Summary
Critical thinking is an art form used by everyone at some point in their lives. It's purpose is to analyze and evaluate one's or others thinking with the goal to improve it. Jesse Richardson highlighted in his TED talk that in order to commence the art of critical thinking, it is important to focus on teaching others not what to think, but how to think. He mentions how there are bias in each and everyone of us that can impact our critical thinking and how it's key to be able to strip that bias to see a new perspective. Also, the use of imagination which he feels is stripped away from us as soon as we enter the education system. Critical thinking on its own though, takes a lot of time and practice as stated in the first video. The reason we want to use critical thinking is to make connections and help us understand how someone else's actions and thinking reflects how they see the world and vice verse. We also need to understand how our own thinking and actions reflects how we see the world and to do that we must take it apart and reconstruct it piece by piece to see how we or others came to that conclusion. That is why it's important to be taught how to think and not what to think, if everyone is taught the same things to think, there would be no opposition and no use for critical thinking. We are also looking for the quality of the thinking, seeing if it holds biases, opinions or just straight up lies. This is important when choosing what to break down, because you don't want to reconstruct a person's thinking that is heavily flawed with bias and lies. It is a very powerful tool though, since it grants us the power to analyze and get into eachothers minds. With all this said, we can always grow our critical thinking and overinterpretation of other's thoughts. I agree that it's a tool that should be used by everyone, especially higher standing like politicians, judges, lawyers, doctors etc. It's important to do so, as understanding each other can be true gift in society.
One thought on “Pamela Delauz Conv 1”
hello Pamela, I agree with you that we use critical thinking to see other’s points of view and try to understand, and not just stink into our own opinions. As you mentioned this is a useful tool when it comes to politicians, judges, lawyers, etc because they aren’t only making a decision for themself but such as laws that affect everyone. I liked that you mentioned from the TEDTalk “how there are biases in each and every one of us that can impact our critical thinking and how it’s key to be able to strip that bias to see a new perspective” and this is very true because depending on how we were raised can affect our way we see the world and how open mind we are, how willing we are to see different perspectives.