What does it mean to think
critically? Thinking critically simply means to separate fact from fiction,
come up with the best course of action, act on the decision, and then figure
whether those actions will give desired results. Critical Thinking is a useful
skill to pick up. It won't allow you to be swayed as easily as others, you'll
learn a lot more from situations, you'll have greater chance of getting hired,
and it'll help add some more control to your thought process and decision
making, which will help organize your life.
Phases
to Critical Thinking
· The Production phase and the Judgment phase.
· The Production Phase is exactly what it sounds like, the
phase in the production of new ideas and concepts.
· The Judgment phase is where the mind judges the ideas and
decides whether to make revisions.
Free will and Determinism
Do you think we’re free to live life
how we want it or do you think that life is lived based off of some planner known
as destiny? I think that life is lived with a little bit of both. I most definitely
don’t believe completely in one or the other. There are too many factors that
are out of our control for us to have complete free will, but there are still
things that we’re able to control to an extent. We’re able to control whatever
environment we wish to stay in, but not the weather and the amount of
inhabitants that come in or out. One’s environment can have major influences on
them, especially their thought process. Most decisions we make are just
responses to our environmental influences.
Bad Thinking Habits
·
The
Mine-Is-Better Habit
·
Face
Saving
·
Resistance
To Change
·
Conformity
·
Stereotyping
·
Self-Deception
The Mine Is Better Habit is habit
normally seen children, where they think there particular item/idea is better,
without even considering the opposite.
Face Saving is when someone tries to
hide their embarrassment by keeping a straight face, or even blaming someone else
for their mistake. Typically extremely prideful people exhibit this habit.
Resistance to Change is exactly what
it sounds like, and it’s normally shown by older people when it comes to new
technology.
Conformity means to conform to
another’s belief without even challenging it to see if it makes sense
critically.
Stereotyping is making
generalizations out of certain groups, like races for example (there are a lot of
these) black people love fried chicken and grape koolaid, Asian people love to
do math, etc.
Self-deception is to literally deceive
yourself by believing in something false, or against your morals.
Problem Solving
Being good at problem solving is
another skill that comes with being an effective critical thinker.
There are barriers to Problem
solving:
·
Failure to recognize the problem
·
Not conceiving the problem enough.
·
Making hasty/risky decisions.
·
Failure to consider all
consequences.
·
Failure to consider the feasibility
of the solution.
Steps to Problem solving:
·
What’s the problem?
·
Determine the alternatives?
·
Determine advantages and disadvantages
for each alterantive.
·
What’s the answer?
·
How well does it work?
The Six Thinking Hats:
·
White: Objective
·
Yellow: Positive
·
Green: Creative
·
Red: Feelings
·
Black: Negative
·
Blue: Process
Arguments
Have you ever been in a losing
argument before? Frustrating isn’t it? As a critical thinker arguments will not
only be easier, but maybe even fun. An argument is a form of thinking in which
statements are used to back up statements. Almost like brain fighting. The statements
that back up the main statement (conclusion) are called premises. If there is
no claim defended with reasons, than the statement is not an argument.
Deductive arguments are arguments in which the conclusion indefinitely follows
from the premises. Inductive argument conclusion might follow from the
premises.
