What is critical thinking

1. CRITICAL THINKING
• PARTS OF AN ARGUMENT
• RECOGNIZING ARGUMENTS

2. WELCOME!
•In this unit we will cover:
•Parts of an argument—
premises/conclusions
•How to recognize parts of an argument
•How to recognize arguments generally

3. REVIEW: WHAT IS CRITICAL THINKING?
• Critical thinking: means “carefully exploring the
thinking process to clarify our understanding
and make more intelligent decisions” (Chaffee
2019).
• FIRST: That means not accepting what we’re
told.
• In other words: it means challenging the ideas
and arguments that others want us to believe
• It means demanding that others give us good
reasons to believe what they want us to believe,
and refusing to believe others until we receive
such “proof”
• First and foremost, critical thinking means
doubt, questioning, challenging authority
• SECOND: Critical thinking means challenging
our own deeply held beliefs about the world
and ourselves
• In other words: we need to always ask
ourselves: “Do I have good, rational
reasons to believe what I believe—about
society, about life, about others?”
• THIRD: Critical thinking means searching
for the truth for ourselves
• In other words: We need to seek out
what’s true—what is supported by good
reasons

4. REVIEW: WHY DOES CRITICAL THINKING MATTER?
• So that we’re not robots just doing what others tell us to do, and believing what
others tell us to believe
• Critical thinking, above all, means thinking for ourselves, and not letting others do the
thinking and deciding for us
• In other words: critical thinking is essential to living a free human life—a life where we find
the truth for ourselves, instead of just following orders

5. THE BASIC TOOL OF CRITICAL THINKING IS THE
ARGUMENT
• Normally, we might think that an “argument” is
a fight with other people
• And normally we might think that that’s
impolite.
• But when we’re talking about “critical thinking,”
we’re using the word in a very technical way.
• An argument is “[a]form of thinking in which
certain statements (reasons) are offered in
support of another statement (a conclusion).”
• Critical thinking means only believing others
when they give good “arguments”—in other
words, when
they support the thing they want us to believe with
rational and relevant reasons for believing it.
• And critical thinking means examining others’
arugments to see if we should believe them.
• Finally, critical thinking means being able to
construct our own good arguments, which can
show us what is true and what isn’t.
• So to sum up: critical thinking means:
• Recognizing arguments
• Analyzing arguments
• Constructing arguments

6. WHAT ARE THE PARTS OF AN ARGUMENT?
• Every argument has two parts, which were just
mentioned in the definition a couple slides ago
• An argument is made up of a “conclusion” and
of at least one “premise.”
• A conclusion is “a statement that explains,
asserts, or predicts on the basis of statements
that are offered as evidence for it” (Chaffeee
2019).
• In other words a conclusion is the main thing
that someone is trying to convince you is
true—it’s the “point” someone is trying to
make.
• A premise is a reason given to try to convince us that a
conclusion is true. Premises are the reasons or “proof”
that someone offers to try to show that we should
believe their conclusion.
• IMPORTANT POINT: For something to be an argument,
it must have BOTH a conclusions AND at least one
premise. If something doesn’t have BOTH, it is not an
argument!

7. AN EXAMPLE …
“Philosophy is a wonderful subject, because it
teaches you to see the world in new and exciting
ways.”
• This is an argument.
• It has both a conclusion—the main thing it’s trying to
convince us of—and a premise.
• Before clicking forward, can you find the conclusion—
the main point that this person is trying to convince you
of?
• The conclusion is: “Philosophy is a
wonderful subject.”
• The premise is “It teaches you to see the
world in new and exciting ways.”
• The premise gives us a REASON or “proof” for
why we should believe the conclusion

8. AN ARGUMENT IS AN ARGUMENT REGARDLESS OF
HOW GOOD OR CONVINCING IT IS
• Remember, the technical definition of an argument is:
• A statement with a conclusion—a main point someone wants us to believe—
supported by at least one premise, or supporting reason
• Something is an argument even if it’s a BAD argument.

9. LET’S LOOK AT SOME EXAMPLES

10. “We should have therapy dogs
on campus. That’s because they
could help students to
concentrate.”
What’s the conclusion here? What’s the
MAIN thing this person is trying to convince us
of?
The conclusion is: “We should have therapy
dogs on campus.”
What premise is given? In other words, what
reasons is this person giving to try to convince
us of the conclusion?
The premise is: “They [therapy dogs] could
help students to concentrate.”

11. LET’S GET A LITTLE MORE COMPLEX
• So far, we’ve only been looking at arguments with ONE conclusion and ONE
premise.
• But arguments can have LOTS of premises. Let’s look at another example.

12. “We should have therapy dogs
on campus. That’s because they
could help students to
concentrate. And moreover,
they could help students deal
with the huge amount of anxiety
that comes from being a
student.”
What’s the conclusion here? What’s the
MAIN thing this person is trying to convince us
of?
Remember, the conclusion is still: “We
should have therapy dogs on campus.”
The FIRST premise is: “They [therapy dogs]
could help students to concentrate.”
But there’s another premise too.
The SECOND premise is: “They could help
students deal with the huge amount of anxiety
that comes from being a student.”

13. HOW DO YOU IDENTIFY PREMISES AND
CONCLUSIONS?
• It’s really, really important to be able to tell what’s a conclusion and what’s a
premise.
• That’s because we need to see how an argument is working before we can tell if
it’s a good one we should agree with, or a bad one we should reject.
(Remember, we’re trying to not be robots; we’re trying to think for ourselves, so
we need to be able to analyze and challenge other people’s arguments to see if
they’re good or not.)
• It can be a bit confusing to find premises and conclusions, though.
• Here’s a tip. There are certain words that can be used to say, “Here’s a
conclusion” and “Here’s a premise!” This doesn’t always work, but it’s helpful.

14. PREMISE AND CONCLUSION “INDICATORS” ARE HELPFUL TOOLS
FOR IDENTIFYING PARTS OF AN ARGUMENT
• (Chaffee 2019)

15. PREMISE AND CONCLUSION “INDICATORS” ARE HELPFUL TOOLS
FOR IDENTIFYING PARTS OF AN ARGUMENT
• (Chaffee 2019)

16. USING THESE “INDICATORS”
• Using these indicators CAN help you see what’s a “premise” and what’s a
“conclusion”
• But they won’t ALWAYS be there to help you.
• Let’s take a look at a few examples.

17. “Dogs can learn tricks. Therefore dogs
are intelligent.”
This is an argument.
Can you tell what the “conclusion” is and
what the “premise” is? Use your
indicators.
The conclusion is “Dogs are intelligent.”
There’s an indicator to help you:
“Therefore …” That tells you you’re
getting a conclusion.
What’s the “premise” though? There’s
no indicator for that.
The premise is “Dogs can learn tricks.”
This is the reason or proof being
provided to prove the conclusion.

18. OK, LET’S PRACTICE A BIT MORE:
• Let’s try to find the premises and conclusions in the following arguments.
• REMEMBER: to be an ARGUMENT, something must have BOTH a conclusion AND
a premise!
• If it doesn’t have BOTH, it’s NOT an argument and should NOT be believed!

19. EXAMPLE: “Dogs are affectionate.
Affectionate animals make good
pets. Therefore dogs make good
pets.”
BEFORE you click—try to figure out
for yourself what the conclusion is
and what the premise is or premises
are.
EXAMPLE: “Dogs can alert people to
intruders. Dogs can help people to
make friends, too. Therefore everyone
should own a dog.”
BEFORE you click—try to figure out for
yourself what the conclusion is and
what the premise is or premises are.
Conclusion: Dogs are intelligent
Premise 1: Affectionate animals make
good pets
Premise 2: Dogs are affectionate.
Conclusion: “Everyone should own a
dog.”
Premise 1: “Dogs can alert people to
intruders.”
Premise 2: “Dogs can help people to
make friends.”

20. Try this one now. Find the premises
and conclusion.
“Dogs are beautiful. And so are cats.”
WAIT!
This one doesn’t actually have
premises and conclusion.
Neither of these statements is trying to
“prove” the other one is correct.
“Dogs are beautiful” doesn’t help show
that cats are too. And “So are cats”
doesn’t help prove dogs are beautiful.
This is NOT an argument.
It doesn’t have a premise or
premises.
It doesn’t have a conclusion.

21. THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN AN ARGUMENT AND A
NON-ARGUMENT
• REMEMBER!
• For something to be an argument, it must have BOTH a conclusion AND at least
one premise!
• So let’s take a look at some more examples. Try to tell the difference between
arguments and non-arguments.

22. EXAMPLE: “Nike: just do it.”
EXAMPLE: “Wear Nike shoes.
Because they’ll make you cooler if you
do.”
Yes this is an argument.
Conclusion: “Wear Nike shoes.”
Premise: “They’ll make you cooler if
you do.”
No, this is not an argument. There is
no “premise” trying to prove a
conclusion is true.
EXAMPLE: “America: love it or leave
it.”
No, this is not an argument. There is
no “premise” trying to prove a
conclusion is true.

23. IMPORTANT NOTE
• One more thing.
• All premises, and all conclusion, must be FULL sentences.
• That’s because premises are “claims.” They assert some kind of reason or proof, to try to prove
the conclusion is true.
• But you can only assert a reason or proof in a full sentence, not in a single word etc.
• Conclusions, too, are “claims.” They assert something as true.
• And you can only assert something as true in a full sentence.
• So when you MAKE YOUR OWN arguments, and when you ANALYZE arguments, remember: ALL
PREMISES and ALL CONCLUSIONS must be FULL SENTENCES

24. SOME MORE PRACTICE

25. CONCLUSION
• So what did we accomplish in this unit?
• We learned:
• What critical thinking is
• Why it matters
• What an “argument” is
• What the parts of an argument are—premises and conclusion
• How to identify premises and conclusions
• How to tell the difference between an argument and a non-argument

26. BIBLIOGRAPHY
• Chaffee, J. (2019). Thinking Critically. 12th ed. Boston: Cengage.