CRITICAL Does NOT Mean NEGATIVE
Yesterday, while reading about critical thinking in the Bedford Reader something caught my attention. A passage that provided the summary to a message I’ve been trying to convey but struggling on how to properly verbalise:
“We’re talking about critical thinking- not “negative,” the common conception of critical, but “through, thoughtful, inquisitive, judgment forming”. When you approach something critically, you harness your faculties, your fund of knowledge, your experiences to understand, appreciate, and evaluate the text. Critical thinking is a process involving several overlapping operations: analysis, inference, synthesis, and evaluation.”(Kennedy, Kennedy, Arron, & Repetto, 2017)
Critical thinking can be (in my personal opinion should be) used all day, everyday, toward everything.
If we think critically on all subjects of matter and reality there with be an abundance of understanding and cooperation because everyone will look at things as a venn diagram, revealing not only differences but also similarities. This would create a web graph between individuals as they shared thoughts, ideas and opinions freely knowing the other party is not rashly judging. Imagine what a world it would be if we all were to “Look to first understand, then to be understood”(Stephen, 1989).
Our minds are the most powerful force on the planet and everyday I see hundreds and thousands of people letting their minds rot in their heads. Perhaps, this is due to not knowing what critical thinking is, let’s fix that!
Critical: relating to or being Thinking: to form or have in mind
Together they form a process of analysis, inferring, synthesising and evaluating. In doing these things you are looking beyond the surface and find a deeper meaning using what you currently know and your willingness to learn.
What is ANALYSING?
Analysis is taking the opportunity to not just look at the ‘big picture’ but also look at the individual parts and how they work. Breaking it down gives you the chance to look at each piece individually and how they fit in with the other pieces to make the ‘big picture’.
Blow you find an example showing how analysis works.
Situation: At a party, youwatched Suzy walk up to and slap Molly.
Many would automatically assume Molly did something to anger Suzy or Suzy is a raging ***** who wanted to randomly slap Molly. This would be wrong. After analysing the situation, you realize Suzy had just finished talking to Brenda. Most likely meaning, Brenda told Suzy something about Molly that offended and angered her.
Inferring
Hopefully from science class, we all remember that an inference is an educated guess based on the evidence provided. The evidence provided is what you have gathered while analyzing. This evidence should then be looked at using your knowledge and experience to draw a reasonable conclusion. We can infer before analysis but, as a result, the inference can be based on incomplete evidence. Leading to an incorrect inference.
Below is a continuation of the example above, showing how analysis leads into the use of inference and how to infer.
Our inaccurate inference was, Molly had done wrong or Suzy was just crazy. This inference was based on what we took in without any analysis. After analysing, we found the missing information of Suzy talking to Brenda then stampeding toward Molly. At this point it’s safe to make a solid and complete inference that Brenda told Suzy something to make her mad at Molly.
A real seeker of understanding would look futhar into the situation.
Synthesise
Synthesising is when you ask yourself what you don’t know and gather the information to answer yourself. To answer yourself you look at the information you have learned/ been presented recently and combine it with the knowledge and wisdom you have personally acquired throughout your life.
At this point in our example we might ask, “What did Breda say?” “Is Molly the type of person to do something to invoke such a response?” “Why did Brenda say what she said?” “Is Suzy in fact crazy?”, making our original inference correct after all. The list of questions is endless and the answers vary depending on an individual’s personal database of knowledge and experiences.
Evaluation is an optional step as it a judgment of effectiveness and merit.
Evaluation in the example above might be:
-Considering the delivery of Suzy’s message to Molly and what other routs she could have taken.
-After finding Brenda intentions, deciding if her actions were in line with and lead to her intended outcome.
My example is basic but hopefully it provided a better understanding of critical thinking. If we each think more critically and seek to understand we each will have a happier, less worrisome and conflicted life, therefore increasing our feelings satisfaction and fulfillment.
Stephen, C. R. (1989). 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. New York City, New York: Free Press.
