Interpretive Thought and Intricacy Decoding Abilities - Essay Example

Running Head: Critical Thinking Critical Thinking Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Name Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Course Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Lecture Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 27th August 2012 Introduction The world is full of diverse opinions about every aspect of life ranging from politics, science, economics and social issues there are various schools of thought on basically everything in the world. These diverse opinions and theories can be confusing to a person making a decision in any field, who has to collect knowledge and process it under his own independent interpretation. Critical thinking has been identified as the process of discerning what a valid opinion in various fields is by applying scales based on authority of source of information and context. This essay discusses why critical thinking is critically important to individuals who seek to apply the knowledge and opinion of others in his everyday decision making. It also discusses why some people think critical thinking is not as important a most scholars seem to make it sound. Definitions of Critical Thinking Among many definitions, critical thinking can be termed as a virtue phrase that involves skills and attitudes that help an individual in any evaluation of an argument and with that, a rational answer is given. Critical thinking tests how an individual is in their thinking capacity. There are many definitions that have been put across by various authors as John Dewey(1909) states that critical thinking is the art of persistent yet careful consideration of some kind of information and using reasonable arguments to support the same information. Richard W. Paul (1992) states that critical thinking comes in two ways: sophistic or weak- sense thinking which involves thinking while considering the interests of a particular individual hence restricted to ideas and arguments and strong- sense critical thinking that gives freedom to the critical thinkers to take any direction they want to criticize the particular idea. In this kind of critical thinking, the ideas are not centered to favor a particular individual or their interest. Browne and Kelley (2000) takes three dimensions to define critical thinking. They describe it as a continuous process that starts with an argument and continues to become an evaluation process. In the continuous process, three things are observed which includes probing of key questions that are going to guide the critical thinking process, the questions will be followed by answers that focus on the arguments and the critical thinkers will have an opportunity to present their critical questions based on the topic of discussion. Critically important is concept that had undergone a critical appraisal of careful examination and in-depth research and it importance has not been diminished by the results of the appraisal (Fisher, 2001). The main aim of critical appraisal is to help an individual develop skills in coming up with an evidence. In the evidence presented, there should be results that are of significant importance in the argument. Why is critical thinking important? Critical thinking enables a person who is appraising an issue to be able to see the bias of the person who is presenting the information. When one recognizes the bias in message one can be able to see the reality of the situation by applying their own bias to the situation and honestly balancing both the bias of the massage and his own (Tittle, 2011). Yoshitaka (2007) asserts by eliminating our selfish perspective of the world and egocentrism we are able to see things for what they really are. The elimination of emotional response is very important while looking for a solution to a problem. Critical thinking helps an individual separate the emotional aspect while reacting to an issue and by disengaging emotions with the problem an individual is able to orient his thinking to the problem being addressed (Pithers and Technology Univ.-Sydney, 2000). Emotions drive a person to believe something is true or untrue and thus analysis of a situation by an emotional person is fuzzy as his perspective of the issue is unreal. Critical thinking enables a person who is evaluating an issue to see the wider picture of every situation. According a critical thinker considers as many possibilities for the resolution of a problem as possible his thinking is not confined to what the rules set out or doctrines say (Tittle, 2011). Critical thinking means an individual’s evaluates every possible solution for a problem and the consequences of choosing each solution so the option chosen is always the best. Critical thinking enables people recognize the limitation of their own skills or knowledge. Most people believe that their own belief system is the most rational and they are justified in the decision they make every day. Every day people the same things on a routine never questioning the quality or reliability of any decisions they make (Tittle, 2011). However, a person who thinks critically is able to honestly appraise their own skills and knowledge and by recognizing their limitations they are able to discern what they should develop to become better decision makers. Critical thinking is objective as it helps people separate ideas from the individuals who propagated them and thus are able to apply them to other contexts (Pithers and Technology Univ.-Sydney, 2000). By helping people see ideas, text, theory or behaviour as the really are critical thinking helps in the realization of an objective solution to issues as it’s solution to issues is near to reality as possible. By enabling objectivity critical thinking enables individuals achieve a higher level of success while solving problems and dealing with issues. A solution that is well thought of and has considered all the relevant factor while removing bias and emotional response is better than an impulsive solution to a problem(Tittle, 2011). Why critical thinking is not critically important Most people who criticize critical thinking base their argument on the claim that critical thinking make life more complicated than it should be. Critical thinking calls for the questioning of every decision that a person makes. In life some decisions are made impulsively without references to numerous factors on whether the decision is right or wrong. Critical thinking complicates life by making people answer a chain of Why? questions. Some new ideas about critical thinking accuse the concept as stifling creativity. Some scholars argue that the concept of creative thinking calls into question every new idea that comes up to challenge existing knowledge (Tittle, 2011). According Aldous (2005) critical thinking involves the reverse engineering of scholarly work aimed at finding out whether the person who prepared the work achieved what he set out to do. Critical thinking in this context calls for inventors of new ideas to understand all theories in the field of knowledge they are proposing ideas. Invention of the world’s most useful technology would have been impossible if the inventors were required to critically evaluate everything they made. Any present scholar would find a hundred faults on the wright’s brother design for the first plane engine to lift of the ground. Similarly, modern scholars who purport to be critical thinking occupy most of their time in looking for errors in existing academic work. Advises scholars to turn to a exploratory thinking instead of spending their time analyzing existing literature to draw their own conclusion from the works of others. Thinking is a threat to established social norms and system of authority. Critical thinking asks a person never to take anything as it is and to question everything (Adams, 2006). Critical thinking will question well established beliefs like religion seeking to know whether the deity and rewards promised by a religious order for good conduct really exist. It follows that critical thinking shakes the belief of men and may lead to a frustrated individuals who does not believe in anything. Critical thinking also encourages people to question all authority; critical thinkers may question the authority of God over man and that of a government over men. Conclusion It can be concluded that critical thinking is thus critically important to any individual who is faced with alternative solutions to any problem. Critical thinking provides many critical advantages to a person who is in a decision making situation. A critically thought solution provides an almost guaranteed success for a problem and thus rebuts the argument discussed above that critical thinking is not critically important. References Adams, M. (2006). Questioning and Disputing Authority: Medieval Methods for Modern Preaching. Expository Times, 117(6), 231-236. Aldous, C. R. (2005). Creativity in Problem Solving: Uncovering the Origin of New Ideas. International Education Journal, 5(5), 43-56. Browne, M.N. & Keeley, S. (2000).Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking. Prentice Hall; New York. Dewey. (1909). How We Think. Boston, MA: D.C. Heathand Co. Fisher, A. (2001). Critical Thinking: An Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Paul, R. W. (1992) Critical Thinking: What Every Person Needs to Survive in a Rapidly Changing World. New York: Foundation for Critical Thinking (1993) Pithers, B., & Technology Univ.-Sydney, B. g. (2000). The Importance of Facilitating Critical Reasoning in the New Millennium: Some New Evidence. Working Paper. Tittle, P. (2011). Critical thinking: an appeal to reason / Peg Tittle. New York: Routledge. Yoshitaka, M. (2007). An Asiacentric Reflection on Eurocentric Bias in Communication Theory, Communication Monographs, 74 (2), 272-278. Read More