Foundations in Critical Thinking

Foundations in Critical Thinking

Foundations is a “mini course” in critical thinking, information literacy, and science literacy. Although the posts are intended to be read in order, feel free to jump around based on your interests. Stay tuned for more…

Important: If you’re new to Thinking Is Power, make sure you Start Here!

Latest Posts

Thinking Critically About Experts (And Poison Ivy)

Foundations

A debate about poison ivy highlights the need for expertise when navigating complex issues and the importance of evaluating experts.

Give Science Denial the FLICC

Science’s Pretenders

Learn the techniques of science denial (summarized by FLICC) and protect yourself from being fooled.

How to Speak Science

Science

Scientists use many of the same words as the public but that have different meanings. Here’s an easy guide to understanding science speak.

Part 1: Believing and Knowing

Why do you believe what you believe? Do you know what you think you know? Better thinking starts with understanding the irrational ways we form beliefs and how knowing is different than believing.

Think of something you believe is true and ask these six questions: How sure are you that the belief is true? What is the source of the belief? What are your reasons for believing it's true? How could you figure out if it's true? How would you feel if you were wrong? What evidence would change your mind?

Is what you believe true? Use these 6 questions to find out

Believe Personal experiences, emotions, geography, repetition, tribe, trust

The Surprising Ways We Form Beliefs

Theory of knowledge says knowledge is a justified true belief, but knowledge requires uncertainty

Is Certainty Keeping You From True Knowledge?

Part 2: Skepticism

Skepticism is proportioning your beliefs to the evidence. It gets a bad rap, but it’s one of the best ways to discover the truth and avoid being fooled.

Thinking Is Power FLOATER, Stay afloat in a sea of misinformation

FLOATER: A Tool-Kit for Evaluating Claims

Haunted house at night with ghost, skepticism is a tool that protects us from being fooled

How Skepticism Can Protect You From Being Fooled

Person asking Can I prove my belief wrong? Has two outstretched hands with one that says falsifiable and the other unfalsifiable.

Why trying to prove yourself wrong is the key to being right

A UFO with aliens making a crop circle in a field

The Power of Alternative Explanations

Is A Claim True? Use These 4 Criteria To Evaluate The Evidence

Part 3: Don’t Trust Yourself

Richard Feynman famously said, “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.” Better thinking requires that we recognize the limits of our knowledge and the ways we deceive ourselves.

A group of people using personal experiences and anecdotes as evidence, including I know what I saw, it worked for me, I took it and I felt better, my experience is my proof, it's my truth, and I'll believe it when I see it

Four Ways Your Personal Experiences Can Lead You Astray

Why facts don't change our minds, ostrich with head in the sand, motivated reasoning, confirmation bias, and cognitive dissonance

The Person Who Lies To You The Most… Is You

The blind men and the elephant: Is perception reality?

Dunning-Kruger effect and overconfidence, man sawing off branch he's standing on

Overconfident Idiots: Why Incompetence Breeds Certainty

Part 4: Good Thinking

Just because you think doesn’t mean you’re good at it. Autopilot thinking is error-prone yet overconfident. Better thinking is hard work….it requires training and practice. But it’s empowering!

Are You A Critical Thinker?

An elephant and rider inside a mind with the question who's in control of your mind? System 1 and System 2 thinking fast and slow.

Should You Trust Your Intuition?

Argument with two people yelling at each other

Four steps to arguing better

Teacher standing in front of chalkboard that says logical fallacies

Guide to the Most Common Logical Fallacies

Guide to the Most Common Cognitive Biases and Heuristics

Part 5: Information Literacy

We are biased and irrational in a world full of misinformation. Since information affects our thoughts and decisions…and even our very perception of reality…it’s essential that the information we consume is reliable.

Shown is a woman in a lab coat taking blood from a man. She says "Relax! I'm a plant ecologist." And he replied, "Maybe I should've checked her qualifications more closely.

Thinking Critically About Experts (And Poison Ivy)

Don’t be fooled… fact check!

Woman with a force field protecting her from misinformation because of a healthy mental immune system.

How to inoculate yourself against misinformation

A person at a keyboard thinking I want the truth, so I'm going to do my own research. Then they search for what they already believe is true, which is confirmation bias.

The problem with “doing your own research”

How to do your own research

Journalism: What it is and why it matters

Part 6: Science

Science is the most reliable method of understanding objective reality. Understanding what science is and how it works can help us make better decisions.

Shown is a science textbook that says what everyone needs to know about how science works and why most of what you learned is wrong.

Science: What it is, how it works, and why it matters

Addressing common science misconceptions

Addressing common misconceptions about science

How to Speak Science

Part 7: Science’s Pretenders

Science’s pretenders misuse science to justify our irrational and biased beliefs. It portrays itself as scientific but doesn’t adhere to science’s method. Learn to spot the difference to avoid being fooled!