Overview

Introduction to Critical Thinking

Reasoning

Application

Teaching Critical Thinking

Conclusion

 The Art of Reasoning  

Akin to critical thinking is logic, that is, the science or the investigation of reasoning. To reason is to infer or to deduce, and to deduce is to draw conclusions from premises. Logic provides a process for evaluating reasoning through the use of arguments. The objective of an argument is to present reasons in support of a conclusion. An argument contains statements consisting of a conclusion and supporting premises. For example:

There were five apples in the basket. (premise)
Now there are only four apples in the basket. (premise)
So one apple is missing. (conclusion).

Now we must consider deductive versus inductive reasoning. Deduction, according to Hauser's  Philosophical Glossary, is:
Reasoning in which the premises, if true, guarantee the truth of the conclusion. Example, "All cats are mortal; Bill is a cat; therefore, Bill is mortal."  Not all deduction is "from general to particular," as is sometimes said.  Nevertheless, the deduction of predictions of particular observable events from general hypotheses in order to test the hypotheses, is scientifically quite central.
Inductive reasoning (as defined by the same Philosophical Glossary) is:
Reasoning or argumentation in which the truth of the premises does not guarantee the truth of the conclusion. Not all inductive reasoning "goes from particular to general" as is sometimes said.  Though inductive generalization (of laws from particular instances) is, scientifically, perhaps the most important type of inductive reasoning (as stressed by Francis Bacon), reasoning from the past to future instances (i.e., from particulars to particulars) is also inductive and scientifically important; and there are other forms as well. Hume argued that induction has no rational or objective basis but only a subjective psychological one.

This section of the Think Bank provides an overview of reasoning and its direct association with critical thinking and culminates with a resource from Bruce Janz at the University of Central Florida called The Reasoning Page. His site is another respository of resources on critical thinking, formal logic, rhetoric, skepticism and applications of reasoning in various academic, professional, and cultural contexts.