Wednesday, November 25, 2009
On Critical Thinking, Again
At the beginning of the semester, I had a good Idea of what critically thinking was, but throughout the semester I learned even more and more of what critically thinking entails. Upon begging this class I knew that to think critical means to take a look further than what things seem to be on the outside and to read between the lines, however from my participation in this class I have learned so much more about thinking critically. Like spotting the use of an illogical fallacy in an argument, or how ethos, pathos, and logos can be used to persuade a person, how to use inductive and deductive reasoning, articulate biases and even to recognize when someone is bullshitting. As I stated when I was first asked this question, it is often said that the average human only uses ten percent of its brain. If we could use more than ten percent of our brain, imagine what intellectual powers we could possibly tap into. I am sure that upon leaving this class I have learned to use more than ten percent of my brain. Not only have I learned the importance of thinking critically, I have applied my critical thinking skills to my whole life. Often, when I am in class listening to a lecture I try to find any fallacies in my teacher’s arguments. When I read from text-books, or even watching the seven o’ clock news I think critically about every bit of information I receive and try to figure out if it is bullshit or legitimate information. And when a friend is trying to persuade me, I take notice if they are using pathos, ethos, or logos. Overall, I have learned that critical thinking is so much more than just analyzing something. We can analyze something without truly thinking critically, but it is what we do with the information we analyze that manners. Earlier in the semester I said that “I am greatly looking forward to sharpening my critical thinking and reading skills in this class. I hope that my abilities to analyze writings will transfer over to even more aspects of my life including academic areas and a more in-depth look as to the way I view the world in general.” Well, my hopes have been fulfilled, and the way I look at the world has most definitely changed. And believe it or not, thinking critically has helped me in my other classes so much, now whenever I get an assignment I am eager to begin analyzing away at it.
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I share some of the same feelings on my past critical thinking response. Critical thinking is much more than just analyzing things. It is being able to evaluate bias and understand opinions and point of views. Critical thinking, like you said, entails a lot of different things. I liked your blog and how well you analyzed you first blog. Your blog was very thorough and I can clearly see the differences between your first blog and this blog. It is crazy how change is quantum and we never really see the slow progress until one day we are faced with it. This class has helped me better analyze and think critically about many things in all aspects of my life. I see this class has done the same for you. Happy Thanksgiving.
ReplyDeleteI felt the same way you did, when this semester first began, I thought I knew a lot about critical thinking, but throughout the semester I have come to find out that I didn’t know as much as I thought. Although, a lot of my personal traits of critical thinking haven’t changed, many of them have because I have developed more insight of what critical thinking entails. I also felt that upon beginning this class I knew that to think critical means to take a look further than what things seem to be on the outside and to read between the lines, but however from our participation in this class we all have learned so much more about thinking critically.
ReplyDeleteYes, throughout this class I think we have all learned that critical thinking is so much more than just analyzing certain information we are given, and with all the information we have been handed throughout the semester, I feel that I will also be able to use these abilities throughout the rest of my life when I need to think critical and go more in depth with whatever information I have given or I need to review. Although, to me this class was very hard I feel that it has also help with other classes as well as other aspects of my life.