The Critical Decline of Critical Thinking

Starting now.

And with it, we'll launch this new podcast right now as we speak that is being created to play a role in this drama of ever-increasing intensity. The podcast is called Vantage Point, and it will give you just that, a unique vantage point.

Today, in our first inaugural episode, we will establish a clear unified definition of what critical thinking really is, examine 10 different categories of critical thinking, have a cold hard look at it in our world, and lay out 10 different types of critical thinking, considering three aphorisms.

For good measure, we'll check in with Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr to get us off to the right start on critical thinking.

So, to warm up, to get ourselves going down the runway, so to speak, let me ask you a question, a really big question. In fact, probably the biggest question of the century so far worldwide. That question, where has critical thinking gone?

We need to answer that question and then decide what to do about it.

So, what has become of critical thinking?

In the last couple of decades of my professional and private life, this waning of critical thinking has become so plain to see and so painful to bear that we at Vantage Point have decided to do something about it.

Now, just what can two guys do about a worldwide problem, you might ask?

Michael Adams, the beloved late president of Fairleigh Dickinson University, constantly exhorted us. No one person can change the world, but anyone can change what he can touch.

And Mahatma Gandhi always taught, whatever you do may seem insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.

So we will. Before we continue, I'd like to bring in a perspective from someone who has lived through another technological revolution. I graduated undergrad from Binghamton University in 1995. As I'm graduating, there is all of this hype about what's coming, which was being hyped that the world, as you know, is going to change dramatically in the next five years.

Why? Because the internet is coming. Different from the internet coming, there was no conversation back then about a challenge to humans' critical thinking. It was that here comes the internet, which is going to be a democratization of all the world's information at your fingertips. But here in 2026, there's an active concern about what AI may do to diminish human beings from exercising critical thought or even understanding how to think critically.

We're back, so let's get started. First, with a motivating thought, a commitment, if you will.

Give a fool a chance to talk and he'll make you listen. Give a wise man a chance to talk and he'll make you think.

And that's our promise.

Critical thinking, we recognize, is on the decline.

Rapidly, ubiquitously, and alarmingly.

And it's what gave birth to this podcast, Vantage Point. But that's nothing new.

At its core, Vantage Point has one objective and one only, to help make you better, more competitive, and more fulfilled by constantly improving your critical thinking.

That's also our promise.

And now let's go with a proclamation of mine is thematically embedded in this issue the undeniable disturbing decline of critical thinking then we'll get to the aphorisms i bring with me those wonderful little truths that help us through our lives and inspirations from great minds of the past so you may want to stick around we've got goodies for you the length of the broadcast.

So let's go. Before we define critical thinking, let's hear why this conversation matters to leaders and educators confronting AI today. We need to really now have a conversation about what it means to ensure people are thinking critically, and there needs to be a focused conversation around that. A theme that critical thinking is a skill set that absolutely needs to be front and center. Fairleigh Dickinson University has leadership now that also believes that while AI certainly will impact just about every nugget of our lives and education and career paths, they also are stressing the need for critical thinking as a skill as well.

So there's solidarity with the leadership of FDU, as well as Eliandor being a alumni of FDU and a former professor at FDU. We're going to have this wonderful opportunity on this podcast, Vantage Point, to dive deep into these thoughts as the unstoppable tsunami wave of AI was just going to keep coming ashore.

Welcome back to our first inaugural episode. Okay, so just what is critical thinking?

The best definition that we've been able to put together, to piece together, put together as a mosaic, is this.

Critical thinking is the disciplined process of being open-minded, analyzing information, questioning assumptions, evaluating evidence, and reaching reasoned conclusions, rather than simply accepting claims at face value. you.

If you're a critical thinker, you ask questions like, what is the evidence? Is the source reliable? Are there alternative explanations? What assumptions are being made? And does the conclusion logically follow from the facts?

Critical thinking is not actually a skill you must understand, but a trait. It does, however, merge and integrate important skills such as There's analysis, logic, evaluation, inference, open-mindedness, skepticism, and reflection.

In today's world of AI, it is more important than ever. But critical thinking, on the other hand, is on the decline.

Yep, critical thinking is on the decline. Rapidly, ubiquitously, alarmingly, and it's what gave birth to this podcast, Vantage Point.

But as I said earlier, it's nothing new. It's been going on longer than when any of us can pin a start date. The waters have risen, and we find ourselves up to our necks in a population that can't think their way into, let alone out of a paper bag.

I wish I had data on this, but I don't think there is any, at least on a general basis.

But I do know this.

Having taught two graduate courses in leadership and communication over a span of 15 years at Fairleigh Dickinson University from 2003 to 2018, I can attest anecdotally that the erosion of critical thinking skills is real and no estimate of its extent overemphasizes it. What with my having taught more than a thousand students plus having coached more than 7,000 clients in total from 78 countries and 207 colleges, universities, and community colleges over 28 years, I hope you'll trust my assertions.

The erosion of critical thinking skills is real.

And as for the extent of it, it's everywhere.

Critical thinking is an endangered species.

For example, here's what too many functioning adults can't even claim as their skills, writing a four-page informative paper, doing a compare and contrast, selecting an effective and appropriate persuasive technique, recognizing persuasion fallacies, determining the the veracity of sources and good data, using deductive and inductive reasoning, and on and on and on.

These and many more are skills I remember having learned beginning in fourth grade.

And I wonder which is the last generation that will be able to say that.

Critical thinking, we see, isn't just one skill. It's a smorgasbord of ways of thinking never used alone.

They're integrated so appropriately for the opening inaugural episode.

Here are the most commonly used types of critical thinking with explanations and descriptions.

Thereby this podcast launched in spring of 2026 so the fight for posterity's sake everybody knows when is dedicated to the preservation and proliferation of critical thinking and with Adams and Gandhi's inspiration we do what we can we touch who we can and it is very important that We do it.

The first type of critical thinking is analytical thinking.

This happens to be the thing that shows up on most people's resumes. And when you ask them what that means, they can't tell you.

But what it is, is breaking information into parts to understand how they relate. And in common usage, it involves comparing data, spotting patterns, separating facts from assumptions and things like that.

Second, logical reasoning, the argument when you get into the ability to use the word therefore.

So you're using structured, rational steps to reach sound conclusions, such as if A leads to B and B leads to C, then A leads to C.

Simple. You remember that from geometry, don't you?

Number three, evaluative thinking.

This is when you examine closely and honestly, is my data, is my thinking strong?

You'll be judging the quality, credibility, or value of ideas or evidence or of course data.

In usage, it's assessing whether a study is biased or whether it seems reliable, for example.

Number four, relative thinking.

Bertrand Russell, the great English philosopher of the 20th century, said that in all affairs, it's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.

When you do that, progress occurs. When you don't, you wind up living in the past.

That's reflective thinking.

Number five is my favorite, creative or divergent, or some say rebellious or disruptive thinking.

Where you are generating new ideas or seeing problems from fresh angles. And in usage, you come up with new solutions instead of defaulting to the obvious one.

This is the most freewheeling of them all, and in the long run, the most productive.

Number six, problem solving.

Recognizing that there is a problem in the first place and applying reasoning to identify problems and to identify and design workable solutions.

Design workable solutions.

You can have solutions that are not workable that won't do you a damn bit of good, but design workable solutions is where we are.

Here, you define the root cause of a failure and you test different fixes.

Number seven, systems thinking.

Looking at the big picture and understanding how parts interact within a whole system. If we do this in this department, how will that affect the overall corporation? How will that affect other departments? How will that affect other divisions, subsidiaries, and mergers, and acquisitions?

And seeing how changes in one department can affect an entire organization.

Number eight, strategic thinking, dealing with risk and uncertainty, thinking ahead and considering long-term consequences and trade-offs based on immediate decisions.

In usage, choosing an option, it's not ideal now, but it pays off later. When the Allies began the planning and strategizing of the D-Day invasion to end World War II, they were thinking two and a half years ahead.

Fortunately, they had a guy named Eisenhower who was really good at that.

Two left.

Number nine, ethical thinking.

Asking ourselves the question, should we? To replace the question, could we? We could do a lot of things, especially with the onset of quantum computing and greater acceleration in space and artificial intelligence and manufacturing organs and things like that.

But we have figured out how to use any invention and discovery we've ever come up with Both negatively and positively.

The question is, should we? And if we come up with a hesitation, like maybe we shouldn't yet, maybe this is a little too out of control, then we are afraid to do that because the other guys aren't saying we should we.

So the conflict between should we and could we is a big one. And it's going to dominate ethical thinking for years to come.

And finally, skeptical thinking.

What will happen if we do or don't? We have to continually challenge what we take in and know, and we must be in a constant creative dissatisfaction.

There you have it, 10 of the most widely used critical thinking categories and approaches. As we move from analytical thinking into ethical thinking, let's pause on a question every organization now faces.

Every generation gets their breakthrough technology. I'm Mike Ramos, producer of Vantage Point. At Singletask, my agency, our challenge isn't deciding what AI can do. It's deciding what humans should continue doing. I do a lot of AI development and marketing automations, and I can tell you the future won't belong to the organizations that automate everything. It belongs to the organizations that know where judgment, responsibility, and critical thinking still matter most. Technology can accelerate thinking. It should never replace it. And that's why I've partnered with Eli to bring you Vantage Point.

We're back, and I want to give you three aphorisms. Every episode, I will deliver aphorisms to you, and I want to explain what they are in case you don't know, and I want to make it plain why I love them.

The aphorist asserts the truth as he sees it with no need to argue, no need to defend, or no need to explain it. He is unshakingly confident he is right, and that's that. Take it or leave it.

In my very long career, here are a couple of inescapable truths that I've discovered along the way.

I'll share more with you each episode, and after these, we'll see some great thoughts from great minds of the past.

The first aphorism I want to bring you says, generally speaking, you aren't learning much when your lips are moving.

I'm tempted to comment, but I just told you that aphorists don't need to.

Aphorism number two, very few people ever got into trouble by listening too much.

Think about that at your next meeting.

And aphorism number three, you can easily identify the people who don't know what they're talking about they're usually the ones who insist that they do I think there's a commonality among the three about speaking, listening and knowing what you're talking about let's take another quick break and we'll be back to check in with a couple of history's great thinkers.

Back again.

From great minds, I can't think of any two that would be better to begin with than this.

Albert Einstein proudly said that imagination is more important than knowledge.

But we, on the other hand, are so proud of the fact that we stick to our guns and that we keep doing things the same way over and over again and we don't listen to new voices.

Niels Bohr, in a debate that he was having with a colleague of his at a science conference, lost his temper in the argument and shouted at his colleague, no, no, no, you're not thinking, you're just being logical.

Now, Albert Einstein gave us relativity to explain the universe. Niels Bohr gave us quantum physics to explain the universe.

Each system thinking stands up by itself and comes to logical conclusions but together they destroy each other they oppose each other what's up well what's up is not as important as what's interesting years after those comments were made albert einstein and niels bohr accomplished something that nobody else did in those years and went on to great recognition for it.

They were given the same accolade, yet they opposed each other strenuously.

What was it that they shared in common?

I will answer that after you had a chance to research it, and I'll bring you the answer in the next episode of this podcast.

And now I'm going to ask you a what-if question.

What if? My favorite question. Many scientists and sociologists' favorite question. What if?

I default to Albert Einstein again, who used to muse.

We know that light travels in beams, and light beams have light waves.

So, if I were riding on the first wave of a beam of light and held a mirror in front of me, would I be invisible in the mirror?

Hmm.

Think about it. We'll answer it after to this next break we're back for our last segment and I was thinking about it and I'm not going to answer it after the last break I'm going to make it hang until next podcast but ask yourself that question if he was riding on a beam of light and riding on the first wave and held a mirror in front of him, would he be invisible in the mirror?

Einstein asked himself that when he was 16 years old, and when he was 26 and gave the world his five great papers, his critics tried to tear him apart by asking the same question and criticizing him as having the mind of a child.

Einstein's response, thank you.

That does it for our first episode.

Just want to let you know that coming up in the next few weeks, we're going to talk about, as a matter of fact, in the next episode, how the ancient Greeks educated me and why that still matters. I believe the loss of critical thinking traces back to a weakening and an unwee in the world of education.

And has lessened its importance in our lives.

We'll talk about the importance of global alliances.

I'll discuss 21 critical traits for the 21st century. I'll give you a lovely and important vignette on Nicolaus Copernicus, one of the original critical thinkers of all time.

And then we'll take a look at just what it was that made Sandy Koufax the greatest pitcher of all time and how you can make that work for you too.

That's it. Thanks for listening. Before we leave, I'd like to share a brief reflection from someone whose own career has been shaped by the ideas we discussed today. My name is Stephen Bozer. I am currently Senior Vice President of Human Health at a pharmaceutical company in New Jersey called Flavine. I met Eli Amdur in the first year of my MBA program at FDU back in 2003. He was teaching a course called Executive Communication and Leadership, and it became quickly apparent to me that here was a man with a tremendous amount of experience and a tremendous amount of knowledge that I immediately as a student wanted to grab a hold of and maximize.

To the fullest. Eli and I struck a relationship that transcended my graduating with my MBA from FDU and continued as a friendship for many, years. Eli has career coached hundreds and hundreds of people through his career and has a legacy of really helping people achieve their highest ambitions in their careers. I consider him a close friend and it's an honor for me to be associated with him as a founding sponsor on his Vantage Point podcast, which will dive deep into the need for critical thinking in the age of AI.

Thank you for joining us for the first episode of Vantage Point. We appreciate you spending this time with us and we look forward to continuing the conversation in our next episode.

Until then, keep questioning, keep learning and keep thinking critically.