Week 3 - Systematic Problem Solving

Activity 1 :: Activity 2 :: Activity 3 :: Activity 4

Key Concepts and Questions

As you read the text and work through the MindEdge Modules, you'll want to pay particularly close attention to the information regarding the following key concepts:

1. Critical thinking is set in motion by questions, not answers. Arriving at an answer too quickly stops thinking and prevents the thinker from generating additional questions and more possiblilties. Even so, the purpose of asking questions is to eventually arrive at well reasoned, yet tentative answers.

2. The three categories for questions are:

• Questions of Fact: Questions with one right answer about which there is general agreement.
• Questions of Preference: Questions that are a matter of personal and subjective opinion.
• Questions of Judgment: Questions that require reasoning and judgment, but with more than one valid answer.

3. To engage in systematic analysis, thinkers use questions based on the elements of reasoning:

• Purpose
• Interpretation
• Assumptions
• Implications and Consequences
• Viewpoint
• Concepts
• Information

4. To engage in systematic analysis, thinkers also use questions based on the standards of thought:

• Relevance
• Clarity
• Accuracy
• Precision
• Consistency
• Logic
• Sufficiency
• Breadth
• Depth

5. Thinkers identify the logic of a source by applying questions based on the elements of reasoning.

6. Thinkers evaluate an author's reasoning by applying questions based on the standards of thinking.

7. Questions of causation can be addressed by applying different approaches to identifying possible causes. These methods can either be applied individually or in combination:

• The Common Factor Method - After looking at multiple instances of a particular phenomenon, you find that a common factor is shared by all of them.  That common factor is a probable cause.
• The Single Difference Method - After examining two similar instances where only one leads to a particular result, look for a factor present in one but not in the other.
• Concomitant Variation - Look for a pattern of variation between a possible cause and a possible effect.  This involves decreasing or increasing the amount of a certain factor, and then observing the results.
• The Process of Elimination - Eliminate factors one by one to arrive at the single contributing factor for a particular effect.

8. A common mistake in causal analysis is to assume a correlation is evidence of causation. 

9. Strategic thinking has three interrelated functions. Any change in one of these will affect the other two:

• Thinking
• Feeling
• Desiring