It seems like many people use the words "skepticism" and "critical thinking" more or less interchangeably. For instance here. The banner of the Skeptic site says that they're "Promoting SCIENCE and CRITICAL THINKING".

However, some people do make a difference between the terms. One of them is Robert Todd Carroll, author of The Skeptic's Dictionary, who in his book Becoming a Critical Thinker, seems to regards skepticism as one of the attributes of a critical thinker. Here is another view of thew difference. What he is saying is that skepticism is debunking unlikely claims about the paranormal as well as conspiracy theories, whereas critical thinking is broader - it applies to everything.

So what do you think? Are there any differences between skepticism and critical thinking? If there is, then can one in any case be one without being the other?

I can notice that skepticism is not a positice word to everyone - woo believers consider it to be closed-mindedness. But critical thinking seems to be. I'd say almost everyone - even believers in the most strange of things - consider themselves to be critical thinkers.

This might be a semantics issue, but I think it would be of benefit to have these two terms more clearly defined, given that they're used quite often.

Skepticism means not accepting things at face value, critical thinking means being able to critique, thinking critically about something might lead you to believe it's excellent, "critical" here doesn't mean saying it's bad necessarily, "Leonardo DaVinci's linework is the best of his time" is a critical statement. Being skeptical about something means insisting on a certain level of evidence.

^^

Seems like skepticism is more the passive trait whereas critical thinking is the active one.

The two combined = Cowabunga.

rationalcriticalthinking.org would have been a hell of a shitty domain name

I think I've crit your rat "Skep" (DC 20) with my +2 scimitar.

A critical thinker is necessarily a sceptic but a sceptic is not necessarily a critical thinker.

PoDtheElder wrote:A critical thinker is necessarily a sceptic but a sceptic is not necessarily a critical thinker.

How so?

Skepicism, as in its current incarnation as a self-identifying movement, is indistinguishable from critical thinking but, limited to a specific description of a way of thinking (only), it is simply a fairly fundamental part of critical thinking.

"Skepticism" has a lot of meanings.

Religious skepticism: I doubt all that god stuff.

Philosophical skepticism: Whatever it is, I don't believe it.

Scientific skepticism: Herbal medicines are all woo except for medical marijuana, which cures everything, and global warming is a hoax.

epepke wrote:Scientific skepticism: Herbal medicines are all woo except for medical marijuana, which cures everything, and global warming is a hoax.

My critique is that this is utterly true.

I am a sceptic and a critical thinker but I like to use the latter to describe my views. Somewhere in the crossroads of personal and popular interpretation the word "sceptic" came to represent a general disbelief or doubt, a mental short-cut applied often without any further knowledge or adequate argument. As rJD pointed out scepticism (even in this form) can be an integral element of critical thinking where the individual starts from a non-belief attitude based on their current knowledge and experience and if necessary gathers further knowledge to arrive to a conclusion. Another important element of critical thinking is flexibility, being able to change or completely abandon a hypothesis in light of contradicting evidence or even to leave a debate open where conclusion cannot be reached at present, both of which require self monitoring. If critical thinking is an ability than I am a student in learning. I remain a sceptic towards woo and fucwittery that deserves no further attention. While I try to base my opinion on the best information available it always remains just that, an opinion that I am ready to part with...

Talk about resurrections...

A Hugin thread to boot.

And now the newby learned to check the dates above posts and comments... Bit embarrassed to be honest.

With so much bumkum around one needs to be both!

No worries pototm, it happens all the time.