Critical Thinking – Have we thought about our thinking?
As you can see, the title of the blog is now ‘Critical Thoughts’. The earlier title ‘Random Opinions’ was just good enough but I don’t think it captured the essence like ‘Critical Thoughts’ does. Forget the aptness, the truth is I’m in love with this concept of critical thinking. For those who don’t know, ‘Critical Thinking’ is a very interesting and important concept. The word ‘critical’ might give a negative tone to the word but that’s because of our usage of the words like ‘criticise’ and ‘criticism’. Critical thinking need not necessarily be about negativity. So what is critical thinking?
Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skilfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action. In its exemplary form, it is based on universal intellectual values that transcend subject matter divisions: clarity, accuracy, precision, consistency, relevance, sound evidence, good reasons, depth, breadth, and fairness.
I might have taken you back to your school and college years with that kind of definition. But that’s the most comprehensive way to define critical thinking. Basically what it means is, improving one’s own thinking knowing with the awareness of the common pitfalls, and also continuously improve one’s own thinking . Apparently, good critical thinkers can be very good problem solvers.
Thinking is often casual or routine, whereas critical thinking deliberately evaluates the quality of thinking. The ability to think critically involves three things:
* Using logic, reason and the scientific method over abstract theories and emotional judgements.
* Awareness of heuristics (shortcuts) and biases (errors) that influence human thinking.
* Using these abilities systematically on everything in your life. From that, using the results to make improvements.
It is natural for humans, once an idea is formed, to look for supporting instead of conflicting evidence. The first goal of a rational thinker is that, once a theory is formed, evidence that conflicts with this theory is sought. Searching to be proven wrong, rather than vindicated, is a cornerstone of critical thinking.
Everyone thinks; it is our nature to do so. But much of our thinking, left to itself, is biased, distorted, partial, uninformed or down-right prejudiced. Yet the quality of our life and that of what we produce, make, or build depends precisely on the quality of our thought. Shoddy thinking is costly, both in money and in quality of life. Excellence in thought, however, must be systematically cultivated.
That’s a fantastic paragraph. We might not want to admit this – we are biased, prejudiced, partial and uninformed. But we still think and make decisions. May be due to the fact that our thoughts and subsequently our decisions can be faulty, we do get into problems. The quality of our decisions determine what kind of life we lead. There is a reason your office life or personal life is going in a certain way. Most of it is controllable by you provided your thoughts and decisions are good enough. It’s up to you to be aware of the known hurdles for thinking such as bias, distortion, partiality, lack of information or prejudice and ensuring that they don’t bring down the quality of your thoughts. There is a reason why it is said that ‘critical thinking is a way of taking up problems of life’.
Critical thinking is also defined as the art of taking charge of your own mind. Its value is also at root simple: if we can take charge of our own minds, we can take charge of our lives; we can improve them, bringing them under our self command and direction. Of course, this requires that we learn self-discipline and the art of self-examination. This involves becoming interested in how our minds work, how we can monitor, fine tune, and modify their operations for the better. It involves getting into the habit of reflectively examining our impulsive and accustomed ways of thinking and acting in every dimension of our lives.
Errors and mistakes can happen anywhere and everywhere. So they can happen in thoughts and thought processes as well. If the whole thought process is faulty, there is no way it’s gonna give you a good decision at the end of the process. The thing with the errors and mistakes with our thought process is, not many would come to know about the mistake. The result of the mistake in the thought process could be bad decisions, strained relationships, bad image and stuff like that. Those are things that we may not want to admit that those could be a result of our poor thinking. The thinker, which is you or me, would most probably come to know of the mistake. We have the options of believing that we are masters of the universe and not going back to analyse where exactly we went wrong and put the blame on something else or to analyse and identify why we could not come up with a good solution.
Critical thinking is the art of analyzing and evaluating thinking with a view to improving it. Much like professional athletes or musicians must practice to master their sport or art, so must thinkers practice to master their minds.
Come to think of it, I think I’ve always practised ‘critical thinking’ (though I might be a novice at that) without actually knowing that such a recognised concept exists. Many a times my thoughts and decisions have gone wrong. Over a period of years, I’ve learnt to think better. I’ve learnt to decide better. Though thinking is natural, critical thinking is not natural. Biased thinking and prejudiced thinking are very natural. I don’t know how good a critical thinker I am but I’m happy that I have been able to recognise critical thinking and also distinguish normal thinking and critical thinking. I’m sure one can become a better thinker with the practice of critical thinking.
This is an open question. What kind of thinker are you – impulsive, casual or critical? Has your thinking improved over time? Over time, you would have obtained better sources of information and more experience but let’s not mistake them for improved thinking. Unless we have made a conscious attempt to improve our thinking, it would most probably be the same style of thinking loaded with more information and exeprience. Hence my question. This is an instrospective question. You can ask yourself without burdening yourself with the thought of having to admit it to others. Is our thinking casual or critical? I know this is quite a heavy subject but how often do we get to ‘think about thinking’?
Vijayyy….
“Critical Thinking – Think about Thinking” – First of all its sounds complex one to understand. Honestly the article itself made me critical to understand at first instance. I read it thrice as I was confused and completely new to sync with the concept. V.Good One & Thanks for educating. Do you have an recommended books on this or any website or any info to learn & dig more on this.?
One Question: Though you might better desicions by “Critical Thinking” – But always the volatile & mystery of tomorrow will end you elsewhere because of your dependencies/responsiblities/commitments right.?
You’re right in saying that the mystery of tomorrow that will end us elsewhere but certainly critical thinking will keep us prepared for any outcome. Also please remember that a lot of questions from yesterdays are still unanswered.
Or I can understand you as a person if I practise critical thinking. I can step into your shoes. I can see things from your eyes. All this can be done without worrying about the mystery of tomorrow. You know never know, it can even shape a better tomorrow.
Vj,
. Infact without my consciousness I now believe I was learning critical thinking from you. Well! I could hear your disagreement 
I was not so self disciplined until I had an opportunity to start thinking for myself. I certainly agree that. But I was definitely not a casual thinker. Then I must be impulsive I suppose. I would say I had impulsive thinking until I completed my college days. I never think about my future those days (Even now of course 
. I never had questions like When to study? What to study? How to speak? How to impress people (girls)? Who is bad and Who is good? Which software course might help me? Whose friendship might help me? When to go where? Which responsibilities I can accept and which I can deny? Am I capable for it? Am I the right person? Should I propose her now or not? Will she not become mine if I don’t? But still I was completely occupied in college days (Right from childhood)…was a fashions co-ordinator in 2004 (failed badly), Skit coordinator in 03 (Passed), Captained department cricket team in 02 (Failed), Rangoli, painting & pencil sketching competitor (Passed), studies (Average – Passed), love life 01 to 04 (Tough one – managed to pass 
, Department President in 04 (Average performer), Industrial visits coordinator in 03 (Average), Symposiums incharge 03 & 04 (Average). Woof! I now certainly realise that I had too much in my plate in college days which ultimately made my life tougher then and after as well. Does this mean I did not have critical thinking then? Absolutely not! I think I had it already but was not practising for myself! It was for my non critical responsibilites I accepted due to impulsive thinking! The extent to which I practised it was very negligible and so ended up in unexpected situations and struggled to get out as well. I certainly now believe that critical thinking would have made me plan things properly then and helped me pass in most areas. That’s when thinking for myself!
I loved it! From cream till wafers! As Anil said it was so very educating. Anil I second that
When making a decision that is vital for somoneelse then I got to put my self in somebodyelse shoes as you said Vj. To put ourselves in others shoes is something which comes normally when we converse but I believe is very difficult to practise! If someone is able to perfectly do it and end up 100 % successful in all decisions then he can be called as a perfect critical thinker, I suppose.
Whether or not I spoke the subject matter here but I certainly believe this topic made me think about my thinking! I now know the secret essence of a calm, composed, friendly, smart, lovable, attractive, seductive thinker and seriously want to start my practice sessions immediately!
There are two important aspects to this:
1. Knowing the usual pitfalls such as bias (of our own), lack of information etc.
2. Ensuring that they don’t influence your thinking.
The thing about eliminating bias is that one might think “I have no bias at all. I have valid rationale for all my thoughts.” But that might show that they have not identified that they have bias. They know that bias is a pitfall but don’t think that they’re also bitten by that, which they actually are.
Difficult topic. I’m unable to comment anything here…
C’mon. Don’t give up on thinking . . .
Great exchange of opinions, views, perspective here.
I like thinking…
After reading this topic, I have this question in my mind.
Why thinking is categorized as ” Critical” ?
In my opinion, one who manages his/her mind will know to handle circumstances better.
Thinking is the by product of one’s mind. In order to improve one’s thinking ability, one should
know about himself/herself first isn’t?
Prithivi,
That’s critical thinking explained in one line! Yes unless and until I know myself or atleast I wish to know myself critical thinking is a sure failure! I think that’s LKG of critical thinking graduation
Yaar, I like those days. LKG, then UKG & on on & on
I think my mind was relatively free
)
Sometimes – experiences, wisdom, maturity also hinders creativity isn’t it?
I think experiences, wisdom, maturity cannot hinder creativity. I think the essence of creativity is that it flows in naturally and it is difficult trying to be creative. I think maturity helps in validating what really is creativity. What we might hink creative might not be for others. That’s the only reason children seem creative than adults. But acually adult’s creativity is more challenging.
Critical thinking does not help in creativity of course. Creativity needs impulsive thinking. The more critical your thought process is, the more challenging your creativity will be!
It’s a very informative essay. I think critical thinking is required for all aspects of life. However, due to our biases, circumstances and past experiences we tend to develop a certain thought process and think in the same direction whenever we experience a similar situation that we have in the past. I don’t know whether am being clear enough. However, to make our thinking better, it’s sometimes necessary to take help from someone else so that we can break our biased thought process. Also, I doubt whether we can improve our thinking on our own. It is difficult to criticise self. We are generally reluctant to come out of our comfort zone and take up a new perspective about things and situations. Since it may not always lead to a happy end. So then how do we begin to improve our thinking?