The Importance of Critical Thinking: Becoming a Critical Thinker

Thinking is one of the fundamental skills or abilities or more precisely a gift from God. Every one of us does think naturally, we are not taught to think. We think, become curious about something, seek answers, and then we are able to understand it well. The quality of one’s and one’s life can be easily determined by the quality of their thoughts. Continuous to the statement, critical thinking as defined by the National Council for Excellence in critical thinking, 1987, is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully 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, the importance of critical thinking is lying in the ability to think in an organized and rational manner in order to understand connections between ideas or facts. Critical thinking is a way of deciding whether a claim is true, partially true, or false followed by clear intellectual standards such as clarity, precision, accuracy, relevance, consistency, logical correctness, and fairness.

To be a critical thinker requires some practice and discipline. At first, it seems to be hard to follow up but eventually, we can realize the benefits from it and the quality of our thoughts. We should understand that everyone thinks differently from one another, and thoughts and opinions might be diverse from each other. But are we convinced enough by each other perspectives and thoughts? People can simply express their words before thinking it twice or thrice which eventually leads to unnecessary arguments or quarrels. This is why critical thinking is utterly important for us to avoid such situations to happen, also for our further self-improvement. When we are coming across a problem or a question, we should start to identify it precisely. Try to search for several sources of data, arguments, and opinions that come up with the views of many people. Then we should analyze those ideas and information to make sure that it is reliable for the present time. Compare each source and establish the significance of those sources whether they are relevant or not. It is important for you to identify various conclusions that are possible along with it should be followed by the intellectual standards. Therefore, we can obtain a solid, clear, and unbiased solution for that particular problem that will be convincing and wouldn’t be raising for further confusion.

We can apply critical thinking skills in many parts of life such as during our student life, in our work, and also in our daily life. Problems may come in different forms but we all have the potential to handle and solve them by implying critical thinking. Let’s take some statements and identify what is the weakness in the particular statement.

Passage 1: Some objects with four wheels are cars. All cars possess a steering wheel. This object has four wheels but no steering wheel.

Deduction 1: This object is a car.

This deduction is false. It is because premise 2 states that all cars possess a steering wheel but the last premise states that it has no steering wheel. Eventually, this wouldn’t be car and the deduction does not follow the passage.

Deduction 2: This object is not a car.

This deduction is true it follows the criteria that the object does not have steering wheels. If it is a car it should be having steering wheel as premise 2 states there.

Deduction 3: This object is a bicycle.

This cannot be a bicycle since they have only 2 wheels. Even if the bicycle had stabilizers at both sides attached, this doesn’t necessarily follow from the premises and we can infer that the conclusion does not follow.

Passage 2: All birds are animals. All chickens are birds.

Deduction 1: All chickens are animals.

Since all birds are animals and chickens are birds, this deduction follows the premise.

Deduction 2: Some chickens are animals.

The word ‘some’ is not following the criteria because it states that all chickens are animals. The types of chicken may vary but they are still categorized as chickens. So this is a false deduction.

Passage 3: No marketing staffs are accountants. All finance staffs are accountants.

All finance staff are marketing staff

No finance staff is marketing staff.

All in all, when we imply critical thinking in daily life we can raise into a well-cultivated critical thinkers. We will be able to stimulate many vital questions and formulate them clearly and precisely. We will start to think open-mindedly from various aspects, and systematically can identify and solve one problem or complicated situation. Therefore, critical thinking is undeniably significant for each of us to think beyond the limits.