Necessities of Critical Thinking

1. Necessities of Critical Thinking By Keith Sunthorn

2. Two types of thinking • Critical Thinking – “the ability to think clearly and rationally.” • (2) Creative Thinking – “a matter of coming up with new and useful possibilities” • They are both crucial for solving problems and discovering new knowledge. • Source: http://philosophy.hku.hk/think/critical/

3. Better understanding - critical thinking • In order to be a critical thinker you need to be able to: • understand the logical connections between ideas • identify, construct and evaluate arguments • detect inconsistencies and common mistakes in reasoning • solve problems systematically • identify the relevance and importance of ideas • reflect on the justification of one's own beliefs and values • Source: http://philosophy.hku.hk/think/critical/ct.php

4. Necessity of critical thinking • Critical thinking is a domain-general thinking skill. The ability to think clearly and rationally is important whatever we choose to do. If you work in education, research, finance, management or the legal profession, then critical thinking is obviously important. But critical thinking skills are not restricted to a particular subject area. Being able to think well and solve problems systematically is an asset for any career. • Critical thinking is very important in the new knowledge economy. The global knowledge economy is driven by information and technology. One has to be able to deal with changes quickly and effectively. The new economy places increasing demands on flexible intellectual skills, and the ability to analyse information and integrate diverse sources of knowledge in solving problems. Good critical thinking promotes such thinking skills, and is very important in the fast-changing workplace. • Source: http://philosophy.hku.hk/think/critical/ct.php

5. Necessity of critical thinking cont. • Critical thinking enhances language and presentation skills. Thinking clearly and systematically can improve the way we express our ideas. In learning how to analyse the logical structure of texts, critical thinking also improves comprehension abilities. • Critical thinking promotes creativity. To come up with a creative solution to a problem involves not just having new ideas. It must also be the case that the new ideas being generated are useful and relevant to the task at hand. Critical thinking plays a crucial role in evaluating new ideas, selecting the best ones and modifying them if necessary. • Critical thinking is crucial for self-reflection. In order to live a meaningful life and to structure our lives accordingly, we need to justify and reflect on our values and decisions. Critical thinking provides the tools for this process of self-evaluation. • Source: http://philosophy.hku.hk/think/critical/ct.php

6. PHILOSOPHY BASED OF CRITICAL THINKING • Very briefly, philosophy might be regarded as a conceptual enquiry dealing with fundamental issues relating to life, knowledge and values. By conceptual enquiry we mean an enquiry that relies primarily on critical reasoning. This includes : • Analysing the meaning of concepts • Identifying logical connections between theories • Evaluating arguments and exposing fallacies • Source: http://www3.hku.hk/philodep/wiki/pmwiki.php?n=Main.Whatisphil

7. Philosophy CONT. • As you can see, the whole movement of philosophy in the past was entirely based of critical thinking. Philosophers such as William James or Ludwig Wittgenstein would never have prospered in the past if it wasn’t for their intellectual thinking. All their theories and ideas were based of concepts of critical thinking. Philosophy also plays an immense role in the creation of science! To think that our whole society is based of off ideas of critical thinkers…where would we be without critical thinking? How would our minds think if we didn’t develop such concepts or annalistic ideas?

8. Background of critical thinking • Critical thinking does not mean being argumentative or being critical of • others. Although critical thinking skills can be used in exposing fallacies • and bad reasoning, they can also be used to support other viewpoints, and • to cooperate with others in solving problems and acquiring knowledge. • Critical thinking is a general thinking skill that is useful for all sorts of • careers and professions. Clear and systematic thinking can improve the • comprehension and expression of ideas, so good critical thinking can also • enhance language and presentation skills. • Source: https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B-RFWAiAO7x3MWYzZDIxNDUtOGZhYS00N2YyLThiM2ItY2EwMGQ1YTc2MzMx&hl=en&pli=1

9. The elements of thought • Source: http://vault.hanover.edu/~ahrens/CT.pdf.pdf

10. CONCLUSION • As human beings, we need critical thinking in order to grow and prosper, without it we are nothing but animals at war. Critical thinking carved our present into what it is today, without philosophy, science, and all education as we know it, we would still be cavemen. We need critical thinking to keep on advancing in society, our species has not stopped growing and we are just getting started. Technology is recently been discovered in the late 1800s during the Industrial Revolution, who knows what the future has in store. The teenagers and kids of today’s society are some of the best critical thinkers in the world because they have a vast amount of knowledge and will change the future as we know it. • Critical Thinking Questions to think about life: • Does a fish know he’s wet? • What would life be like if the concept of critical thinking never took place? • How would life be without philosophy and science? • What is the meaning to life, if words can mean whatever you want?