Putney High School
Critical Thinking
Analytical skills and argument analysis are taught through every subject throughout the school. All students leaving Putney are able to critique many different forms of argument affectively. However, in order to give some students credit for these skills, help prepare them for university entrance tests and develop these skills more formally, an AS in Critical Thinking is offered to all students in Year 12.
This course is offered by OCR and is highly respected by universities as a way of assessing a student’s ability to consider the structure of an argument, identify flaws, present an argument and consider the credibility of sources offered.
Consider the following situation to see whether you might enjoy Critical Thinking.
Four prisoners are buried up to the neck in sand and each can see only what is in front of him. The wall completely blocks vision. They are told that there are 2 red hats and 2 blue, but none of them knows the colour of his own hat.
The buried men are given two minutes in which time one of them must correctly call out the colour of his own hat.
If the first one to speak does this, they will all be freed.
If not, they will all be left there. No communication is allowed and an incorrect answer means they all lose. After about one minute, one of the prisoners calls out correctly. Which one is it, and how does he know?
Answer:
Sancho calls out that his hat must be blue. His reasoning is as follows:
- R1-There are two hats of each colour. R2-Pedro’s hat is red.
- IC (R3)-If mine were red also, Carlos would have known straightaway that his was blue and called out by now.
- R4-Carlos hasn’t said a word.
- Therefore My hat must be blue
However, in so doing this he is assuming lots of things, for example that Carlos can see too. Carlos could have sand in his eyes, or his hat could have slipped forward over his eyes.
So, is Sancho putting forward a good argument?
