Inquiry: A New Paradigm for Critical Thinking

Windsor, Canada: Windsor Studies in Argumentation (2018)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

This volume reflects the development and theoretical foundation of a new paradigm for critical thinking based on inquiry. The field of critical thinking, as manifested in the Informal Logic movement, developed primarily as a response to the inadequacies of formalism to represent actual argumentative practice and to provide useful argumentative skills to students. Because of this, the primary focus of the field has been on informal arguments rather than formal reasoning. Yet the formalist history of the field is still evident in its emphasis, with respect to both theory and pedagogy, on the structure and evaluation of individual, de-contextualized arguments. It is our view that such a view of critical thinking is excessively narrow and limited, failing to provide an understanding of argumentation as largely a matter of comparative evaluation of a variety of contending positions and arguments with the goal of reaching a reasoned judgment on an issue. As a consequence, traditional critical thinking instruction is problematic in failing to provide the reasoning skills that students need in order to accomplish this goal. Instead, the goal of critical thinking instruction has been seen largely as a defensive one: of learning to not fall prey to invalid, inadequate, or fallacious arguments.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,593

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

When Informal Logic Met Critical Thinking.Dr Ralph H. Johnson - 2012 - Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines 27 (3):5-14.
On Critical Thinking and Logic.Ming-hui Xiong - 2006 - Modern Philosophy 2:114-119.
When Informal Logic Met Critical Thinking.Ralph H. Johnson - 2012 - Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines 27 (3):5-14.
Critical Thinking: Teaching and Assessing It.Alec Fisher - 2014 - Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines 29 (1):4-16.
Questions about Critical Thinking.Lori Richter - 2011 - Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines 26 (2):37-43.
Critical Thinking in the Literature Classroom, Part I: Making Critical Thinking Visible.Amanda Hiner - 2013 - Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines 28 (1):26-35.

Analytics

Added to PP
2018-12-07

Downloads
85 (#182,120)

6 months
1 (#1,040,386)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Mark Battersby
Capilano University

References found in this work

Thinking, Fast and Slow.Daniel Kahneman - 2011 - New York: New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Reason, truth, and history.Hilary Putnam - 1981 - New York: Cambridge University Press.
The Enigma of Reason.Dan Sperber & Hugo Mercier (eds.) - 2017 - Cambridge, MA, USA: Harvard University Press.

View all 166 references / Add more references