What is the goal of critical thinking, and what does it specifically warn you about?

To make you a better thinker and decision-maker — partly by exposing the pitfalls hiding in the "art of argumentation."

The goal is practical: certain knowledge, skills and dispositions let you do two things.

1. Identify the right questions to ask before you make important decisions.
2. See the pitfalls (Fallstricke) in argumentation, specifically:
   • weak arguments and the psychological biases and heuristics tied to them (mental shortcuts that lead you astray);
   • dispositions that make you susceptible to bad argument and unconstructive dialogue;
   • the features of unconstructive dialogue itself.

So the payoff isn't abstract correctness — it's catching the specific ways reasoning goes wrong, in yourself and in conversation, before they drive a decision.