Most of the time I believe in signs from the universe. I believe if you pay close attention, you can find confirmations from the cosmos on decisions you’ve made, or guidance to life’s questions by noticing the signs and synchronicities that pop up around you. I know not everyone believes in this kind of thing. Even I have days when my faith waivers, but I always come back to the idea. As I’ve said before, it makes life more fun. Today is my birthday, and it is also a Sunday, and it is also the day the term paper for my Critical Thinking course is due. To me, that is a sign that the universe wants me to share my academic writing with you here and spend the rest of my day celebrating. Don’t worry, I learned enough in the course to know that trusting signs from the universe to help decide whether to post an essay on thinking critically is ironic. I contain multitudes. If you’re interested, here’s 1500 words on Critical Thinking. I’m going ice skating with my kids.

The Role of Egocentrism, Pre-Reflection, and Fallacies in Critical Thinking

Effective Critical Analysis requires a thinker to subject each philosophical argument to logical skepticism and scrutiny while accounting for personal dispositions and biases in order to arrive at a sound conclusion. Throughout the process of an objective analysis, it is left to the thinker to decide what the most important and relevant information is when reasoning to a conclusion, being sure to ask pertinent questions where more information is needed. The thinker must apply the information gathered to reach a conclusion while being careful to consider that their own assumptions and interpretations are logically sound. “Educational researchers use the term ‘dispositions’ broadly for the habits of mind and attitudes that contribute causally to being a critical thinker.” (Hitchcock, 2018) If a thinker attempting to critically consider an argument cannot maintain the objectivity of their dispositions, their conclusion may be flawed. Egocentrism, pre-reflective claims, and fallacious beliefs can sway a thinker’s dispositions and have erroneous influences on their Critical Analysis. Critical thinking demands not only logical rigor but also continuous self-reflection and awareness to ensure that one’s own assumptions do not distort the reasoning process.

To demonstrate the importance of self-reflection in Critical Analysis, we can consider a hiring manager reviewing candidate applications to fill a vacant position within their company. Ideally, the manager would review the qualifications of each candidate critically to ensure the best person is selected to fill the role. There is a broad spectrum of relevant information to be considered. For example, the candidates’ knowledge of the field, their technical abilities, their temperament while working with others, etc. If the hiring manager allows their personal opinions and preferences to become relevant information without considering the implications of those opinions and preferences, and without exploring alternate points of view, they may end up passing over a more qualified job applicant in favor of someone who fits their personal dispositions and preferences. “When making judgments or decisions, people often rely on simplified information processing strategies called heuristics, which may result in systematic, predictable errors called cognitive biases.” (Berthet 2022) While it is impossible to eliminate all cognitive biases and assumptions completely, a practiced critical thinker should account for the possibility of egocentrism, pre-reflective thought, or fallacies that may create biases in their thought process. They should also check that their conclusion is not adversely affected by these biases. In our example, by actively recognizing and mitigating personal biases, the hiring manager can make a more objective and well-reasoned decision that prioritizes the merit of an employee over the personal dispositions of the person who hires them.

Egocentrism undermines critical thinking and should be avoided. Egocentrism causes a critical thinker to place themselves at the center of all situations and assume that the viewpoints of others will align with their own. If a hiring manager who enjoys singing is too egocentric in their thought process, they might place priority on the office’s karaoke night and ask for more information about a job candidate’s vocal range or consider their susceptibility to stage fright as a knock against their aptitude for the job. The manager is erroneously applying their preference to sing a duet with a coworker as criteria to be selected for. “It can be important to recognize what is implicit but relevant at the same time that we discard what is explicit but irrelevant” when reasoning an argument. (Bennett & Groarke, 2024) Unless public performance is part of the job description, the candidates singing ability is not in line with the company’s goal of hiring the best person for the role and is therefore irrelevant information. The manager is allowing their own dispositions to bear weight on the hiring decision. Instead, the manager should not consider the information about the applicants singing ability as they come to their conclusion on who is the best hire. Sound critical thinking involves evaluating an argument from all relevant viewpoints. Here, the company’s goal of filling the position with a qualified candidate outweighs the hiring manager’s personal preferences for a singing partner. Avoiding egocentric thinking ensures that the personal biases of the thinker does not distort the evaluation of an argument’s conclusion.

Critical thinkers must also account for the unconscious thoughts that occur automatically as they begin their collection of evidence for or against an argument. “Some of the initiating dispositions, such as open-mindedness and willingness to suspend judgment, are also internal critical thinking dispositions, in the sense of mental habits or attitudes that contribute causally to doing a good job of critical thinking once one starts the process.” (Hitchcock, 2018) In contrast, unexamined, pre-reflective thinking can create cognitive bias in the mind of the critical thinker. For example, if our hiring manager has had a lifetime of bad experiences with men who wear blue ties, they may unconsciously rule out anyone who shows up for an interview wearing one without considering the qualifications on their resume. Or, if the hiring manager is on the lookout for a romantic partner, they may show favor to a red-headed candidate they find physically attractive. A practiced critical thinker would account for these biases by only considering the criteria pertinent to an employee in the job position. If the hiring manager only considers the information gathered through a candidates resume and interviews as evidence in the argument of whether they should be hired, they can reasonably prove the candidate’s abilities are sufficient for the role and the manager’s personal feelings about a candidates tie choice or hair color would not affect the conclusion. Accounting for pre-reflective thought allows the hiring manager to make a decision that truly reflects a candidate’s qualifications and the outcome is a more well-reasoned conclusion.

Our hiring manager must also be mindful to avoid all manner of fallacies when making the decision on who to hire to fill an open position. Imagine the manager learns that the candidate is applying for new jobs because their previous employer went bankrupt. The manager may become caught in a false cause fallacy and assume that the candidate had something to do with the previous company’s financial failing and reject them on that basis. The applicant may have had nothing to do with the bankruptcy and continued to provide exemplary work in their own department before the company went under. Because they did not account for the fallacy, the manager has mistakenly dismissed a viable choice. The hiring manager might also make a hasty generalization about a candidate coming from a company known for its innovation and success and assume the applicant is also innovative and successful without asking for evidence to support that premise. This case could lead to a candidate being hired and then underperforming on the job. During their Critical Analysis the thinker needs to be aware of the inferences made via mistaken beliefs. “Because motivated inferences result from unconscious mental processes rather than explicit reasoning, the errors in inferences cannot be exposed simply by identifying a fallacy in a reconstructed argument. Dealing with biases requires identification of both conscious and unconscious goals of arguers, goals that can figure in explanations of why they incline to particular biases.” (Hansen, 2024) A responsible hiring manager should be aware of fallacious thinking and consider only known information when making the final decision on who to hire to fill the open position. By identifying and avoiding fallacies, critical thinkers can ensure that their decisions are based solely on verified information rather than faulty assumptions.

Maintaining clarity, objectivity, and logical consistency is essential for producing conclusions to a Critical Analysis that are truly justified and reliable. “People seek or interpret evidence in ways that are partial to their existing beliefs and expectations, often unconscious” of their own bias. (Hitchcock, 2018) It is imperative that a critical thinker strives to become aware of the effect their dispositions and biases have when considering the evidence of an argument to ensure they arrive at a sound conclusion. Thinkers that are too egocentric, pre-reflective, or fallacious in their thought process will come to conclusions distorted by their own personal dispositions. Thinkers who are overly egocentric may prioritize their own perspective or desires over objective criteria, pre-reflective thinkers may accept ideas without sufficient scrutiny, and those relying on fallacious reasoning may allow errors in logic to dictate their conclusions. By actively reflecting on their dispositions and biases, critical thinkers can adjust their reasoning to minimize the impact of these influences to make sound, well-supported conclusions. Recognizing and adjusting for egocentric, pre-reflective, and fallacious tendencies, ensures thinkers maintain objectivity in their decision-making and is essential for conclusions that accurately reflect the evidence rather than the thinker’s own dispositions.

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Bibliography

Bennett, B., & Groarke, L. (2024). Informal logic. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2024 Edition). Stanford University. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2024/entries/logic-informal/

Berthet, V. (2022). The Impact of Cognitive Biases on Professionals’ Decision-Making: A Review of Four Occupational Areas. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, Article 802439. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.802439

Hansen, H. V. (2024). Fallacies. In E. N. Zalta & U. Nodelman (Eds.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2025 ed.). The Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2025/entries/fallacies/

Hitchcock, D. (2018). Critical thinking. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2018 ed.). The Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2018/entries/critical-thinking/