Are you Critical?

We had a lesson in one of our subjects, Architectural Essay, that really caught my attention. I wanted to share it with you guys. Pardon the manner it had been written, it's just that these are from my personal notes. :P

Are you a critical thinker?

Because when we do not think critically about our choices, we tend to make the wrong one. It only takes one wrong move to start a domino effect of wrong situations that will only get worse as you continue.

So here are a few notes from my lessons and I hope you guys will absorb the information and reflect upon yourself. I did it too when the teacher was giving her lecture.

“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few."
Matthew 7:13-14

Thinking:

-biased, self-interested, to satisfy the human ego, prejudiced, exaggerated, and defends prior divisions.

Critical Thinking:

-Skillful analysis, assessment and reconstruction
-Self-directed, self-disciplined, self-monitors, self-corrective thinking
-Entails effective communication and problem-solving abilities

How to Think Critically:

1. Analyze thinking
-Identify purpose, question its information, conclusion, assumption, implication, main concept, and point of view.

2. Assess thinking
-Check for clarity, accuracy, precision, relevance, assumption, implication, significance, logic and fairness.

A well cultivated critical thinker:
-Raises vital questions and problems
-Gathers and assesses relevant information
-Comes to well-reasoned conclusion
-open-minded with in alternative systems of thoughts
-Communicates effectively with others

Critical Thinking includes a combination of skills:
1. Rationality

-rely on reason rather than emotion
-requires evidence, ignore no known evidence, follow where evidence leads
-concerned more with finding the best explanation than being RIGHT.

2. Self-awareness

-recognizes own assumptions and PREJUDICES
-weighs influences of motives and biases

3. Honesty

-recognizes emotional impulses, selfish motives, immoral purposes, or other modes of self-deception

4. Open-mindedness

-Evaluate all reasonable presumptions
-consider different view points
-remain open to alternatives
-accept new explanations because it explains the evidence better
-accept new priorities in response to re-evaluation of evidences
-do not reject unpopular views

5. Discipline

-precise, meticulous, comprehensive, and exhaustive
-RESISTS MANIPULATION and irrational appeals
-avoid SNAP JUDGMENTS

6. Judgment

-recognize relevance and/or merit of alternative assumptions and perspectives
-recognize extent and weight of evidence.