Henry Jericho and the 5 Steps to Critical Thinking


There was once a man named Henry Jericho. He worked as a tour guide at the Louisville Slugger museum in Louisville, Kentucky and worked all day with only a lunch break. One day during his 12:00 PM break he went down to the concession stand to buy a pretzel and a soda for lunch. Henry finished his delicious meal just before his lunch break ended, and he raced upstairs to begin his next tour.

He was in such a hurry to get back to work that he left his wallet sitting on the table. By the time he relaized this, he was already in the middle of his second tour of the afternoon, and he couldn't return to the table until 2:00. Fortunately, his wallet was sitting on the table when he returned. Unfortunately, all of Henry's money was missing.

Henry noticed that his co-workers Joe Cook, Rodney Tubbs, and Marshall Manover were sitting at a nearby table eating nachos. Henry walked up to his friends and asked if they had seen who stole the money.

"It was Bill Hoover!" accused Joe. He went back to eating his nachos.

"Wait, Joe!" said Henry. "I can't go and accuse Bill of stealing my money without getting the facts first.(1) Is there any reason for you to suspect Bill?"

"Yes, actually. Just twenty minutes ago I saw him walk past, pick up your wallet, look through it, and then leave. I'm sure he took the money when he was searching through the wallet."

"Well, let me see if the others saw the same thing,"(2) said Henry. "Rodney, did you see Bill steal any money from my wallet?"

"No, I didn't," answered Rodney. I saw him look through it, but I don't think he took any money. It seemed to me that he was looking for some sort of I.D.""

"And what about you Marshall? What do you think happened?" asked Henry.

"I think they're both right," said Marshall.

"No, Marshall, they both can't be right." replied Henry, getting frustrated. "Either Bill stole the money or he didn't there's no middle ground."(3)

"Well, I honestly don't know then, Henry. I'm sorry. I was watching Bill just as closely as Joe and Rodney were, but I don't have any idea whether he took money or not, so I'm not going to make any blind accusations."(4)

Angry and confused, Henry turned away from the table only to find Bill Hoover walking right up to him. "So Bill," said Henry. "I heard you've been stealing from my wallet, is that right?"

"Well, I guess that depends on how you define stealing,"(5) answered Bill. "If you think that removing all the money from the wallet and leaving it at the concession stand as a lost-and-found item is stealing, then I guess I'm guilty. But I saw that there was no I.D. in the wallet and thought that I should remove the money before a greedy tourist found it. I thought it'd be more safe at the concession stand."

"Thanks, Bill. It's only stealing if you keep the money. But that's a huge relief. I'm sorry I accused you of stealing. I guess I forgot to be humble like Marshall was. That was the only step I forgot, but it ended up being the crucial one."

So Henry learned from his mistake and always made sure to remember the Five Steps to Critical Thinking. He never got into such an awkward situation again.



(1)= This is an example of Step #1, Know the Facts. Henry doesn't want to blindly accuse Bill of stealing his money. Henry would be relying solely on Joe's words, which happened to be wrong.

(2)= This is an example of Step #5, Look for Different Perspectives. Henry wants to make sure that the other two men saw the same thing that Joe saw so that Henry can get an idea of the entire picture. He wants to make sure that Joe is not lying about what happened.

(3)= This is an example of Step #2, Remember the Principle of Contradiction. Henry knows that Bill couldn't have stolen the money and not stolen it at the same time, so he knows that Marshall's first answer is logically incorrect.

(4)= This is an example of Step #4, Be Intellectually Humble. Marshall is being humble by admitting that he doesn't know what happened instead of giving Henry false information.

(5)= This is an example of Step #3, Define Your Terms. Bill did take the money from the wallet, so that's why Joe thought he stole it. But Henry doesn't consider it stealing because Bill put the money in the Lost-and-Found at the concession stand.