Exam 1: Becoming a Critical Thinker

The human mind is capable of much more than passively receiving and storing information. It has the potential to seek out and evaluate ideas, use them to solve problems, resolve issues, and meet everyday challenges. In a word, the human mind has the potential for .

The principle of contradiction applies whenever opposing statements make exactly assertions.

A statement cannot be both true and false at the same time and in the same way. This statement represents what principle?

When one idea is expressed, closely related ideas are simultaneously conveyed, logically and inescapably. In addition to conveying ideas closely linked to it in meaning, an idea can imply other ideas. How do ideas link to other ideas?

To be a , you will need to develop the habit of testing opinions......your own as well as others.....before trusting them.

the opinion is a technique for evaluating opinions by taking the exact opposite of the opinion and determining if a case can be made for it.

The author tells us that the foundation of thinking are .

When we are checking facts and testing opinions, the strategy of "thinking of exceptions" is an approach that entails identifying and examining related ideas suggested by the opinion.

According to the author, intelligence isn't just something we have. It is, more importantly, something we do.

As used in critical thinking, the term refers only to matters of judgment, not to matters of taste or personal preference.

Another reason that facts and opinions can be difficult to distinguish is that opinions are often stated as if they were facts.

According to the author, "thinking" is defined as:

Whenever you are tempted to deny a fair hearing on unfamiliar or opposing ideas, remind yourself that examining an idea begins with embracing the idea.

When checking facts and testing opinions, we should never depend upon everyday experience as an adequate indicator.

When checking facts and testing opinions, one way to recognize that an opinion is flawed is to observe that it leads to unintended, and sometimes undesired, consequences. This method of testing opinions is called _.

According to the text, there are three broad dimensions of thinking; what are they?

_, as we define it in this book, is a purposeful mental activity.

The author tells us that distinguishing facts from opinions can be difficult for all the following reasons except:

According to the author, American philosopher George Santayana observed that "people are usually more firmly convinced that their opinions are precious than they are true." The author goes on to say that "if you reflect on the skeptical views of opinions, you will appreciate that they underline an important reality-not all opinions are equally sound. Some are wise, others are foolish, and most fall somewhere between the two extremes." If the author is correct and opinions are somewhere between wise and foolish, then why are they so precious to each of us?

According to the author, we must check facts and test opinions about an issue because sometimes people misstate them. The author lists several ways of checking facts and testing opinions. All of the following are ways of checking facts and testing opinions, except: