"Critical Thinking"
A fading skill in the age of information overload
Critical thinking is a fundamental tool for steering one's life. No one has achieved great success without possessing the skill of critical thinking and thinking independently.
Artists, philosophers and inventors derive many of their ideas from questioning the established norms. And while many lump critical thinking under the generalized category of "problem solving," it's really much more than that in that it's almost a natural survival-oriented need in us as human beings. It encompasses far more than mere information gathering - It also includes knowing where to look and continuing the search without prejudice about what we may find.
Analyzing the accumulated information requires thoughtful consideration of the veracity of the information and what we believe to be true in our life but not necessarily true in another person's life.
Critical thinkers and free thinkers are not always looked upon with warmth. However, without them, where would we be? They ask the questions and set the bar for understanding the world and reality that we live in. They push the boundaries of accepted norms and give us glimpses of the possibilities and also where we might be heading in the wrong direction.
Just a few famous critical thinkers/deep thinkers/independent thinkers:
Rene DeCarte(sp)
David Hume
Isaac Newton
Plato
Socrates
Aristotle
Albert Einstein
Pablo Picasso
Leonardo DaVinci
Martin Luther King
Steve Jobs
Now, critical thinking doesn't have to be so lofty as the above thinkers. However, we require it in our daily decision making like food labels, our relationships, what schools we choose, what products we buy or what information we accept as truth.
Critical thinking is merely 'independent thinking'. That means you are figuring out the problem by yourself and generating the answers for yourself. You're not just taking whatever is given to you!
We have all this information, wisdom, knowledge, history, experience and yet we're not really 'critically thinking' when we're just grabbing these abstract thoughts in our brain.
Indeed, nowadays, we tend to take in and repeat whatever the values and beliefs of those around us have rather than forming our own independent thought and stopping to organize and evaluate the information we are receiving.
There is something potent and important about deriving a 'truth' for yourself instead of just taking information from your surroundings or society. Although it is far easier to not challenge ourselves or take the time to question and organize our own thoughts, not doing so really doesn't serve anyone - especially ourselves! We need to use this ability, have experience with it and grow our ability to 'critically think' so that we gain true understanding and perspective. This will ultimately lead to mastery of this skill.
Unfortunately, critical thinking is very undervalued in society today. It might surprise some to learn that it used to be very highly regarded as a necessary part of education in the classroom. In fact, I can't tell you how many times I have had other parents tell me that their children are not allowed to 'question' in the classroom of today. I would think that this skill and ability to question and learn, to use critical thinking would be vital to a healthy society.
With our daily lives filled with a sea of decisions, we can make better choices by simply adding critical thinking techniques. These techniques allow us to deconstruct nearly every situation and dilemma we have into logical pieces of information we can use to make the best decision.
One of the basic hallmarks of critical thinking is that it is not coming from emotion. What people don't realize is that when we address a problem or situation with emotional thinking, we are not seeing a decision or the options in their entirety. We are rather reacting to the emotion and making decisions out of this emotion.
I had an experience quite a few years ago that really brought this to my attention. It was an email I received from a friend. The email had something in the title like "Emergency, call to action!" Upon first impressions, I gathered that what would follow in the email was 'serious'.
As I began to read the contents, I found myself both emotionally distraught and angry. The scenario being described was that of elephants being harmed and that I should sign my name to the tens of thousands of others to stop this atrocity and forward it to others. As I was so disgusted and upset by the descriptions and images, I found the end of the list and started to write my name and then my critical thinking kicked in:
"Wait just a minute, How is signing my name and forwarding this going to stop this atrocity?"
I didn't sign the email. But I did realize with this experience that our 'emotions' can subvert our normal, logical, thinking processes. To be sure, emotions can fling logic out the window and bypass the pre-frontal cortex completely, making our decisions out of our fight or flight response regions of the brain.
How important is 'critical thinking'?
Maybe the words of Edward Bernays will help in evaluating the importance of thinking for ourselves and developing critical thinking skills:
“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. ...We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. ...In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons...who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.”
― Edward L. Bernays, Propaganda
Understand that 'marketing' today utilizes these methods in nearly every facet of society all across the globe. What boggles my mind is just how easy it is to hack the mind and persuade populations of people to think and feel a certain way. It boggles my mind more that there are actually people that would feel the need to do this -yet there are.
I don't know about you, but I'd rather keep my mind to myself! And I think the world, especially now, could use a lot more independent, critical thinkers not only for our personal lives but because this world could really use some original ideas in solving our greatest problems.
Utilizing the socratic method is a really good place to start:
The Socratic method is named after Greek philosopher Socrates who taught students by asking question after question. Socrates sought to expose contradictions in the students’ thoughts and ideas to then guide them to solid, tenable conclusions. The method is still popular in legal classrooms today.
(https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-the-socratic-method-2154875)
Whatever you think of what I have to say -- thank you for providing some of the inspiration behind it:
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Shallow thinkers do not think beyond the immediate and the observable. They usually take information at face value and only look at immediate consequences. They are not capable of looking at all sides of an issue or think deeply about the issue before making decisions or drawing conclusions . . .
They also believe that their opinion is based on deep thinking because they genuinely believe that their opinion is based on truth and facts. Whereas, deep thinkers look at the whole sequence of events and the consequences. When we dig deeper, we understand better. We can compare different outcomes, examine, tear apart, and make cognizant judgments that are derived from different mental models.
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Left and Right, I’ve yet to find a single person who digs beyond the depth of their immediate domain of interest. In our entirely transactional times, America endlessly rehashes topics of today — never once considering the totality of events that created them (or even having a notion of the need to). With the issues I address — you might as well be saying the Civil War wasn’t germane to the assassination of Lincoln. As I have an idea that could turn the tide — virtually all conversations on here fit under the umbrella of mine. If you’re not interested in such discovery, let’s not waste each other’s time. Thank you! 🙏
It astounds me that even that courtesy is hard to come by anymore. In a world where timeless truths are “outdated” — a lot of things are hard to come by.
It’s a mighty fine day when you wake up to high praise from a man of Glenn Loury’s caliber — twice! He once called my writing “brilliant,” was “honored by it,” and “blown away” by my site and signed up. I’d like to think that’d at least give me a little credibility with his supporters. I’d like to think a lot of things. What does it say to you that across communities where claims of critical thinking are everywhere — I haven’t found it anywhere? Ann Baker’s article beautifully captures what critical thinking is and is not:
“Indeed, nowadays, we tend to take in and repeat whatever the values and beliefs of those around us have rather than forming our own independent thought and stopping to organize and evaluate the information we are receiving.”
I’ve always hated Twitter and every long-form version of it (including the one I’m on right now). When I’m done doing what I gotta do — I’m never goin’ back (not to X or any other). Until then, I’m sending out a certain set of messages looking for intelligent life (fiercely independent thinkers who want to solve problems — not endlessly talk about them). I’ve got an idea — and it’s got teeth. Going by the galaxies filled with “rock stars” of reasoning across the social media universe — I should have no shortage of people eager to examine my idea and discuss how we could improve on it and proceed.
Explaining America’s decline over decades of delight in the Gutter Games of Government — is apples & oranges as it gets when compared to the transactional nature of news and social-media norms. Understanding how seemingly unrelated events impact one another takes time and effort to digest.
You are being conditioned to do the exact opposite — as all of America has been for decades.
And in truth, a lot longer than that. As Alexander Hamilton beautiful put it:
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To see the character of the government and the country so sported with, exposed to so indelible a blot, puts my heart to the torture. . . . Or what is it that thus torments me at a circumstance so calmly viewed by almost everybody else? Am I a fool, a romantic Quixote, or is there a constitutional defect in the American mind?
Were it not for yourself and a few others, I . . . would say . . . there is something in our climate which belittles every animal, human or brute. . . . I disclose to you without reserve the state of my mind. It is discontented and gloomy in the extreme.
I consider the cause of good government as having been put to an issue and the verdict against it.
— Ron Chernow, Hamilton
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We could do something about that, but you’re busy. You’re always busy. Thank you for your time, but please don’t waste mine. And to make that abundantly clear: If you don’t want to click on either of the links below, that’s your prerogative. But here’s the deal: If you don’t earn my time, you don’t get my time. Anything short of specifically addressing my arguments within one or both of the stories below, and you will not hear from me. And to save you some time, I won’t even read your comment if it’s not within the parameters of that opening quote. The first sentence I see that falls outside that domain; will be the last sentence I see.
If you’re turned off by this — that’s the point (to weed you out).
I beat the hell out of both sides, and if you can’t handle some heat — you don’t qualify (so I don’t need ya). Call me whatever you like, I don’t care. For 20 years, I’ve been practically spit on for following principles those same people promote on a daily basis. When it comes to self-satisfied scorn, I’ve heard it all and I’ve seen it all (and made the most of it by making examples out of hermetically sealed minds).
This is the larger story I’m out to tell:
From the Earth to the Moon to “WUT”
https://onevoicebecametwo.life/2024/04/24/from-the-earth-to-the-moon-to-wut/
And this is conduit through which I’m out to tell it:
The Critical Thinking of Sowell’s Crowd: Where Even Math is a Matter of Opinion https://onevoicebecametwo.life/2024/05/12/the-critical-thinking-of-sowells-crowd-where-even-math-is-a-matter-of-opinion/