Critical Thinking Skills Motivated by the Study of Hume’s Problem and Confirmation Paradoxes

Abstract

The ways of dealing with paradoxes have value in the educational context because they imply the use of critical thinking strategies by learners. Precisely, the important thing about this research is that it points out which critical thinking skills allow the development of the study of the problem of induction and the paradoxes of confirmation, specifically, that of Hempel’s crow and Goodman’s grue. The objective of this paper is to highlight the way in which the different solutions (or non-solutions) proposed for both the case of induction and the challenge of confirmation develop certain critical thinking skills. The methodology of this work is qualitative and is based on the search for information and analysis and interpretation of data found in books, articles, dictionaries, theses, among others. However, formal logic is also used. As results we have the following findings: Hume’s problem alerts us that there are several philosophical reasons for not trusting in inductive reasoning; likewise, the analysis of two paradoxes (Hempel’s and Goodman’s) do the same with the concept of confirmation. As a main conclusion it can be stated that 22 critical thinking skills have been found that the solution of these issues can develop.