PHL110 -- Critical Analysis

ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS: A Guide to Critical Thinking

1. What are the Issue and the Conclusion?
2. What are the Reasons?
3. What Words or Phrases are Ambiguous?
4. What are the Value Conflicts and Assumptions?
5. What are the Descriptive Assumptions?
6. Are There any Errors in Reasoning?
7. How Good is the Evidence?
8. Are there Rival Causes?
9. Are the Statistics Deceptive?
10. What Significant Information Is Omitted?
11. What Reasonable Conclusions are Possible?

     

1. What are the Issue and the Conclusion?

• What is the question being answered? (issue)
• What is the writer trying to prove? (conclusion)

2. What are the Reasons?

• Why does the writer believe that?

3. What Words or Phrases are Ambiguous?

-- in the reasons and conclusion

• What does the author mean by that?
• What "could" be meant?
• Why do the ambiguous words harm the reasoning?

4. What are the Value Conflicts and Assumptions?

--in prescriptive arguments
--in the movement from reasons to conclusions

• see p. 55 for list of common values
• see p. 57 for typical value conflicts
• What values are being upheld by this position and what values are being depreciated?
• What is the value priority assumed by the writer?

5. What are the Descriptive Assumptions?

• On what basis can that conclusion be drawn from that reason?
• Is there any basis for accepting the assumption?
• If the reason is true, what else must be true for the conclusion to follow?
• Supposing the reason(s) were true, is there any way in which the conclusion nevertheless could be false?

6. Are There any Errors in Reasoning?

• What reasons would be adequate to support this position?
• Do the reasons state an advantage or disadvantage?
• If the reason were true, what would one have to believe for it to logically support the conclusion, and what does one have to believe for the reason to be true?
• Do these assumptions make sense?
  
• Reasoning Errors
  • attacks a person or a person's background?
  • faulty dilemma?
  • oversimplifies?
  • diverts attention from issue?
  • appeals to questionable authority?
  • confuses "What Should Be" and What is?"
  • confuses naming with explaining?
  • reflects a search for perfect solutions?
  • begs the question?
• Are there good reasons to consider such appeals as persuasive evidence?

7. How Good is the Evidence?

• What is the evidence? What is the source?
• Intuition
  • Are there any other kinds of evidential support for this "hunch"?
• Appeals to Authority
  • Why should we believe this authority?
  • How much expertise or training does the authority have on the subject?
  • Was the authority in a position to have especially good access to pertinent facts?
  • Is there good reason to believe that the authority is relatively free of distorting influences?
  • Has the authority developed a reputation for frequently making dependable claims?
  • Have we been able to rely on this authority in the past?
• Testimonials
  • What was the experience like for those whom we have not heard from?
  • Does the person providing the testimony have a relationship with what she is advocating such that we can expect a strong bias in her testimony?
• Personal Observations
• Case Studies
  • Is the example typical?
  • Are there powerful counterexamples?
  • Are there biases in how the example is reported?
• Research Studies
  • What is the quality of the source of the report?
  • Are there other clues included in the communication suggesting the research was well-done?
  • Has the study been replicated?
  • How selective has the communicator been in choosing studies?
  • Is there any evidence of strong-sense critical thinking?
  • Is there any reason for someone to have distorted the research?
  • Are conditions in the research artificial and therefore distorted?
  • Are there any biases or distortions in the surveys, questionnaires, ratings, or other measurements that the researcher uses?
• Research sample
  • How many events or people did they sample?
  • How much breadth did the sample have?
  • How random was the sample?
  • Biased Surveys and Questionnaires
  • How were the survey questions worded?
  • Is there a build-in bias?
• Analogies
  • --To Analyze--
    • What are the two things being compared?
    • Of these, which is familiar, and which are we learning about?
    • In what respects are the two things alike?
    • What else is known about the familiar thing?
    • What is the conclusion of the argument?
  • --To Evaluate--
    • Are the similarities relevant?
    • Are the differences relevant?

8. Are there Rival Causes?

• Are there other ways to interpret the evidence?
• What else might have caused this act or these findings?
• If this interpretation is incorrect, what other interpretation might make sense?
• Are there rival causes that could account for the event?
• Is there any evidence that the explanation has been critically examined?
• Is it likely that the hypothesis may be biased by social, political, or psychological forces?
• What rival causes have not been considered? How credible is the author's hypothesis relative to rival causes?
• Is the hypothesis thorough in accounting for many puzzling aspects of the events in questions?
• How consistent is the hypothesis with all the available relevant evidence?

9. Are the Statistics Deceptive?

• What relevant information is missing?
  • Unknowable Statistics
    • How did the author arrive at the estimate?
  • Concluding One Thing, Proving Another
    • What statistical evidence would be helpful in proving her conclusion?
    • What is the appropriate conclusion to be drawn from those statistics?
  • Omitting Information
    • What further information do you need before you can judge the impact of the statistics?
  • Absolute numbers on which the percentages are based
  • Relevant comparisons

10. What Significant Information Is Omitted?

• Has the writer left out any other information that is needed before the quality of reasoning can be judged?
  1. Common counterarguments?
     • What reasons would someone who disagrees offer?
     • Are there research studies that contradict the studies presented?
     • Are there missing examples, testimonials, or analogies that support the other side of the argument?
  2. Missing definitions?
     • How would the arguments differ if key terms were defined in other ways?
  3. Missing value preferences or perspectives?
     • From what other set of values might one approach this issue?
     • What kinds of arguments would be made by someone approaching the issue from a different set of values?
  4. Origins of "facts" alluded to in the argument?
     • Where do the "facts" come from?
     • Are the factual claims supported by well-done research or by reliable sources?
  5. Details of procedures used for gathering facts?
     • How many people completed the questionnaire?
     • How were the survey questions worded?
  6. Alternative techniques for gathering or organizing the evidence?
     • How might the results from an interview study differ from written questionnaire results?
  7. Missing or incomplete figures, graphs, table, or data?
     • Would the figure look different if it included evidence from earlier or later years?
     • Has the author "stretched" the figure to make the differences look larger?
  8. Omitted effects, both positive and negative, and both short-and long-term, or what is advocated an what is opposed?
     • Has the argument left out important positive or negative consequences of a proposed actions?
     • Do we need to know the impact of the action on any other the following areas: political, social, economic, biological, spiritual, health, or environmental?
  9. Context of quotes and testimonials?
     • Has a quote or testimonial been taken out of context?
  10. Benefits accruing to the author from convincing others to follow her advice?
      • Will the author benefit financially if we adopt her proposed policy?
• What are the potential long-term negative effects of the action?
  • Which segments of society do not benefit from a proposed actions? Who loses? What do the losers have to say about it?
  • How does the proposed action affect the distribution of power?
  • Does the action influence the extent of democracy in our society?
  • How does a particular action affect how we view the world: what we think, how we think, and what we know and can know?
  • What are the action's effects on our health?

11. What Reasonable Conclusions are Possible?

• What conclusions would be possible in response to the following questions?
  • When is the conclusion accurate?
  • Where is the conclusion accurate?
  • Why or for what purpose is the conclusion accurate?
  • What conclusions are possible?

   

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Updated 4/11/01