Chapter 1 - Learning to think critically

Abstract

This chapter introduces the basics of critical thinking from Richard Paul and Linda Elder at The Foundation for Critical Thinking. The drug development and discovery process can benefit from explicit tools for intellectual analysis, like Elements of Thought; intellectual assessment, like Intellectual Standards; a theory of intellectual habit development, Intellectual Traits; and recognition of biases associated with critical thinking self-reflective analysis. Techniques for using the integrated methods together for improving thinking, along with suggestions about how to develop qualitative critical thinking tools for any application, in particular for analyzing thinking within the process of drug development and discovery, are introduced and explicated.