What Is A Critical Thinker?

Image Courtesy Wade M via Flickr

Just got turned on to Joe Lau's book, An Introduction to Critical Thinking and Creativity (H/T to Edutopia).  I haven't had time to read more than the Introduction (free to download) and review the Table of Contents but it was enough to get me to order the book.

Why?

I really like his definition of critical thinking.  Lau identifies the 10 abilities of a critical thinker and it seems like a pretty comprehensive list to me:

1. Understand the logical connections between ideas.
2. Formulate ideas succinctly and precisely
3. Identify, construct, and evaluate arguments.
4. Evaluate the pros and cons of a decision.
5. Evaluate the evidence for and against a hypothesis.
6. Detect inconsistencies and common mistakes in reasoning.
7. Analyze problems systematically.
8. Identify the relevance and importance of ideas.
9. Justify one's beliefs and values
10. Reflect on the justification of one's own beliefs and values.

Obviously this is just my first take on it but I think it is worth checking out.