Applying Generative Critical Thinking

The GCT Process

At the core of Generative Critical Thinking is a 6-step Process.
The first four steps have an external focus: that is, the focus is predominantly on what others are saying or writing.
Steps 5 and 6 have in internal focus, and this is mainly where the generative aspects of GCT come into play. That said, when you apply steps 1 to 4 to your own thinking these are powerfully awareness-raising and inherently generative.

Step 1 is distinguishing whether an assertion or claim is a verifiable fact, opinion (or belief), or whether it is a conclusion to an unstated argument. Many opinions and beliefs can be treated as a conclusion to an unstated argument.

Steps 3 to 4 examine the argument, extracting the premises and examining the logic of the relationship between them. 

Steps 5 and 6 call us to examine our own thinking: the beliefs, the mental modes, the foundations we use when we examine a claim (someone else’s or one of our own).

Step 1

Our current climate of disinformation and misinformation can seem to create a fog, and seeing through to truth and verifiable facts can be challenging.

“Repeat a lie often enough, and people will believe it” has been attributed to Joseph Goebbels. Whether he is the original source or not, the mantra seems to have been taken up in so many aspects of our world: by would-be despots; by politicians; by marketing departments; by global organisations seeking to create doubt (see for example, https://www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/absolutely-incorrect-the-evidence-is-in-on-whales-and-offshore-wind-farms-20240625-p5jol3.html# ).

While it’s not all bad news (see https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20161026-how-liars-create-the-illusion-of-truth ), sometimes we can find ourselves asking something like “What do I do; how do I sort through the fog?”

The first step in the Generative Critical Thinking (GCT) Process is absolutely critical. It’s not unique to GCT, by the way, but it’s all too often not taken because of our brains’ tendency to accept a claim we see or read as true before we do the work needed to test the truth of that claim.

Too obvious really, but the first step is to stop, and ask “Is that a fact?”. Ask, “where is the verifiable evidence for that?”.

So often we hear something proclaimed with certainty, with the tonality of authority, and our brains, when unchecked, can just accept it as given. But, it’s often unexamined opinion, or a belief … not a fact.

When you examine many claims by someone or some organisation, you find that the claims are what are should be treated as conclusions to unstated arguments. When you realise that, you can question what the premises are, or would be if they were offered, and go on to examine the logic of the argument.

Then, the first step – the powerful step – is stopping and asking “Is that fact, opinion, belief, or a conclusion to an unstated argument which should be examined?”.

As you’ll find in discovering the full Generative Critical Thinking Process, the Generative aspect is in being able to apply this first step to your own claims.