Mastering Critical Thinking: Skills and Virtues
Critical Thinking
What is Critical Thinking?
“The ability of individuals to take charge of their own thinking. This requires them to develop appropriate criteria and standards to analyze and evaluate their own thinking and routinely use those criteria and standards to improve its quality.”
Critical Thinking Skills
Analysis, inference, explanation, abstraction, metacognition.
A Critical Thinker
- Formulates vital problems and questions with clarity and precision.
- Collects and evaluates relevant information,
Immanuel Kant: Philosophy, Ethics, and the Categorical Imperative
Kant’s Philosophical Context
Kant is the greatest eighteenth-century German philosopher and one of the most enthusiastic proponents of the Enlightenment. Note the huge task that Kant intends: criticism, subjecting theoretical reason and practical reason to rigorous scrutiny. As a result of this, he will bring a dazzling synthesis of rationalism and empiricism as far as theoretical reason is concerned, and a new ethical theory, formalism, which breaks all previous approaches. Such amount of contributions
Read MoreEnvironmental Impact: Simple Actions for a Healthier Planet
Pollution
The Earth is in trouble. Our planet is deteriorating and it needs our help. How can a single person make a difference?
There are many ways to help our world get better, and many of them are related to your everyday life. For instance: when you go shopping, do you take your own cloth bag? You can start healing the planet by doing so.
If you do, you will help decrease the amount of plastic bags that are thrown away and cause pollution. This trick will also minimize deforestation, since paper
Read MoreTruth Criteria, Philosophy History: From Myth to Logos
Criteria of Truth as Correspondence
- Perception and Direct Experience: The data obtained through the basic senses provide vital information. Gestalt psychology concluded that the human mind processes sensory information, rebuilds, and orders it. They distinguished between sensation (information received by the senses) and perception (the same information after the mind has processed it).
- Scientific Ascertainment: The scientific method provides facts through experiments and observations. Science has
Literary Devices: Metaphor, Stanza Forms, and Poetic Techniques
Figurative Language
Metaphor compares two different things. An allegory is a continuous or extended metaphor in a story or poem with two levels of meaning: the symbolic level, or the deeper meaning. Personification is a kind of metaphor that attributes human qualities to inanimate objects. Metonymy is a type of metaphor where an object describes something closely related. Synecdoche is a figure of speech where a part represents the whole. Amplification enriches a sentence for clarity. Apostrophe
Read MoreBusiness Model Canvas and Types: Traditional & Emerging
Business Model Canvas (BMC)
Definition: The Business Model Canvas is a strategic management and lean startup template for developing new or documenting existing business models. It is a visual chart with elements describing a firm’s or product’s value proposition, infrastructure, customers, and finances. It assists firms in aligning their activities by illustrating potential trade-offs.
Components:
- Value Proposition: It answers the question of what product or service is being built and for whom. The
Victorian Era: Society, Literature, and Industrialization
Middle Classes in Victorian Society
The middle class (MC) emerged as a new social category, shifting from traditional ranks to a more fluid “class” system. This new system was characterized by economic mobility and conflict, as individuals strived for higher positions. The traditional model of society, based on paternalism and deference, was replaced by a bourgeois mentality that valued work and professional achievement. The middle class acted as a bridge between the aristocracy and the working class,
Read More19th Century China & Australian Development: A Comparative Analysis
19th Century China & Australian Development
Item 5 – The Nationalist Lobby in China during the nineteenth century was characterized by a feudal monarchical and imperial structure, with a strong centralized government and bureaucracy. The social base was formed by a vast mass of population in a near-slavery regime and under the domination of a minority of noble owners. After the Opium War against China, the UK, the imperial court had already yielded to these strategic cities from which inward
Read MoreUnderstanding Key Economic Indicators: GDP, GNP, and Income Distribution
Key Economic Indicators
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) Magnitude: Measures the value of final goods and services produced within an economy during a specific period. It’s expressed as GDP at market prices (GDPmp) or GDP at factor cost (PIBcf).
GDP at Factor Cost (PIBcf): Represents the cost of production, assessing the output of goods and services at factory prices. It excludes indirect taxes and includes subsidies received by companies.
GDP at Market Price (PIBmp): Values goods and services at their
Read MorePhilip II: Reign, Conflicts, and Legacy of the Spanish King
Philip II (1556-1598)
Philip II (1556-1598), son of Charles V and Isabella of Portugal, was born in Valladolid in 1527. He married four times. First with Manuela of Portugal, who died giving birth to Prince Charles. After he married Mary Tudor, daughter of Catherine of Aragon and Henry VIII. In 1560 he married Isabel de Valois French with whom he had to Isabel Clara Eugenia. Finally he would marry Anne of Austria, betrothed of Prince Charles, with whom he had to Philip III.