The Telltale Signs of a Critical Thinker

What distinguishes the real from the not-quite-there?

I’m intensively working on fixing the US K-12 education system (e.g., see here), and an essential part is to get our educators to focus on teaching Critical Thinking to students. One interesting question is: is Critical Thinking teachable?

Since this Substack column is dedicated to Critically Thinking about select societal issues, a logical question is: when we are dealing with someone else, how do we know if they are a Critical Thinker? Looking at those characteristics should answer whether Critical Thinking is teachable — and what it entails…

Some good indicators that a person is a Critical Thinker are that they:

ask a lot of thoughtful, relevant questions,

are skeptical, but flexible and open-minded,  

relish investigating things,

are observant and pay attention to detail,

reflexively put things in perspective,

welcome discussions of opposing views,

are good at drawing inferences,

don't just go with the flow,

aren’t afraid to challenge statements made by those in authority,

enjoy coming up with creative solutions…

Critical Thinking is a thorough, open-minded, logical effort to examine something, in the light of applicable evidence. My attempt to try to satisfy two audiences includes a layperson and academic definitions of Critical Thinking: see here. For more depth yet, see this fine report on Critical Thinking. For even more investigation, check out this organization (and its website) dedicated to Critical Thinking.

In the latter two sources, I didn’t find (maybe my oversight) a list of indicators of when we are dealing with a Critical Thinker - so I put together the above list.

It’s interesting to note that a criterion of a Critical Thinker is NOT that the person has a high IQ, or that they are a worldly-wise senior. In other words, regular Joes and young people can be legitimate Critical Thinkers.

Now that we have a better idea as to what characteristics a Critical Thinker has, we can do some reflection to see how many apply to us.

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PS — The above list is obviously my personal opinion. Interestingly, there is no universal agreement on what characteristics a Critical Thinker should have. For example, some other views are: here, here, here, here, and here.

I was surprised (and then not) that several of them stated that compassion is an essential requirement to be a critical thinker. This is a modern value assignment. Compassion plays a key role in our actions, but I don’t see how it is an important factor in the thinking process.

I was also surprised that many of these other lists stated that Critical Thinkers must be effective communicators. Again, communication comes after the thinking part.

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Here are other materials by this scientist that you might find interesting:

WiseEnergy.org: discusses the Science (or lack thereof) behind our energy options.

C19Science.info: covers the lack of genuine Science behind our COVID-19 policies.

Election-Integrity.info: multiple major reports on the election integrity issue.

Media Balance Newsletter: a free, twice-a-month newsletter that covers what the mainstream media does not, on issues from COVID to climate, elections to education, renewables to religion, etc. Here are the Newsletter’s 2022 Archives. Send me an email to get your free copy. When emailing me, please make sure to include your full name and the state where you live. (Of course, you can cancel the Media Balance Newsletter at any time - but why would you?)

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