Intellectual Standards Flashcards
The ultimate goal is for these questions to become infused in my thinking, forming part of my inner voice, which then guides me to better and better reasoning. While there are many universal standards, the following are some of the most essential:
CLARITY
Could you elaborate further on that point? Could you express that point in another way? Could you give me an illustration? Could you give me an example?
ACCURACY
Is that really true? How could we check that? How could we find out if that is true?
PRECISION
Could you give more details? Could you be more specific?
RELEVANCE
How is that connected to the question? How does that bear on the issue?
DEPTH
How does your answer address the complexities in the question? How are you taking into account the problems in the question? Is that dealing with the most significant factors?
BREADTH
Do we need to consider another point of view? Is there another way to look at this question? What would this look like from a conservative standpoint? What would this look like from the point of view of . . .?
LOGIC
Does this really make sense? Does that follow from what you said? How does that follow? But before you implied this, and now you are saying that; how can both be true? When we think, we bring a variety of thoughts together into some order. When the combination of thoughts are mutually supporting and make sense in combination, the thinking is “logical.” When the combination is not mutually supporting, is contradictory in some sense or does not “make sense,” the combination is not logical.
FAIRNESS
Do I have a vested interest in this issue? Am I sympathetically representing the viewpoints of others? Human thinking is often biased in the direction of the thinker - in what are the perceived interests of the thinker. Humans do not naturally consider the rights and needs of others on the same plane with their own rights and needs.
