Critical Thinking

Posted: September 10th, 2013

Critical Thinking

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Critical Thinking

Critical thinking focuses on the use of reasonable or realistic and philosophical thinking in order to arrive at certain beliefs and actions. As a sociological tool, critical thinking is used in determining whether a particular assertion is constantly or partly true or counterfeit. Indeed, students are emphasized to be critical thinkers. This means that they are supposed to employ reflexive thought in order to arrive at a decision or a belief. Consequently, it also means that they are supposed to ascertain their decisions or beliefs by providing logical evidence relating to the matter in question. Thus, critical thinking enables students in making valid conclusions through a careful, honest and organized evaluation and analysis of the given subject matter. Additionally, critical thinking is important to students since it allows them to understand and question the society, its structure, beliefs and actions. By providing rational proof, one is able to determine if a matter is more true to another by applying logic (Charon, 2011).

It is evident that criticizing another person’s ideas is relatively simple than criticizing one’s own ideas. This is because humans tend to be subjective in nature. According to Charon (2011), employing objectivity in critical thinking is difficult since humans are unable to separate their subjective perception from logical reasoning. Furthermore, criticizing oneself proves to be difficult since one is biased. One also assumes that criticizing others is easier since the information is displayed based on the actions the other person commits. In addition, self-deception plays a crucial role in criticizing oneself since it influences one to ignore admittance of their ignorance and lack of information. Humans tend to defend themselves regarding their innate beliefs, which if critically questioned, force them to criticize the critic instead of themselves and their beliefs.

References

Charon, J. M. (2011). Ten questions: A sociological perspective. California: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.