Five Steps to critical thinking

1) Know the facts

2) Remember the Principal of Contradiction

3) Define your terms

4) Be Intellectually humble

5) Look for Different Perspectives





Write a short story on the five steps to critical thinking:

Ricky woke up with a cold sweat running down his face. The clock read 3:13am. With a sick feeling in his stomach he absentmindedly slid down the pole to the kitchen. The alarm hadn't gone off. No one's house was on fire. He could hear Russsel and Mac and Geoff still playing cards in the break room. Ricky peered into the refrigerator and saw the usual items: six pack of bud light, frozen pizzas, 12 pack of dr. pepper, bag of red grapes, some carrots, leftover cake from the wife, and a box of toasted ravioli from Tuesday. Ricky knew that the cake was very high in fat considering it was double fudge chocolaty special brand. He knew that carrots improve your eye sight and that bud light kills brain cells. (1) What should I have? Mac walked in and saw Ricky standing hunched over in front of the frig. Need some help? I can't decide what I should have. Bud light is good for you. No its not. Yep I’m pretty sure it is. Really? (2) Ricky decided he would have a Dr. Pepper. Now it was just a matter of food. He looked at the box of ravioli. It read "overstuffed" on the side. They were the kind of ravioli that were filled to the brim with meat. He looked at the pizzas. The box said "Tony's meat lovers: 8 different kinds of meat." The cake was his favorite kind double fudge chocolaty special. (3) Then Ricky looked at the bag of carrots. He flipped over the bag and read the back. Richly fermented in extravelpsectainious soil and revegerattifatied to complete satisfaction. Ricky called Mac over. What the hell does this mean? You got me man. (4) Then Ricky decided that he either wanted the grapes or the cake. He thought that the grapes would be healthier but the cake would be much more appetizing. Geoff, a rather large man, strolled up to the frig and grabbed the grapes. Sometimes when you’re my size you just have to make some sacrifices. (5) Ricky decided to go with the cake. He brought his early morning snack over to the table and joined in the poker game.



1) Ricky had to know the facts that the cake was high in fat and that the carrots improved your eyesight and that bud light killed brain cells.

2) Ricky and Mac contradicted each other in that Mac thought that bud light was good for you and Ricky thought that it was bad.

3) Ricky had to define his food in that in this case toasted ravioli was really overstuffed ravioli and the pizza was really a meat lover’s.

4) Ricky and Mac didn’t know what the words extravelpsectainious and revegerattifatied (nor do I) and they realized that they didn’t know something about carrots that they thought they knew.

5) Ricky saw eating the cake as not all that bad but when you look at it from Geoff perspective it not a good idea.



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