Critical Thinking Terms H - J

Question 1

Learning by thinking-through the logic of disciplines, by thinking-through the foundations, justification, implications, and value of facts, principles, skills, concepts, issues; learning so as to deeply understand.

Answer 1

HIGHER-ORDER LEARNING

Question 2

The qualities common to all people. People have both a primary and a secondary nature.

Answer 2

HUMAN NATURE

Question 3

Anything existing in the mind as an object of knowledge or thought;

Answer 3

IDEA (CONCEPT)

Question 4

A claim or truth that follows from other claims or truths.

Answer 4

IMPLICATION

Question 5

A step of the mind, an intellectual act by which one concludes that something is so, in light of something else’s being so or seeming to be so.

Answer 5

INFERENCE

Question 6

Statements, statistics, data, facts, diagrams gathered in any way, as by reading, observation, or hearsay.

Answer 6

INFORMATION

Question 7

The ability to see and understand clearly and deeply the inner nature of things.

Answer 7

INSIGHT

Question 8

Having rational control of one’s beliefs, values, and inferences.

The ideal of critical thinking is to learn to think for oneself, to gain command over one’s thought processes.

Answer 8

INTELLECTUAL AUTONOMY

Question 9

A commitment to take others seriously as thinkers, to treat them as intellectual equals, to grant respect and full attention to their views—a commitment to persuade rather than browbeat.

Answer 9

INTELLECTUAL CIVILITY

Question 10

Willingness to face and fairly assess ideas, beliefs, or viewpoints to which we have not given a serious hearing, regardless of our strong negative reactions to them; arises from the recognition that ideas considered dangerous or absurd are sometimes rationally justified, in whole or in part, and that conclusions or beliefs that those around us espouse or inculcate in us are sometimes false or misleading.

Answer 10

INTELLECTUAL COURAGE

Question 11

A strong desire to deeply understand, to figure out things, to propose and assess useful and plausible hypotheses and explanations, to learn, to find out.

Answer 11

INTELLECTUAL CURIOSITY

Question 12

The trait of thinking in accordance with intellectual standards, intellectual rigor, carefulness, order, conscious control.

Answer 12

INTELLECTUAL DISCIPLINE

Question 13

Understanding the need to put oneself imaginatively in the place of others to genuinely understand them. We must recognize our egocentric tendency to identify truth with our immediate perceptions or longstanding beliefs.

Answer 13

INTELLECTUAL EMPATHY

Question 14

Awareness of the limits of one’s knowledge, including sensitivity to circumstances in which one’s native egocentrism is likely to function self-deceptively; sensitivity to bias and prejudice in, and limitations of, one’s viewpoint.

Answer 14

INTELLECTUAL HUMILITY

Question 15

Recognition of the need to be true to one’s own thinking, to be consistent in the intellectual standards one applies, to hold oneself to the same rigorous standards of evidence and proof to which one holds one’s antagonists, to practice what one advocates for others, and to honestly admit discrepancies and inconsistencies in one’s own thought and action.

Answer 15

INTELLECTUAL INTEGRITY

Question 16

Willingness and consciousness of the need to pursue intellectual insights and truths despite difficulties, obstacles, and frustrations; firm adherence to rational principles despite irrational opposition from others; a sense of the need to struggle with confusion and unsettled questions over an extended time to achieve deeper understanding or insight.

Answer 16

INTELLECTUAL PERSEVERANCE

Question 17

A sense of obligation to fulfill one’s duties in intellectual matters.

Answer 17

INTELLECTUAL RESPONSIBILITY

Question 18

Willingness and consciousness of the need to entertain all viewpoints sympathetically and to assess them with the same intellectual standards, without reference to one’s own feelings or vested interests, or the feelings or vested interests of one’s friends, community, or nation; implies adherence to intellectual standards without reference to one’s own advantage or the advantage of one’s group.

Answer 18

INTELLECTUAL SENSE OF JUSTICE

Question 19

Concepts and principles by which reasoning should be judged to determine its quality or value.

Answer 19

INTELLECTUAL STANDARDS

Question 20

The traits of mind and intellectual character traits necessary for right action and thinking; the traits essential for fair-mindedness. They distinguish the narrow-minded, self-serving critical thinker from the open-minded, truth-seeking critical thinker.

Answer 20

INTELLECTUAL VIRTUES

Question 21

To give one’s own conception of, to place in the context of one’s own experience, perspective, point of view, or philosophy.

Answer 21

INTERPRET

Question 22

The direct knowing or learning of something without the conscious use of reasoning. We sometimes seem to know or learn things without recognizing how we came to that knowledge.

Answer 22

INTUITION

Question 23

(1) Lacking the power to reason;
(2) contrary to reason or logic;
(3) senseless, absurd.

Answer 23

IRRATIONAL/IRRATIONALITY

Question 24

Learning that is not based on rational assent.

Answer 24

IRRATIONAL LEARNING

Question 25

(1) The act of deciding;

(2) understanding and good sense.

Answer 25

JUDGMENT

Question 26

To show a belief, opinion, action, or policy to be in accord with reason and evidence; ethical acceptability.

Answer 26

JUSTIFY/JUSTIFICATION