essay or to evidence presented in a textbook a periodical, or on a Web site 2. judge the quality of a lecture or speech; 4. write an essay based on a reading assignment; or 5. participate in class Attention: Critical thinking consists of an awareness of a set of interre- lated critical questions, plus the ability and less to ask and answer them at appropriate times. As a citizen and consumer, you should find them especially helpful in shap- ing your voting behavior and your purchasing decisions, as well as in improving your self-confidence by increasing your sense of intellectual independence The Sponge and Panning for Gold: Alternative Thinking Styles One approach to thinking is similar to the way in which a sponge reacts to water: by absorbing. This commonly used approach has some clear advantages First, the more information you absorb about the world, the more capa- ble you are of understanding its complexities. Knowledge you have acquired provides a foundation for more complicated thinking later. A second advantage of the sponge approach is that it is relatively passive Rather than requiring strenuous mental effort, it tends to be rather quick and asy,especially when the material is presented in a clear and interesting fash ion. The primary mental effort involves concentration and memory a thoughtful person, the sponge approach has a serious disadvantage: Itp.8 While absorbing information provides a productive start toward bece pr vides no method for deciding which information and opinions to believe and which to reject. If a reader relied on the sponge approach all the time, he would believe whatever he read last. The idea of being the mental puppet of whomever one happens to encounter is horrible imagery for a person and a community. Decisions become accidents of association, instead of reflective judgmen

The Benefit of Asking the Right Questions 3 The critical questions will be shared with you one question at a time. As a package, they will be useful whenever you choose to react to what you are hearing or reading. They are also useful in improving your own writing and speaking because they will assist you when you: 1. react critically to an essay or to evidence presented in a textbook, a periodical, or on a Web site; 2. judge the quality of a lecture or speech; 3. form an argument; 4. write an essay based on a reading assignment; or 5. participate in class. Attention: Critical thinking consists of an awareness of a set of interre￾lated critical questions, plus the ability and willingness to ask and answer them at appropriate times. As a citizen and consumer, you should find them especially helpful in shap￾ing your voting behavior and your purchasing decisions, as well as in improving your self-confidence by increasing your sense of intellectual independence. The Sponge and Panning for Gold: Alternative Thinking Styles One approach to thinking is similar to the way in which a sponge reacts to water: by absorbing. This commonly used approach has some clear advantages. First, the more information you absorb about the world, the more capa￾ble you are of understanding its complexities. Knowledge you have acquired provides a foundation for more complicated thinking later. A second advantage of the sponge approach is that it is relatively passive. Rather than requiring strenuous mental effort, it tends to be rather quick and easy, especially when the material is presented in a clear and interesting fash￾ion. The primary mental effort involves concentration and memory. While absorbing information provides a productive start toward becoming a thoughtful person, the sponge approach has a serious disadvantage: It pro￾vides no method for deciding which information and opinions to believe and which to reject. If a reader relied on the sponge approach all the time, he would believe whatever he read last. The idea of being the mental puppet of whomever one happens to encounter is horrible imagery for a person and a community. Decisions become accidents of association, instead of reflective judgments

Chapter 1 We think you would rather choose for yourself what to absorb and what to ignore. To make this choice, you must read with a special attitude-a question- asking attitude. Such a thinking style requires active participation. The writer is trying to speak to you, and you should try to talk back to him, even though he IS not present. We call this interactive approach the panning-for gold style of thinking The process of panning for gold provides a model for active readers and listeners as they try to determine the worth of what they read and hear. The task is challenging and sometimes tedious, but the reward can be tremendous To distinguish the gold from the gravel in a conversation requires you to ask frequent questions and to reflect on the answers The sponge approach emphasizes knowledge acquisition; the panning for-gold approach stresses active interaction with knowledge as it is be acquired. Thus, the two approaches complement each other. To pan for intellectual gold, there must be something in your pan to evaluate. In addition to evaluate arguments, we must possess knowledge, dependable opinions Let us examine more closely how the two approaches lead to different behavior. What does the individual who takes the sponge approach do when he reads material? He reads sentences carefully, trying to remember as much as he can. He may underline or highlight key words and sentences. He may take notes summarizing the major topics and major points. He checks his underlining or notes to be sure that he is not forgetting anything important. His mission is to find and understand what the author has to say He memo rizes the reasoning, but doesn't evaluate it What does the reader who takes the panning -for-gold approach do? Like the person using the sponge approach, he approaches his reading with le hope that he will acquire new knowledge. There the similarity ends. The panning-for-gold approach requires that the reader asks himself a number of questions designed to uncover the best available decisions or beliefs Exhibit 1.1 MENTAL CHECK: Am Panning for Gold V Did I ask"why"someone wants me to believe something? V Did I take notes as I thought about potential problems with what as being sat V Did i evaluate what was being said V Did I form my own conclusion about the topic?

4 Chapter 1 We think you would rather choose for yourself what to absorb and what to ignore. To make this choice, you must read with a special attitude—a question￾asking attitude. Such a thinking style requires active participation. The writer is trying to speak to you, and you should try to talk back to him, even though he is not present. We call this interactive approach the panning-for-gold style of thinking. The process of panning for gold provides a model for active readers and listeners as they try to determine the worth of what they read and hear. The task is challenging and sometimes tedious, but the reward can be tremendous. To distinguish the gold from the gravel in a conversation requires you to ask frequent questions and to reflect on the answers. The sponge approach emphasizes knowledge acquisition; the panning￾for-gold approach stresses active interaction with knowledge as it is being acquired. Thus, the two approaches complement each other. To pan for intellectual gold, there must be something in your pan to evaluate. In addition, to evaluate arguments, we must possess knowledge, dependable opinions. Let us examine more closely how the two approaches lead to different behavior. What does the individual who takes the sponge approach do when he reads material? He reads sentences carefully, trying to remember as much as he can. He may underline or highlight key words and sentences. He may take notes summarizing the major topics and major points. He checks his underlining or notes to be sure that he is not forgetting anything important. His mission is to find and understand what the author has to say. He memo￾rizes the reasoning, but doesn't evaluate it. What does the reader who takes the panning-for-gold approach do? Like the person using the sponge approach, he approaches his reading with the hope that he will acquire new knowledge. There the similarity ends. The panning-for-gold approach requires that the reader asks himself a number of questions designed to uncover the best available decisions or beliefs. Exhibit 1.1 MENTAL CHECK: Am I Panning for Gold? / Did I ask "why" someone wants me to believe something? / Did I take notes as I thought about potential problems with what was being said? / Did I evaluate what was being said? y Did I form my own conclusion about the topic?

The Benefit of Asking the right Questions 5 The reader who uses the panning -for-gold approach frequently ques- tions why the author makes various claims. He writes notes to himself in the margins indicating problems with the reasoning. He continually interacts with the material. His intent is to critically evaluate the material and formulat ersonal conclusions based on the evaluation An Example of the Panning-for- Gold Approach A major enduring issue in American society concerns what kind of gun con- trol laws we need. Let's look at one position on this issue. Try to decide whether the argument is convincing Arguments for banning guns are mostly myths, and what we need now is not laws, but more law enforcement. One myth is that most murderers are ordinary, law-abiding citizens who kill a relative or acquaintance in a moment of nger only because a gun is available. In fact, every study of homicide shows the histories of violence. The typical murderer has a prior criminal history averaging at least six years, with four major felony arrests Another myth is that gun owners are ignorant rednecks given to senseless vio- lence. However, studies consistently show that, on the average, gun owners are better educated and have more prestigious jobs than non-owners. To judge by their applications for permits to carry guns at all times, the following are (or were)gun owners: Eleanor Roosevelt, Joan Rivers, Donald Trump, and David Rockefeller A further myth is that guns are not useful for self-defense. On the contrary Every study has shown that handguns are used more often in repelling crimes than in committing them. While handguns are used in about 581, 000 crimes yearly, they are used to repel about 645,000 crimes Even if gun laws do potentially reduce gun-related crime, the present laws are all hat are needed if they are enforced. what good would stronger laws do when he courts have demonstrated that they will not enforce them? If you apply the sponge approach to the passage, you probably will try to remember the reasons that we don' t need further controls on guns. If so, you will have absorbed some knowledge. However, how convinced should you be by the above reasons? You can't evaluate them until you have applied the pan- for-gold approach to the passage-that is, until you have asked the right

The Benefit of Asking the Right Questions 5 The reader who uses the panning-for-gold approach frequently ques￾tions why the author makes various claims. He writes notes to himself in the margins indicating problems with the reasoning. He continually interacts with the material. His intent is to critically evaluate the material and formulate personal conclusions based on the evaluation. An Example of the Panning-for-Gold Approach A major enduring issue in American society concerns what kind of gun con￾trol laws we need. Let's look at one position on this issue. Try to decide whether the argument is convincing. Arguments for banning guns are mostly myths, and what we need now is not more laws, but more law enforcement. One myth is that most murderers are ordinary, law-abiding citizens who kill a relative or acquaintance in a moment of anger only because a gun is available. In fact, every study of homicide shows the overwhelming majority of murderers are career criminals, people with lifelong histories of violence. The typical murderer has a prior criminal history averaging at least six years, with four major felony arrests. Another myth is that gun owners are ignorant rednecks given to senseless vio￾lence. However, studies consistently show that, on the average, gun owners are better educated and have more prestigious jobs than non-owners. To judge by their applications for permits to carry guns at all times, the following are (or were) gun owners: Eleanor Roosevelt, Joan Rivers, Donald Trump, and David Rockefeller. A further myth is that guns are not useful for self-defense. On the contrary! Every study has shown that handguns are used more often in repelling crimes than in committing them. While handguns are used in about 581,000 crimes yearly, they are used to repel about 645,000 crimes. Even if gun laws do potentially reduce gun-related crime, the present laws are all that are needed if they are enforced. What good would stronger laws do when the courts have demonstrated that they will not enforce them? If you apply the sponge approach to the passage, you probably will try to remember the reasons that we don't need further controls on guns. If so, you will have absorbed some knowledge. However, how convinced should you be by the above reasons? You can't evaluate them until you have applied the pan￾ning-for-gold approach to the passage—that is, until you have asked the right questions

By asking the right questions, you would discover a number weaknesses in the communicator's arguments. For instance, you might be concerned about all of the following What does the author mean by"overwhelming majority"or by"typical murderer"? Is the minority still a substantial number of murderers who kill relatives in a moment of anger What does"gun owners"mean? Are they the ones who buy the kind of guns that gun control advocates are trying to ban? 3. How adequate were the cited research studies? Were the samples suffi- ciently large, random, and diverse? 4. Has the author lied with statistics by impressing us with large, rather precise numbers, like 581,000 and 645,000? What is the basis for these numbers? Can we rely on them? 5. What possible benefits of gun control are not mentioned? Have impor- tant studies that disagree with the author's position been omitted? 6. Is it legitimate to assume that because some famous people own guns, then owning guns is desirable? Do these people have special expertise oncerning the pros and cons of gun ownership? 7. How many people are killed each year by handguns who would not have been killed were such guns not available? 8. Why did the person writing the essay fail to explain how we could encourage better enforcement of existing gun control laws to demonstrate his sensitivity to the harm that guns sometimes facilitate? If you would enjoy asking these kinds of questions, this book is especially for you. Its primary purpose is to help you know when and how to ask ques- tions that will enable you to decide what to believe The most important characteristic of the panning-for-gold approach is interactive involvement-a dialogue between the writer and the reader, or the speaker and the listener Clearly, there are times when the sponge approach is appropriate Most of you have used it regularly and have acquired some level of success with it. It is much less likely that you are in the habit of employing the pan- ing-for-gold approach-in part, simply because you have not had the appropriate training and practice. This book will not only help you ask ight questions, but will also provide frequent opportunities for practic their use

6 Chapter 1 By asking the right questions, you would discover a number of possible weaknesses in the communicator's arguments. For instance, you might be concerned about all of the following: 1. What does the author mean by "overwhelming majority" or by "typical murderer"? Is the minority still a substantial number of murderers who kill relatives in a moment of anger? 2. What does "gun owners" mean? Are they the ones who buy the kind of guns that gun control advocates are trying to ban? 3. How adequate were the cited research studies? Were the samples suffi￾ciently large, random, and diverse? 4. Has the author lied with statistics by impressing us with large, rather precise numbers, like 581,000 and 645,000? What is the basis for these numbers? Can we rely on them? 5. What possible benefits of gun control are not mentioned? Have impor￾tant studies that disagree with the author's position been omitted? 6. Is it legitimate to assume that because some famous people own guns, then owning guns is desirable? Do these people have special expertise concerning the pros and cons of gun ownership? 7. How many people are killed each year by handguns who would not have been killed were such guns not available? 8. Why did the person writing the essay fail to explain how we could encourage better enforcement of existing gun control laws to demonstrate his sensitivity to the harm that guns sometimes facilitate? If you would enjoy asking these kinds of questions, this book is especially for you. Its primary purpose is to help you know when and how to ask ques￾tions that will enable you to decide what to believe. The most important characteristic of the panning-for-gold approach is interactive involvement—a dialogue between the writer and the reader, or the speaker and the listener. Clearly, there are times when the sponge approach is appropriate. Most of you have used it regularly and have acquired some level of success with it. It is much less likely that you are in the habit of employing the pan￾ning-for-gold approach—in part, simply because you have not had the appropriate training and practice. This book will not only help you ask the right questions, but will also provide frequent opportunities for practicing their use