Critical Thinking: What is it?

 

Critical Thinking is a meta cognitive thinking skill. Which means that it is thinking about thinking. If we put critical thinking, into a nutshell, it is the analysis of, awareness of, attention to, and the independent judgment of arguments and claims. 

 

        Firstly, the analysis of a claim or an argument is the  first purpose of critical thinking is the cautious analysis of a claim or an argument. The argument or claim is broken down and analyzed part by part in order to see the relationships between the constituent parts. This allows the for a thorough evaluation of the claim or argument The analysis of arguments and claims asks questions such as:

 

1.     who is most affected?

2.     what is the other alternative?

3.     where is the most need for this?

4.     when would this benefit our society?

5.     why is it relevant to me?

6.     how does this help?

7.     Is this a fair argument?

8.     Are any details left out?   

 

Critical thinking gives positive evaluation and judgement. It is not cynical and negative. There is no deprecation of another party’s views. It is constructive in its approach and attitude. It is detached from another party’s view as well as one’s own views, values and ideas. There is openness to opposing views and arguments. In critical thinking there is openness to opposing views and arguments. All arguments are carefully considered according to merit. In critical thinking, analysis is carried out with patience and taking time to consider the claim or argument with careful deliberation. 

Another purpose of critical thinking is to remove any non-argumentative persuasion. Non-argumentative persuasion is being persuaded by means of coercion, manipulation by emotional or intellectual means.

     Secondly, critical thinking is paying attention to the details of a claim or an argument by examining the meaning of all claims. That is to say, the claims and arguments are examined closely to prevent any misleading terms or words. Nothing is considered at face value, so to speak. All words and phrases are examined not so much for their literal meaning u their contextual and pragmatic meaning. Paying attention prevents any deception in an argument or a claim. The words of a claim or an argument are examined for ambiguity , deception or anything that can be misleading. In this way the correct meaning can be extracted and argued upon in order to arrive at a correct conclusion.

         Thirdly, critical thinking is having complete awareness or circumspection. This means obtaining a wider view of a claim or an argument. With circumspection there is an awareness that there are wider issues involved in a particular matter. Awareness requires knowledge of what is taking place in the world at large. Critical thinking guards one from making assumptions about a matter. There is the awareness that a word can have multiple meanings. hence the correct meaning is ascertained. therefore, critical thinking sees the world surrounding an argument or a claim and arrives at the correct conclusion. In another way, critical thinking is about being aware of oversimplification of an issue, be it an argument or a claim. When we view things myopically , we miss out on pertinent and important matters encompassing an issue. Critical thinking, therefore, examines all points of view.

          Lastly, critical thinking is about having independent judgement. Evidence must be available to support an argument and its conclusions. Independent judgement stems from analysis, attention and awareness of the claims or arguments. Judgement is anchored to credible and good evidence. The evidence is collected and carefully checked and verified to filter out any manipulations, ploys, deceptions, errors in the facts and is authentic. In critical thinking nothing is taken at face value. Independent judgement also means questioning the beliefs and ideas of others and one's own beliefs. and ideas in order to see what rational base they have. A part of independent judgement is the ability to un-generalize. We begin to generalize from childhood various people and even ourselves. Generalization blurs and corrupts understanding. In critical thinking, generalizations are not allowed.

         In conclusion, critical thinking can be defined as the act of analysing claims and arguments to evaluate an argument or claim , to pay attention to the details and meanings of the words in an argument or claim, to be aware of the surrounding issues of a claim or argument and the independent judgement of an argument or claim.