What is critical
thinking?
Critical thinking is the
ability to think clearly and rationally.
It includes the ability to engage in reflective and independent thinking.
Someone with critical thinking skills is able to do the following:
Critical thinking is not a matter
of accumulating information. A person with a good memory and who knows a lot of
facts is not necessarily good at critical thinking. A critical thinker is able
to deduce consequences from what he knows, and he knows how to make use of
information to solve problems, and to seek relevant sources of information to
inform himself. Critical
thinking should not be confused with being argumentative or being critical of
other people. Although critical thinking skills can be used in exposing
fallacies and bad reasoning, critical thinking can also play an important role
in cooperative reasoning and constructive tasks. Critical thinking can help us
acquire knowledge, improve our theories, and strengthen arguments. We can use
critical thinking to enhance work processes and improve social
institutions. Some people believe
that critical thinking hinders creativity because it requires following the
rules of logic and rationality, but creativity might require breaking rules.
This is a misconception. Critical thinking is quite compatible with thinking,
"out-of-the-box", challenging consensus and pursuing less popular approaches.
If anything, critical thinking is an essential part of creativity because we
need critical thinking to evaluate and improve our creative ideas.
thinking?
Critical thinking is the
ability to think clearly and rationally.
It includes the ability to engage in reflective and independent thinking.
Someone with critical thinking skills is able to do the following:
- 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
Critical thinking is not a matter
of accumulating information. A person with a good memory and who knows a lot of
facts is not necessarily good at critical thinking. A critical thinker is able
to deduce consequences from what he knows, and he knows how to make use of
information to solve problems, and to seek relevant sources of information to
inform himself. Critical
thinking should not be confused with being argumentative or being critical of
other people. Although critical thinking skills can be used in exposing
fallacies and bad reasoning, critical thinking can also play an important role
in cooperative reasoning and constructive tasks. Critical thinking can help us
acquire knowledge, improve our theories, and strengthen arguments. We can use
critical thinking to enhance work processes and improve social
institutions. Some people believe
that critical thinking hinders creativity because it requires following the
rules of logic and rationality, but creativity might require breaking rules.
This is a misconception. Critical thinking is quite compatible with thinking,
"out-of-the-box", challenging consensus and pursuing less popular approaches.
If anything, critical thinking is an essential part of creativity because we
need critical thinking to evaluate and improve our creative ideas.