Critical thinking will set you free!
By Sim Kwang Yang
Our mind and our heart are our most precious and free possessions, and yet all through life, we allow our minds and our hearts to be enslaved by others and ourselves.
We can free ourselves from such external or self-enslavement only through critical thinking.
The imperfect Wikipedia gives the following various definitions of “critical thinking”:
“Critical thinking is purposeful and reflective judgment about what to believe or what to do in response to observations, written expressions, or arguments. Critical thinking might involve determining the meaning and significance of what is observed or expressed, or, concerning a given inference or argument, determining whether there is adequate justification to accept the conclusion as true. Hence, Fisher & Scriven define critical thinking as “Skilled, active, interpretation and evaluation of observations, communications, information, and argumentation.” Parker & Moore define it more narrowly as the careful, deliberate determination of whether one should accept, reject, or suspend judgment about a claim the degree of confidence with which one accepts or rejects it.”
What a mouthful of words.
Essentially, critical thinking is not just a skill, and it is far more than skills in problem solving. It also includes thinking about thinking, which in western philosophy courses, is categorised as the Philosophy of Mind.
Critical thinking is not just about finding means to an end, but thinking about the end also.
Critical thinking begins with questions. We ask, “How to solve this problem” very often in our daily life. But we should ask questions about ends like, “What is the purpose of life?” “Who am I?” “What should I do about myself, and how should I live?” “What is justice?” “What is a good society?” “Does God exist?” “Why should obey the laws of our land?”
Critical thinking is also about questioning our own questioning. Are those questions posed above legitimate questions? If so, what kind of answers are we looking for? When do we know a question is illegitimate?
