Dichotomy of Critical Enquiry Situated in a Creative Experience - Essay Example

?Dichotomy of Critical Enquiry situated in a creative experience Introduction This paper includes the real about empirical enquiry and critical thinking. To address this, the proponent chooses to include dichotomy of critical enquiry situated in a creative experience. Here are the two cases. A young musician successfully learns their first piece of music by repetition and study and plays/sings it through alone and for the first time with a firm inner understanding of the piece. On the other hand, a young musician learns their first piece of music by repetition and study and plays/sings it through under successful examination and in front of assessors with a firm sense of accuracy of the piece. The first example refers to a feeling of success on completion that is similar to that of the enquiring philosopher when working out a problem through personal reflection and sensibility. The second example refers to a feeling on success on completion that is similar to that of the experimenting scientist on working out a problem through rigorous experiment. It is the main purpose of this paper to discuss this dichotomy. Along the way, the proponent includes the discussion on how the processes of Critical Enquiry differ and/or converge in the above stated examples. Furthermore, the discussion also includes how success is achieved and registered for the musician in both examples. The nature-nurture controversy Based on the above cases, there are two important ways in which the young musician could actually learn a piece of music. The first way involves firm understanding of the piece in which this effort could be tantamount to personal reflection and sensibility because it happens within the bound of individual effort. Just like a philosopher, the achievement of thoughts happens after a thorough critical reflective process. On the other hand, the second way in learning could happen in the presence of an assessor having substantial knowledge on achieving accurate piece. In this way, there is an association of external factor through the presence of an assessor who could actually influence the actual learning process of the young musician. At this point, there would be actual basis of certain learning output. In the above illustration, this reflects the nature of scientists From environmental perspective in psychology, the environment has the crucial role to influence the actual learning process of an individual (Feldman, 2010). Agreed by John Locke, his tabula rasa doctrine supports the idea that the environment has the capacity to mold humans, in every aspect in life (Lefrancois, 2011). However, the nature position which is a strong opposition of the tabula rasa doctrine strongly points out that genes could be responsible for human learning and special characteristics such as intelligence and strength (Lefrancois, 2011, Engler, 2008; Harris, 2012). This supplements the idea that learning is an existential process or vital to human survival (Jarvis, 2006). In other words, there is a direct argument against the idea that one could acquire intelligence from the environment because it is not innate. However, the nature position is clear in its point that intelligence is innate and every living thing has corresponding characteristics because of each individual genetic make up. It is important to focus on this philosophical concept prior to the discussion of the dichotomy of critical enquiry situated in a creative experience from the case of young musician learning their first piece. In the above case, the first situation could remarkably represent the nature position applied in the context of human learning. The very strong justification would be the actual reflective effort initiated by the young musician just to be able to learn. At this point, it is clear that the young musician actually possessed built in capability to learn on their own with the first piece of music, even in the absence of an assessor. Here, one could consider that the actual effort of the young musician justifies the prevailing claim of nature position to actually contest and debunk the probable weakness of tabula rasa doctrine. Although the above arguments do not directly tackle the actual process involved in the critical enquiry situated in a creative experience, the ideas associated with nature position and tabula rasa doctrine could serve as substantial foundations in explaining the dichotomy. This could substantially pave the way for understanding the process of critical enquiry and even the achievement of success on the part of musician. For instance, the idea about personal reflection and sensibility includes the actual process of critical enquiry, but it is important to understand the very nature or root of this process prior to knowing the dichotomy. The point of understanding this is to find out at which level processes of critical enquiry between the two cases diverge from the point of view of musician’s creative experience. Understanding the presented ideas involved in tabula rasa doctrine and nature position of acquiring learning therefore paves the way for the clear existence of actual divergence of processes in critical enquiry. Within these two arguments, it is clear that humans have the capacity to learn. May it be due to innate intelligence or actual learning from experience and environmental influence; humans have the potential to acquire substantial learning. The critical enquiry is present, although there might be variation in the process based on the two given cases on how the young musician learned a piece of music. The divergence is clear, and it could manifest itself within the argument that as a human being, the young musician is not an exception to the reality that learning through critical enquiry require higher level of thinking, which a person could either acquire from the environment or an integral component of genetic make up. The entire process of learning requires intelligence and it is one important requirement in order to come up with a successful process in critical enquiry. This is a specific point at which the said process diverges. In fact, the existence of human intelligence has been pointed out in either of the two theories concerning whether human intelligence is innate or not. In other words, there is actually a specific point at which the critical enquiry itself could become a successful process. In other words, learning a piece of music from the case of young musician prior to critical enquiry requires intelligence, something that human possesses that other animals probably may necessarily do not have. This substantially justifies the arguments that if nature orchestrates humans in its plans with high level of intelligence and strength, other animals as observed might possess other specific characteristics as well (Lefrancois, 2011). The critical enquiry At this point, it is important to consider critical enquiry as a critical reflective process necessary to enhance the attributes to think strategically such as imagination, broad perspective, juggle, no control and desire to win (Sloan, 2012). In the two above cases, the first one simply tries to point out critical enquiry just like a philosopher pondering on things or achieving a personal reflective process. On the other hand, the second one tries to demonstrate how scientist finally comes to learn things, by experimentation or actual learning experience from the environment. Both of these require higher form of intelligence as discussed above and it is exactly the point where the dichotomy diverges. Now it is also important to analyse the process associated with critical enquiry in a creative experience of the young musician in order to understand how exactly the differences exist. In the presence of intelligence among humans, it is not impossible to learn things in any way. The first scenario of the creative experience of young musician is completely mutually exclusive with the second one, although what is common to them is a clear manifestation of the young musician’s capacity to learn. However, there are two different scenarios in the above case in which the young musician could enhance or facilitate learning. Let us now focus on the level at which the young musician could think strategically. The creative process in this case requires imagination and broad perspective or desire to succeed in learning new piece of music. These are specifically important attributes in order to think strategically as stated earlier. The point in this argument is to substantially show that in the first case and just like a philosopher, the young musician must have substantially used higher level of imaginative input and output along the critical enquiry process in the actual creative experience. The justification is the use of personal reflective process, and by the fact that humans have individual capacity to learn. On the other hand, the second case which points the young musician just like a scientist provides the idea that the critical enquiry involved requires actual observation. The learning at this point must be most likely empirical in the presence of assessors who would substantially impart their points on the basis of experience and actual common output that at some point proven to be effective. The level of desire to succeed in learning or critical enquiry from creative experience at this point may be different from that associated with personal critical enquiry. At this point, the source of motivation may be higher from external source or vice versa, but might be necessarily equal. In the first case, the personal reflective process might be due to personal drive and might not be influenced by outside force. Although there is a possibility that the young musician might be motivated to learn on a personal case due to influence obtained from the environment. However, the clear cut difference would be the actual process of learning involved. The second case might be more empirical in detail because there is involvement of expertise that could further facilitate and enhance the actual critical enquiry within the creative experience. The achievement of success As already stated, the desire to succeed in learning a new piece of song on the part of the young musician is evident in the two scenarios. So there is involvement of motivation for critical enquiry. In the first case, it is evident that there is involvement of personal drive which actually leads to personal reflective process. For example, the young musician must have substantial motivation for self-accomplishment in the absence of outside influence. However, in the second case, the level of motivation might be different because of the assessor’s presence that could actually make or break the young musician’s personal level of motivation. From the point of view of nurture position, if appreciation would be enough to motivate the young musician, then the level of critical enquiry might be higher. This could actually nurture the motivation of young musician to learn, igniting the passion to deeper critical enquiry within the actual creative experience. This could prove the claim that learning is associated with learner’s behaviour or shared by others (Illeris, 2009; Pierce and Cheney, 2004). At this point, the young musician would have substantial guide as to which part of the critical enquiry within the bound of creative experience there is a need for improvement. The assessor could actually help the young musician for performance evaluation and this could either increase or decrease the motivational level of the latter to succeed in learning a new piece of music. The achievement of success is present in young musician’s system of critical enquiry, justifying the point that humans have the capacity to learn and to succeed in something. However, as shown, the achievement of success would also depend on either personal or environmental factor. At this point, the dichotomy is once again presented that the nature-nurture controversy continues to exist event in the case of achieving success, in this case learning a new piece of song under creative experience employing critical enquiry. Conclusion Learning therefore which one could acquire through creative enquiry is either innate among humans or obtained from the environment. There is no corresponding answer as to which is true between these two perspectives, but it is clear that the dichotomy of creative experience of learning a piece of music between personal sensibility and rigorous experiments diverges in here. The differences on the other hand are evident at the attributes to think strategically that the young musician might have employed in the actual critical enquiry situated in a creative process. This means that the success of actual critical enquiry situated in a creative experience could either have great influence from external environment or personal issues. Whichever among of these have great weight and impact on critical enquiry experience would remain a significant source of dichotomy. References Engler, B. (2008) Personality Theories: An Introduction. (8th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning. Feldman, R. S. (2010) Essentials of Understanding Psychology. (9th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Companies. Harris, J. F. (2012) The Ascent of Man: A Philosophy of Human Nature. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers. Illeris, K. (2009) Contemporary Theories of Learning: Learning Theorists…in Their Own Words. New York, NY: Taylor & Francis. Jarvis, P. (2006) Towards a Comprehensive Theory of Human Learning. New York, NY: Routledge. Lefrancois, G. R. (2011) Theories of Human Learning: What the Professor Said. (6th ed.). Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning. Pierce, W. D., and Cheney, C. D. (2004) Behavior Analysis and Learning. Mahwah, NJ: Routledge. Sloan, J. (2012) Learning to Think Strategically. Oxford: Routledge. Read More