As I have been talking with friends about this matter, it has come to my attention that far too many people I know simply accept everything they are told as fact without checking the validity of what they are told. Often this is attributed to trust; because who wouldn't trust their teachers and parents? After all, there is a reason they are teaching us, and isn't that reason because they know everything? The issue here is that parents, teachers, friends, and yes, even you have misconceptions about something. Yes, I am saying everyone is wrong about at least one thing, at least once in their life. Nobody is perfect. In fact, most humans are incredibly imperfect, and there are dozens of views on life and just as many political and theological views that contradict one another. Contradictions mean that someone is wrong, and THAT is why we need to think critically. For all of you who don't know what that means, I've gone to the trouble of defining it for you, as found in my handy Encarta Dictionary.
Critical Thinking: disciplined intellectual criticism that combines research, knowledge of historical context, and balanced judgment.
I don't know about you, but I'm interested in finding out the truth. Who is right? What is the truth? Don't settle for "I just know I'm right" or "I feel this is true." Research the claims, examine the evidence, draw your conclusions, then apply your conclusions to what you believe and your life.
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4 comments:
I think that it has alot to do with laziness or the lack of motivation. Why create your own ideas about things when the people around you are MORE than willing to tell you what to believe? There's a song that talks about this - John Mayer - "When you trust your television, what you get is what you got, because when you own the information, you can bend it all you want."
I have this friend who, lately, has been challenging me to think more critically about what the people around me are saying. What an eye opener to discover the lies people will tell you...
This is true-thinking critically IS critical to real understanding of any matter. However, at some point, you cannot just trust your own judgement, and you have to accept a higher authorities words... if we didn't do this to some extent, we would know NOTHING excepting only our own personal experience. That'd be pretty sad.
It's true! The only way to fully understand something is by taking several opinions and contrasting them. After doing this we can make judgements based on facts and intentions eventually coming to a conclusion that is logical and well defined.
If we base everything off of our own personal experiances ... we become biased and our arguments are null. But at the same time, without personal experiance can we really understand something to its fullest?
If you examine the evidence and conclude that it is true, that is the point where you have gone beyond trusting your own judgement and are accepting the findings of experts. I do not suggest being a skeptic of all you see, but rather to simply question the conclusion - then after being shown sufficient evidence to either reject or accept that conclusion. That is critical thinking, as opposed to simply making a conclusion based solely on someone else's opinion. That would be the distinction I would make.
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