Quotes for Critical Thinking

Quote 1: All beliefs in whatever realm are theories at some level. (Stephen Schneider)

• Find the genesis point of a new idea.
  • Who coined the phrase, idea, or concept?
  • Who perpetuated that idea?
  • Is the idea proven? When was it proven? Where was it proven? What was going on around the idea at the time it was thought to be proven?

• Find an issue, and then work backwards through the issue to find when it was first introduced in the news

• Follow a story backwards over time to find it’s starting point. What details were known at the time that the story first came out? What details came out afterwards?

Quote 2: Do not condemn the judgment of another because it differs from your own. You may both be wrong. (Dandemis)

• Revisiting the idea of the value of Opinion Journalism, find an article that discusses the opposite side of an issue that you are interested in cogently. Outline the author’s points, and the supporting evidence.
  • Do the same for your argument. Compare the two.
• After choosing an issue, outline it’s most important points and then diagram how both sides have strengthened and weakened the points introduced. Be sure to include evidence.
• Did you find situations where the arguments cancelled each other out, leading to no conclusion?

Quote 3: Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider. (Francis Bacon)

Quote 4: Never fall in love with your hypothesis. (Peter Medawar)

• Recall a moment in which you found that an established point of view that you had was refuted, either by something you learned from someone else, or through your own research.
• For any of these quotes, restate them in your own words. Explain what each means.
• What is a hypothesis? How does is work in different fields? contexts?

Quote 5: It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories instead of theories to suit facts. (Arthur Conan Doyle)

• How true is this quote? Have you seen occurrences when this has happened? Give an example.
  
  

• The teacher may want to show an example of this, in which the journalist, commentator, or writer may have twisted certain facts to suit their point of view. What is the problem with this?
• What are the techniques that are used to do this?

Quote 6: A theory should not attempt to explain all the facts, because some of the facts are wrong. (Francis Crick)

• When has something that for such a long time been seen as a fact been de-bunked?

• What’s the process that someone might go through in order to verify a fact?

Quote 7: The thing that doesn’t fit is the thing that is most interesting. (Richard Feynman)

Quote 8: To kill an error is as good a service as, and sometimes even better than, the establishing of a new truth or fact. (Charles Darwin)

Quote 9: It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so. (Mark Twain)

Quote 10: Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong. (Thomas Jefferson)

Quote 11: All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second, it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident. (Arthur Schopenhauer)

Adapted from: Was Shakespeare Shakespeare? 11 Rules for Critical Thinking by Maria Popova