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.”