Not thinking critically might harm you and/or society

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The rules of critical thinking

List of rules

1. No theory of truth can be based on beliefs. No belief that is not supported by evidence connects logically, causally, or statistically to reality. Most people don't adjust their beliefs to the available evidence. Any belief not based on evidence can be rejected without further arguments or consideration.
2. The same is true for strong convictions not supported by sufficient strong evidence.
3. Any truth claim based on authority is called a fallacy for good reasons.
4. A truth claim based on trust in a person's subjective experience is
5. fallacious. Objective truth cannot be based on subjective experiences or perceptions.
6. Subjective perceptions or experiences might be based on illusions, delusions, confusions, or unreasonable thinking and must be treated with caution.
7. Almost all truth claims based on a telephone game are dubious.
8. Most truth claims based on anecdotal evidence are spurious.
9. Any truth claim based on ancient manuscripts needs exploration and cannot be accepted on its merits.
10. No explanation can be accepted without considering alternative solutions.
11. Any generic explanation that can explain everything and its contrary must be rejected.
12. All claims based on historical data must be explored using Bayesian statistics.
13. Any intuition that is not based on the world experienced by our ancestors (mesocosm, or middle earth) and improved their survivability will fail when used on other realms. Intuition is mostly not an argument.
14. A claim that is immunized against criticism might be nonsense (bullshit) and should be treated with extreme caution.
15. Claims based on logical contradictions must be rejected.
16. Claims that cannot be critically investigated should raise red flags.
17. Humans tend to fabricate knowledge when they don't know without noticing it (the Dunning-Kruger effect).
18. People tend to accept wrong conclusions when they support their hopes and wishes without regarding logic, consequences, or evidence.
19. Emotions seldom lead to truth. The role of emotions, their functions, and limits are seldom considered. People telling you that reason is limited likely don't see the limits of emotionally based thinking.
20. Any claim that is based on fear or exploits other human weaknesses must be viewed with extreme caution. Only false claims must be enforced with threats.
21. Most claims without visible consequences should be treated with caution.
22. Nearly all supernatural claims are based on claiming an epistemological privilege by the claimants without any reasonable justification.
23. All truths are based on probability; what is possible is often not probable. What is probable might not be true.
24. Many claims are based on redefined terms, and their contents are not what they sound like. Claims based on undefined terms are meaningless; claims based on logical contradictions within their definition are mostly false or at least dubious.
25. Counting the hits and ignoring the misses is called superstition.
26. Most conspiracy theories are false. But calling a theory a conspiracy theory does not establish that it's the case.
27. Most people know next to nothing about fallacies, cognitive errors, and biases.

Religious truth claims are based on a chain of reasoning

Note that most religious truth claims are based on a chain of two or even more doubtful lines of reasoning, and any chain is weaker than its weakest link. Most people do not investigate truth claims critically when the claim supports their wishful thinking. Weak links in their chain of reasoning are not examined; alternative reasoning is not explored or hand-waved away.

In a public debate, someone who is strongly convinced (charismatic), rhetorically well-versed, and able to appeal easily to emotions will almost always win a debate against a highly reasonable opponent, because being reasonable means doubting even one's own thinking. People tend to think that emotion is the opposite of reasoning, which is not true. You need to be very compassionate about truth to undergo the hard labor of critical thinking, which most often does not yield the results you aim for. Most people do not seek the truth—because it is often uncomfortable—but rather seek comfort in their self-righteousness.

Recommended literature

See also: [Law 2011] and [Frankfurt 2005] about bullshit.

About the use of logic: [Hamblin 1998], [Johnson 2006], [Toulmin 2003], about logic for historians see [Carrier 2012].

Footnotes