We explain what the criterion is, the origin of the term and its various meanings. Also, what is an evaluation criterion and the lack of criterion.
A criterion is what is taken into account to make something, such as the alphabet to order books.What is the criterion?
With the word criterion, in general, we refer to a rule or scale from which it is possible to know the truth or make a decision determined. What we need to take into account, or that should be considered in a timely manner, make up the criteria with which we make or judge a matter.
Is word comes from greek kriterion, with the same meaning, and which in turn comes from the Greek verb krinein, translatable as "sift", "divide" or "separate". Seen this way, the criterion is figuratively that which helps us to classify, divide or separate a matter into its parts.
For example, if we must organize a set of books on a library shelf, we can apply an alphabetical criterion by titles or by authors, an editorial criterion (depending on the company that published them), or even a thematic criterion, thus creating compartments or classifications. among which all the books are distributed.
The criteria for a matter, therefore, can be immensely varied and are part of the rational apparatus with which the human being face the reality and makes judgments, opinions or thoughts. That is why people often "change their criteria", that is, they change the parameters with which they judge a reality and therefore also change their opinion or verdict on it.
Hence, the word criterion ended up being more or less synonymous of "opinion" or "point of view", and also of rationality or good sense: when someone does something "according to their criteria", we understand that they do it according to their understanding, as the product of a decision made consciously.
The same happens, in the opposite sense, when it is said that someone "lacks criteria" (that is, they have no idea) or have "poor criteria" (that is, they think little or badly about things).
Evaluation criteria
The criteria of evaluationAs can be seen from the previous explanation, they are the scales that we use when determining a result, especially of an exam, a test or an evaluation of some kind. This refers to what we take into consideration in order to discern between what is right and what is wrong, between correct and incorrect answers, and so on.
For example, the school teachers use an already structured evaluation criterion, with which they can know which of our answers in an exam are good and which are not, in order to evaluate us without intervening (or doing it as little as possible). ) their personal affections or their subjectivity. Since an evaluation criterion can be explained, transmitted and revised.
Severability criterion
The criterion of divisibility is a norm of the math that allows us to determine if a number is divisible by another, throwing a whole number as the result, or not.
Generally, these criteria state that one number is divisible by another as long as it complies with certain requirements; for example, all even numbers are always divisible by 2, or by another even number. Or for a number to be divisible by 3, the sum of its digits must always be a multiple of 3.
So: when a number does not meet the established divisibility criteria, we will not be able to carry out the division and obtain whole numbers as a result.
Lack of criteria
There is talk of "lack of judgment" to indicate that someone performs an action or a value judgment without being clear about the things that should be taken into account for it, that is, without having much idea of what he is doing or saying.
Thus, a person may lack the necessary criteria to make certain important decisions, or to carry out some planning, just as someone who does not know according to what point of view a set of books should ideally be classified.
On the other hand, it is normal that "lack of criteria" is used as a synonym for "poor criteria", that is, lacking criteria is equivalent to having bad criteria. In colloquial speech the term is used to say that someone reasons very poorly or hastily, does not take into account the important things in doing so, or acts in an erratic, clumsy or unaware of consequences.