Process model of thinking

There are many definitions of critical thinking, but all of them at least agree that it is a mode of thinking which meets some specific norms (usually to optimise for truth, but sometimes for beauty or justice, too). That means that to discuss critical thinking, it makes sense to have some scheme of thinking in general.

One scheme I find useful (and for the cognitive scientists reading this, yes, I do realise it is not a good description of actual human thinking) is a process model, showing five discrete steps.

The process starts with seeing that there's something to resolve, whether that's some theoretical issue in academic literature, customer dissatisfaction about some product, or something else entirely that could be considered a problem. Then, after seeing the problem, one needs to gather relevant information. Not just that, but the information needs to be interpreted, evaluated, integrated with prior beliefs and understood: it has to make sense to the thinker. After this, convictions can be inferred, conclusions can be drawn, leading to new beliefs. These beliefs can then inform subsequent decisions or action selection.

Critical thinking is about going through these steps and doing them well. Broadly speaking, it's the problem from the first step that defines what should be done well. If you're working character design, you will be employing different standards than if you're screening drugs for therapeutic potential. But in both cases you can work rationally, by setting standards and trying to meet them. And in both cases you can work critically, evaluating whether your thought process itself is geared towards optimising the outcome.

Here on this blog, I am mostly concerned with optimising epistemics. That means I presume thinkers are motivated to developing accurate beliefs about the world and wish to align their actions with these beliefs. Critical thinking is then the set of mental habits you can have to optimise the odds of obtaining such beliefs and actions.

The process model is useful for critical thinking, because each step demands its own questions, considerations and carefulness. In any context, one can break down the thinking process in these discrete steps and identify how to do them well. It can also serve us while considering how to remain critical during GenAI use, as for each application of the technology, the above thinking process is relevant.