An Introduction to Critical Thinking

2

CRITICAL THINKING AND LOGIC

Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtle; natural philosophy, deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend.

 

—Francis Bacon

2.1 Introduction

Critical thinking is often also called informal logic. The central theme of critical thinking is logic and all that is relevant to logic. Informal logic is often contrasted with what is known as formal logic. But before we analyse the distinction between these two kinds of logic, we need get a general understanding of what logic is.

Logic can be described as the systematic study of inferences. The British empiricist philosopher John Locke once said, “Logic is the anatomy of thought”. Formal logic is the study of the form of inferences or arguments, ...