To a certain degree, it's a matter of logic -- of being able to spot weakness in other people's arguments and to avoid them in your own. It also includes related skills such as distinguishing fact from opinion and assessing the soundness of evidence.
In the broad sense, critical thinking is focused, organized thinking -- the ability to see clearly the relationships among ideas. ___. The greatest thinkers, scientists, and inventors have often taken information that was really available and put it together differently to produce new ideas.That, too, is critical thinking.