Concepts are ideas we use in thinking. They are connected with definitions, principles, theories, and models, and they help us make sense of the world. In this episode, Drs. Linda Elder and Gerald Nosich discuss conceptual questions and how best to address them.

In this episode, Drs. Linda Elder and Gerald Nosich discuss the differences between questions of fact (or procedure), questions of preference, and questions requiring reasoned judgement. Question clusters, which are groupings of questions that share relevance to the same thing (e.g., to the same purpose, the same question, the same concept, etc.) are also explored.

One element of reasoning is questions. Questions emerge from the problems or issues that must or should be addressed in pursuit of a given purpose. In this episode, Drs. Linda Elder and Gerald Nosich begin to explore questions that inherently emerge from three core sets of concepts in critical thinking: the Elements of Thought, Intellectual Standards, and Intellectual Virtues.

In this episode, Drs. Linda Elder and Gerald Nosich discuss purpose as an Element of Thought. Purpose is the goal, objective, or function of our thinking that we are reasoning toward whenever we reason.

In this episode, Drs. Linda Elder and Gerald Nosich provide a broad overview of the Elements of Thought as tools for analyzing thinking. Internalizing this set of concepts enables you to deconstruct a line of reasoning into its most fundamental parts, allowing you to then examine these parts for quality using universal Intellectual Standards such as clarity, accuracy, precision, depth, breadth, relevance, significance, fairmindedness, etc.