What is the definition
of critical thinking? This is the ability of a person to make a judgment on an
issue without allowing personal bias to cloud the judgment. When faced with an
issue, whether urgent or not, there is the natural procedure that gets into
gear. The procedure is meant to arrive at a conclusion to solve the pertinent
issue. It is however hard to purely rationalize the issue. There is the natural
inclination to exaggerate, boast etc. These emotions actively sabotage our
ability to reason objectively. There is
need to integrate what is critical thinking skills to carefully dissect all the
elements of the issue, evaluate them and use justifiable information to arrive
at a conclusion. It requires the
following characteristic skills;
- Rationality. This fundamental what is critical thinking skills involves employment of reason, rather than emotion, to draw a conclusion. Rational thinking however requires justifiable evidence to maintain integrity and stand up to criticism.
- Self awareness- considering what is the definition of critical thinking, there is is great need for someone to weigh the influence and consequences of personal bias when making a conclusion. The first step is to recognize the personal stand on the pertinent issue, the work around it. This requires high level what is critical thinking skills like discipline, and clear state of mind.
- Integrity. Critical thinking requires a fair amount of integrity to recognize and by-pass personal bias to analyze an issue and draw a conclusion.
- Open mindedness-one of the paramount what is critical thinking skills of a critical thinker is possession of an open mind. With an open mind, the person is thus able to;
- Evaluate the possible conclusions
- Take into consideration possible perspectives
- Willingly accept new schools of thought, interpretations, and explanation based on enough and justifiable evidence.
- Integrate unpopular views in the preliminary assessment of the problem
- Personal discipline. Meticulous and comprehensive reasoning is a fundamental pillar of what is the definition of critical thinking. While more popular opinions, including personal bias may seek to prevail, discipline is required to ignore such and evaluate the issue freshly. With such discipline, the resultant viewpoint is free of personal bias which is usually hard to defend without emotion when criticized.
- Concise judgment. To be a skilled critical thinker, there is need to appreciate the relevant perspectives other people have on the issue at hand. It is necessary to evaluate these alternatives what is the definition of critical thinking judgments with emphasis on the proposed evidence supporting the particular view. Once the other viewpoints are considered, the scholar is then able to concisely structure the perspective, with the resulting paper able to stand up to constructive criticism. Concise judgment remains one of the most important what is critical thinking skills.
