The Thinker's Guide to Engineering Reasoning: Based on Critical Thinking Concepts and Tools (Thinker's Guide Library)

Next, the intellectual standards are introduced and exemplified.

A Checklist for Engineering Reasoning

Intellectual empathy is awareness of the need to actively entertain views that differ from your own, especially those with which you strongly disagree.

Engineers concerned with good thinking routinely apply intellectual standards to the elements of thought as they seek to develop the traits of a mature engineering mind.

Confidence in reason is based on the belief that one’s own higher interests and those of humankind at large are best served by giving the freest play to reason.

Intellectual autonomy is thinking for oneself while adhering to standards of rationality.

Intellectual Curiosity entails inquisitiveness as well as a strong desire to deeply understand, to figure things out, to propose and assess useful and plausible hypotheses and explanations; it implies a strong propensity to learn and to search out solutions; it propels the thinker toward further and deeper learning.

Subsequently, the eight elements of thought are introduced. These are tools for the analysis of thinking in ones’ own and others’ thought.

Intellectual Traits Essential to Engineering Reasoning