--- title: Critical Thinking description: Critical thinking is the objective analysis and evaluation of information to form reasoned judgments. You will understand how to identify cognitive biases, evaluate the validity of arguments, distinguish between correlation and causation, and apply logical frameworks to solve complex problems. category: personal-development subcategory: personal-development difficulty: beginner, intermediate, advanced url: /subject/critical-thinking --- # Critical Thinking Critical thinking is the objective analysis and evaluation of information to form reasoned judgments. You will understand how to identify cognitive biases, evaluate the validity of arguments, distinguish between correlation and causation, and apply logical frameworks to solve complex problems. ## Available Resources 2 Books • 2 Courses • 9 Websites ## Courses ### 1. Calling Bullshit: Data Reasoning in a Digital World **Author:** Carl Bergstrom, Jevin West University of Washington course by Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West, with free lectures, readings and case studies. It covers misleading graphs, selection bias, causality claims, statistical traps and big-data hype, teaching learners to detect and refute bogus quantitative arguments. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://callingbullshit.org/ **Tags:** critical-thinking, misinformation, statistical-literacy, data-reasoning, causal-inference ### 2. Logical and Critical Thinking An eight-week University of Auckland course covering cognitive biases and fallacies, how to identify premises and conclusions, deductive versus inductive reasoning, and applying both to science, law and morality. You finish able to reconstruct and test an argument. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/logical-and-critical-thinking **Tags:** critical-thinking, logic, argumentation, fallacies ## Websites ### 1. Your Bias Is **Author:** Jesse Richardson Illustrated reference to 24 common cognitive biases, including anchoring, confirmation bias, the Dunning-Kruger effect, groupthink, and the halo effect. Each bias has a short page with an explanation and example, so readers can recognise these mental shortcuts in their own reasoning. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.yourbias.is/ **Tags:** cognitive-biases, heuristics, reasoning, decision-making ### 2. Your Logical Fallacy Is A reference site cataloguing common fallacies, each with a plain definition and an everyday example, plus a free downloadable poster. Useful for recognizing strawman, ad hominem or false-dilemma moves in an argument and naming them accurately. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/ **Tags:** logical-fallacies, argumentation, critical-thinking, reasoning ### 3. Farnam Street (fs.blog) **Author:** Shane Parrish Shane Parrish's essay archive on mental models, decision-making and judgment, drawing on ideas from psychology, economics and biography. Reading it gives you a vocabulary of reusable frames such as inversion, second-order effects and circle of competence for working through decisions. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://fs.blog/ **Tags:** mental-models, decision-making, critical-thinking, cognitive-biases ### 4. Cargo Cult Science (Caltech Commencement Address, 1974) **Author:** Richard P. Feynman Feynman's 1974 Caltech commencement address on scientific integrity, using cargo-cult airstrips as the image for work that copies the form of science without the substance. Source of the maxim that you are the easiest person to fool. Reading it in twenty minutes gives more usable epistemics than any 'critical thinking' course in this subcategory, and it costs nothing. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://calteches.library.caltech.edu/51/2/CargoCult.htm **Tags:** scientific-integrity, epistemology, self-deception, scientific-method, richard-feynman ### 5. Science and Pseudo-Science (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) **Author:** Sven Ove Hansson Survey of the demarcation problem: how philosophers have tried to separate science from pseudoscience, why Popper's falsifiability criterion is judged insufficient, and what multi-criterion and cluster accounts propose instead. Revised July 2025, with worked examples from creationism and denialism. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pseudo-science/ **Tags:** demarcation, pseudoscience, falsifiability, science-denial, reference ### 6. criticalthinking.org CriticalThinking.org hosts The Critical Thinking Community, offering practical resources, articles, and courses to develop critical thinking skills for students and educators. It provides standards, the elements of thought, and classroom activities to improve reasoning and analysis. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://criticalthinking.org **Tags:** websites, personal-development, personal-development ### 7. hbr.org Harvard Business Review (hbr.org) offers research-based articles, case studies, and practical guidance on leadership, strategy, and organizational performance for managers and executives. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://hbr.org **Tags:** websites, business-entrepreneurship, business-fundamentals ### 8. lesswrong.com LessWrong is a community blog and forum focused on rationality, decision theory, and cognitive biases. It features long-form essays and discussions, including the popular Sequences on Bayesian reasoning, critical thinking, and AI risk. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://lesswrong.com **Tags:** websites, humanities-social-sciences, cognitive-science ### 9. mindtools.com Mind Tools offers practical business and management resources—articles, templates, checklists, and self-assessments—covering business communication, leadership, teamwork, meetings, and professional writing. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://mindtools.com **Tags:** websites, business-entrepreneurship, business-fundamentals ## Books ### 1. The Art of Thinking Clearly **Author:** Rolf Dobelli Ninety-nine short chapters, each covering one cognitive bias or reasoning error — survivorship bias, sunk cost, confirmation bias — with everyday examples. Readers finish able to name common thinking traps and spot them in their own decisions. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/1444759566?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** books, personal-development, personal-development ### 2. Critical Thinking **Author:** Richard Paul, Linda Elder Paul and Elder's textbook presents a structured framework: eight elements of reasoning, nine intellectual standards, and intellectual virtues. Exercises apply the framework to coursework and daily judgments, so readers can analyze arguments and assess their own reasoning systematically. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0130869724?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** books, personal-development, personal-development --- *This content is part of Dantes.io - Your Treasure Map to Knowledge* *Curated by humans at Dantes.io. 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