Critical Thinking Skills - Essay Example

CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS Critical thinking is a intellectuality disciplined process of skillfully and actively applying, analyzing, synthesizingor evaluating information gathered from or generated by observation, reasoning, explanation, reflection or communication as a guide to belief an action. critical thinking is in being responsive to various subject matters, purposes and issues .it entails the examination of those elements of thought implicit in all reasoning purposes, question at issues, concepts, reasoning leading to conclusions and implications, objections from alternative viewpoints and fame of reference. Critical thinking varies according to the motivation underlying it. When grounded in selfish motives, it is often manifested in the skillful manipulation of ideas in service to one's own, or one's groups, vested interest. As such, it is typically intellectually flawed, however pragmatically successful it might be. When grounded in fair mindedness and intellectual integrity, it is typically of a higher order intellectually, though subject to the charge of "idealism" by those habituated to its selfish use. critical thinking is a vital and important topic of modern education. it means correct thinking in the pursuit of reliable and relevant information and knowledge about the world. it is reasonable, reflective, responsible and skillful thinking focused on deciding what to believe or what to do. one who thinks critically can ask appropriate questions, gathered relevant information, efficiently and creatively sort through this information and come to reliable and trustworthy conclusions about the world that enable one to live and act successfully in it. in other way critical thinking is high order thinking, enabling a person to for example, responsibly judge between political candidates, serve on a murder trail jury, evaluate the society's need for nuclear power plants, and assess the consequences of globing warming. critical thinking enables an individual to become a responsible person who contributes to society and not be merely a consumer of society's distractions. critical thinking cannot be taught reliably to students or by most parents. Trained teachers and knowledgeable instructors are required to impart the proper knowledge, information and skills. critical thinking is a scientific thinking. any individual with advanced degree in any university discipline has almost learned the techniques of it. it is the ability to think for one's self and responsibly make those important decisions that effects one's life. it can also be considered as critical inquiry that enables a person to think critically, pose new answers and ask questions, discover variety of information that can be good or bad, question authorities and traditional beliefs and often end up in gaining power in society greater than their numbers. most people are emotional thinkers and indulge themselves in wishful, hopeful thinkers believing what they believe, wish, hope will come true. most of the people are not critical thinkers. Critical thinking has many components. Life can be described as a sequence of problems that each individual must solve for one's self. Critical thinking skills are nothing more than problem solving skills that result in reliable knowledge. Humans constantly process information. Critical thinking is the practice of processing this information in the most skillful, accurate, and rigorous manner possible, in such a way that it leads to the most reliable, logical, and trustworthy conclusions, upon which one can make responsible decisions about one's life, behavior, and actions with full knowledge of assumptions and consequences of those decisions. critical thinking develops a person in many ways as it develops the intellectual courage, perseverance and confidence in reason. Modernism is a cultural movement that generally includes progressive art and architecture, music and Modernist literature which emerged in the decades. Postmodernism is a term describing a wide-ranging change in thinking beginning in the early 20th century. One of the most significant differences between modernism and postmodernism in the arts is the concern for universality or totality. While modernist artists aimed to capture universality or totality in some sense, postmodernists have rejected these ambitions as metanarratives. In comparing postmodernism and modernism as aligning historical philosophies, postmodernism becomes the point in modernism where modernism shows its ability to transform and change. The relationship between modernism and postmodernism, can best be examined through the works of several authors, some of whom argue for such a distinction, while others call it into question. Following a methodology common among the authors whose work this article examines, a number of artists and writers commonly described as modernist or postmodernist will be considered, although it is noted that this classification is at times controversial. Although useful distinctions can be drawn between the modernist and postmodernist eras, this does not erase the many continuities present between them. One of the best example of changing conceptions in subjectivity of modernism and postmodernism is Walt whitmans " Song of myself ".this poem is crammed with significant details which id divided into three key episodes where the narrator is forced to explore his ideas, his own use os symbolism and his inability to break things down to essential principles. the bunches of grass in the child's hands become a symbol of the regeneration in nature. But they also signify a common material that links disparate people all over the United States together: grass, the ultimate symbol of democracy grows everywhere. In the wake of the Civil War the grass reminds Whitman of graves: grass feeds on the bodies of the dead. Everyone must die eventually, and so the natural roots of democracy are therefore in mortality, whether due to natural causes or to the bloodshed of internecine warfare. While Whitman normally revels in this kind of symbolic indeterminacy, here it troubles him a bit. second episode is more optimistic where in this part of section a women watches twenty eight men bathing in the ocean. this poem depicts the physical, emotional and spiritual world around him. initially the poem begins with the poet describing himself as loafes or relaxes contentedly and observing spear of summer grass. The subject material of "Leaves of Grass" is all inclusive and wide ranging, from the particular to the universal, from the intimate to the cosmic. The poet sings a Song of Myself , but really speaks for the human race and universal harmony through his own experiences. The poem not only looks ahead to modernism but also to the movement in its ideological challenge and optimism for society and mankind. the poet renews the ideas of romantic with the power of unused, the original, but he moves further. The poet is concerned with the coming age, and he occupies his poetics with the concern of shaping the future presence, to pre-create and transfigure the modern. in the coming age modernism and its reactions against realism would pickup many of the tropes that the poem had touched upon. where on one side mainstream reality attempted to describe and represent the all as a reality where as on the other side modernism would attempt the plumb the depths through firmness and fragmentary. Post modernism represents the idea of something's being unpresentable. The poet has created a rambling series of list and powerful explosions of individual essence combined with perspective and democratic. In the poem there is an important moment where the poet sees that is very identity is endangered by his compassionate union with others. the perfect democracy of the poet gives him a tireless catalogues at their best a beautiful surprising ness of sequence and as well as an unexpected tenderness of precision. The poem involves three important themes, the idea of self, the identification of self with other selves and the poet's relationship with the nature and universe. in the poem the houses represents the civilization, perfumes and aroma represents the individual selves and at last the atmosphere signifies the universal self. the self in the poem is conceived of as a spiritual entity which is remains permanent and through the changing flux of ideas and experiences which constitutes its life. the self also represents the psychological state, experiences in life and views and ideas. the poet shows that a man has an individual self whereas Man has an individual self, whereas the world, or cosmos, has a universal or cosmic self. The poet wishes to maintain the identity of his individual self, and yet he desires to merge it with the universal self, which involves the identification of the poet's self with mankind and the mystical union of the poet with God, the Absolute Self. Sexual union is a figurative anticipation of spiritual union. Thus the poet's ecstasy is both physical and spiritual, and he develops a sense of loving brotherhood with God and with all mankind. Song of Myself is a good example of the stylistic features of Leaves of Grass. Whitman's style reflects his individualism. Whitman, have both a natural and a spiritual significance. Colloquial words unite the natural with the spiritual, and therefore he uses many colloquial expressions. The images appear to have no clear organization yet, in effect, they have a basic underlying unity, usually involving a spiritual concept, which gives meaning and coherence to the apparently disconnected images or scenes. Critical thinking does not include simply the acquisition and retention of information, or the possession of a skill-set which one does not use regularly; nor does critical thinking merely exercise skills without acceptance of the results. To be a critical thinker, one has to initially catch as much as information in as many subjects as possible, to prevent over- specializing in a single topic. Critical thinking is very important, as it allows information received to be evaluated, decreasing the risk of acting on a false premise. Critical thinking does not assure that one will reach either the truth or correct conclusions. First, one may not have all the relevant information; indeed, important information may remain undiscovered, or the information may not even be knowable. Second, one's biases may prevent effective gathering and evaluation of the available information. Critical thinking may be distinguished but not separated from feeling. Refusal to recognize their interaction in real life leads to various forms of self-deception, individually and socially and at the left, right, and mainstream of economic, political, and religious issues. However even with the use of critical thinking, mistakes can happen due to the thinker not being in possession of the full facts. Reference:- Adam Wiggins, An introduction to critical thinking Adicks, Richard R. "The Sea-Fight Episode in 'Song of Myself.'" Walt Whitman Review Carlisle, E. Fred. The Uncertain Self: Whitman's Drama of Identity. Ann Arbor: Michigan State University Press, 1973. Hindus, Milton, ed. Leaves of Grass One Hundred Years After. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1955. Miller, E. H. ed. A Century of Whitman Criticism. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1969. Schyberg, Frederik. Walt Whitman. Translated by Evie Allison Allen. New York: Columbia University Press, 1951. Thomson, James. Walt Whitman--The Man and the Poet. 1910; rptd. New York: Haskell House, 1971. Waggoner, Hyatt H. American Poets from the Puritans to the Present. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1984. Whyte, J, Bad Thoughts - A Guide to Clear Thinking,2003. Z Arobindo, Self Contradiction, 2004. Read More