THINKING CRITICALLY

In the context of solving a problem and achieving a specified goal, critical thinking is about gathering information, evaluating things by asking questions, saying no before providing good reason, forming conclusions and making judgements and decisions. While it can be seperated, critical thinking often happens together with other forms of thinking such as reasoning, logical thinking and decision-making.

When thinking critically many other things happen such as labelling or classifying a scenario or object through learned concepts which bring with them their own assumptions due to the critical thinker’s previous experiences of such concepts. For eg. if one’s boyfriend is speaking continuously to another woman at a party, due to one’s previous experiences of infidelity and observations of such behaviour with previous partners one may classify that scenario as flirting. Without facts this would be an assumption, but because we call upon assumptions to save thinking time as we go about our business in the world, these assumptions often influence our perspective and framing of a situation. So when thinking critically we need to take different perspectives to break these assumptions and get to the truth of the matter. We need to determine what information is relevant when providing reason through drawing conclusions from evidence to solve a problem.

If I had to put together my generalised thinking process that aims to solve a problem, while providing reasoning, allowing for logical thinking and finally decsion-making, it would look something like this:

THINKING STEPS:

1. Context and Problem

   My boyfriend is speaking continuously with a woman at a party

2. Goal

   I need to determine his intentions

3. Information, observations and facts

   He has given her a lot of attention

4. Key concepts and Main factors

   Flirting, eye contact, smiling and time speaking

5. Interpretation and Meaning-making

   From my past experience these are signs of sexual interest

6. Sub-conclusions

   He is flirting

7. Assumptions

   He is talking to her as he is attracted to her

8. Different Perspectives

   He could be talking to her because they have a shared hobby

9. Alternatives, Implications and Logical Sequence

   If they have a shared hobby, it is possible they will meet again

   If he is flirting, I will get jealous, confront him and he will break up with me

10. Final Conclusion

    They have a shared hobby

11. Decision-making

    I will ask him why he was speaking to her for so long