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What is critical thinking? What are the obstacles to critical thinking?
by Karen Bufka
On Criticalthinking.org we read that critical thinking 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.”
They state that a critical thinker “raises vital questions and problems, formulating them clearly and precisely; gathers and assesses relevant information, using abstract ideas to interpret it effectively; comes to well-reasoned conclusions and solutions, testing them against relevant criteria and standards; thinks open-mindedly within alternative systems of thought, recognizing and assessing, as need be, their assumptions, implications, and practical consequences; and communicates effectively with others in figuring out solutions to complex problems.”
It helps to understand the underpinnings of the word “critical” by examining the etymology of the related word “critic”. According to the Online Etymology Dictionary (etymonline.com), “critic” comes from the root “krei”, “to sieve”. This ancient root shows us that being a critic, being critical, has to do with the process of sorting, sifting—essentially, using a sieve. “Critical” thinking means that we sift through information. We are sorting, separating the information wheat from the information chaff as finely and thoroughly as we can. We use questions to do the sorting.
We’ve all experienced a child asking “Why?” and when we answer, they ask another “why?” and another. We were once that child, so curious, relentlessly asking questions. Thinking critically means that we consciously ask those many questions, that we harness the 5Ws—Who, What, When, Where, Why and How— to our innate curiosity to carefully sift through the information in our lives. We ask questions as persistently as when we asked our parents “why?” a zillion times when we were little kids. This sounds straightforward, right? It sounds so simple that you’d think we’d all do this all the time, but we don’t. Why not?
We can neglect to engage in critical thinking because it takes a bit of work. It takes energy to pay attention, to ask questions. But that is nothing compared to our emotions. In thinking critically, asking lots of questions, we often feel uncomfortable because of the feelings which arise in response to what we are discovering. The difference between critical thinking and ordinary thinking is that with critical thinking we experience that discomfort and keep going.
We keep looking, keep asking questions. We all know how to ask questions—but chronically encountering some level of emotional discomfort can deter us from doing so. It is the emotional resilience to continue looking clearly at things which might not align with our preexisting views which makes critical thinking possible. There is everyday courage in it.
It is inevitable that if we think critically, we will draw conclusions which differ from those of other people. This is the “BIG ONE.” We may consider ourselves modern people, but scratch the surface and we still have the tribal impulses of our ancestors. For thousands of years, being part of the tribe was the key to survival. Being thrown out, shunned, was a terrible and effective punishment.
An awareness of that rests just under the surface in all of us and can be what undermines our ability to think critically. We sense that we are leaving the tribe by thinking for ourselves, and it makes us very, very nervous. Sometimes that nervousness leads us to stop looking, stop asking questions— or never even start. We need to muster the everyday courage to be critical thinkers, to keep thinking for ourselves, whether or not the tribe will accept us.
But why bother? These highlights from a wonderful quote by Linda Elder on Criticalthinking.org help explain why: “Critical thinking is self-guided, self-disciplined thinking which attempts to reason at the highest level of quality in a fair-minded way. People who think critically consistently attempt to live rationally, reasonably, empathically. They are keenly aware of the inherently flawed nature of human thinking when left unchecked… They work diligently to develop the intellectual virtues of intellectual integrity, intellectual humility, intellectual civility, intellectual empathy…
“They realize that… they can always improve their reasoning abilities and they will at times fall prey to mistakes in reasoning, human irrationality, prejudices, biases, distortions, uncritically accepted social rules and taboos, self-interest, and vested interest. They strive to improve the world in whatever ways they can and contribute to a more rational, civilized society…They avoid thinking simplistically about complicated issues…They embody the Socratic principle: ‘The unexamined life is not worth living’, because they realize that many unexamined lives together result in an uncritical, unjust, dangerous world.”
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Categories: Commentary
Critical thinking means not going along with what appears to be “common sense”. It takes looking a few steps past the problem you are attempting to solve and identify cause and effect, as well as root cause. I don’t like x, so I want to use y to solve for x. To solve for x, what has caused x. What has caused the thing that has caused the thing that has caused the thing that has caused x, going all the way to the very root of what caused x before you can solve y. Solving for y is just removing the thing that is causing x to begin with, rather than creating more x’s and more y’s.
It’s not okay to spend money we don’t have on “their” program, because “their” program is stupid. It’s okay to spend money we don’t have on our “common sense” idea, because our program is “common sense”.
Critical: Don’t spend what isn’t yours, and what we don’t have. Let people keep their own wealth and make their own programs. Voluntary participation will determine their success, as opposed to violent forced participation regardless of success.
I don’t like guns, so “common sense” says they should be banned.
Critical: Monopoly on force has caused more human death than any other thing in the history of humanity. Why are people doing bad things with guns? What is similar about areas that have people doing bad things to other people? Are they all billionaires in the streets, or are they impoverished areas? What is causing the impoverishment? What other tools are being used to cause harm? What is the rate at which good things are being done with these tools? What happens if we allow unlimited authority to power to break laws guaranteed to the people?
Everyone needs access to food and shelter. Government should steal money from working people and give it to people who aren’t working to pay for it.
Critical: Some good people are in unfortunate circumstances. There are many people that would love to help other good people. Some bad people choose to put themselves in unfortunate circumstances, but now that government has stolen the money, even the bad people get access to what isn’t rightfully theirs. Then bad people have lots of free time to do crimes and make neighborhoods bad, rather than changing their ways. What is causing poverty?
I don’t like drugs, we should spend infinite amount of money and resources making them illegal.
Critical: Drug addiction is enabled by welfare systems, family/parents, drug cartels, poverty, big pharma industry targeting children. “Banning” drugs makes them stronger, more dangerous, and more prevalent. Communities are now ruined by drug gangs/cartels/users. Government agencies people think are fighting the drug war are actually self permitted to make deals with cartels/gangs and keep the game going for their own personal benefit. 100 Billion dollars a year (not including another several hundred billion in extanalities), might go to better use for society. Maybe there is a better solution?
Or maybe we have an endless supply of resources for “your idea” combined with continuing to pay for everyone’s previous ideas, and we keep up business as usual. Maybe we just need a “moderate” politician to fix all our problems. Maybe all we need is a smack talking president to fix all our issues. “Don’t worry we will pay it back” Trump, or some moderate Ds is the fix. Yea, that’s it. Keep calm, and do politics.
https://www.usdebtclock.org/
This made so little sense it hurt to read. How on earth is it common sense to ban something you don’t like? You just made up a stupid argument that no one would make and it just spiraled from there.
“I don’t like drugs, we should spend infinite amount of money and resources making them illegal.” Show me anyone on the left that says this. They are the ones trying to legalize and incentivize drug use. Like I said, make it make sense, that was a tough read.
I know it’s tough for your Chris. Very tough. I’m sorry I just can’t get on your level. I’m not going to write 1000 pages of text to accommodate folks that have perverted minds and can’t read between the lines. You are severely blinded by the false left/right divide, and completely missed the point. The government needs people like you.
Excellent work, as usual, Karen!
Loving your essays on critical thinking, Karen! Hopefully, they will inspire others to actually think critically! Thank you for writing this kind of instructive philosophy!
What was once a discipline required for practicing law or medicine, an actual discipline and competency in education, was systemically removed from the collective conscience by design. Where ethics and morals went, so did critical thinking. When lying, deceiving, and excuses are widely accepted and tolerated, society fails and evil abounds. If not for a larger portion of humanity having innate, instinctive, unwavering good flowing through their veins, the human race would not have survived to this point. Make critical thinking great again! MEGA = make ethics great again!