CRITO: Informal Logic, Critical Thinking, and the Argumentative Essay.

The critical thinker is one who is, according to Harvey Siegel, "appropriately moved by reasons." This characterization of critical thinking combines a "reason assessment" component (the principled assessment of reasons and their ability to warrant beliefs, claims and actions) and a "critical attitude" component (the disposition to engage in principled reason assessment). However such critical thinking is least spontaneous when an individual confronts his or her most basic prejudices or deeply held convictions. In these situations, to paraphrase Siegel, the individual may possess the ability but not the disposition to assess certain of his or her beliefs or claims. CRITO (formed acronymically from the logical terms Conclusion, Reasons, Inference, Truth, and Objections) addresses both the principled reason assessment and critical attitude components of critical thinking by requiring students to assess critically the validity of their own inferences, the truth of reasons supplied in defense of conclusions, and finally the soundness of those inferences. Although the components of CRITO are described in the language of formal logic, the CRITO method requires only a general understanding of the nature of effective argumentation. (TB)