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How to Think Critically, Rarely Taught, But Should be!
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How to think critically… a topic that should be discussed in school, yet rarely ever is. Why isn’t it taught? We will let you decide the reasons. What matters is you can learn to become a clear critical thinker.
And, what better time to do so than today?
These days, thinking clearly, and having a critical mind is something that can not only benefit you but your family as well. Truth be told, much of what we know is coming from state media, and our governments, and when we just accept what is being spread about without questioning it, we can run into issues.
As citizens and people who participate in society, it’s part of our social contract to step back and say, does that make sense? Does A plus B = C? Never accept a subject blindly.
As members of a Democratic society, being able to look at a topic and make sense of it without critical faculties is very important to maintaining our individual and group rights within society.
So, in today’s article, we’re going to look at how to think clearly about any topic or subject and give you the ability to question your own beliefs and those around you in a way that’ll bring more clarity to any subject you think about.
So what makes up a truly great thinker?
Well, a truly great thinker who has a critical mind is constantly growing and evolving their own thoughts.
On a side note, and purely out of my own curiosity, how many people do you see moving forward in life and growing in their worldly thoughts? How many people do you see solving problems consistently? (Leave a comment below)
From what is becoming more apparent, on the contrary, you may see a lot of people running in circles and they don’t know how to solve problems very readily. The better we get at thinking the better we get at problem-solving; it goes hand-in-hand. Therefore, one could stipulate our western societies need more problem-solving abilities.
So let’s jump in and find out how we can increase our critical thinking.
An example, is the statement, “if you turn on the tap, then water comes out,” which leads to clear action when you’re thirsty and clear action, an intentional action, then will offer, clear feedback. Did water come out?
The problem is, a lot of people are muddy in their actions and they’re thinking. When you go to test the tap for example, for water, you will immediately find out whether the original thought was true or not. Either water will come out or it won’t.
Now because you have clear feedback, this proves or disproves your thought. It helps improve your understanding of the world too; either you’ll find out whether your understanding of the world is correct or incorrect. And, if you find out you’re incorrect, then this helps you move closer to what is correct.
The idea is to figure out your world; what is correct in as many places as possible.
Did you know there were many great philosophers in the past, one being Marcus Aurelius who were clear thinker’s? He also was a great leader which was much due to his being a clear thinker.
This emperor of Rome became a great leader by becoming a great thinker.
He became a great thinker by learning to think clearly. He wrote a book, called The Meditations, where he organized his thoughts in a logical way, reflecting on the relationship between his actions, and their effects. Quite simply, he looked at his environment and what he did in it, as well as the outcomes: cause and effect.
You can do this too, and we advise you to do it, organize your thoughts and then you can reduce the ambiguity and make clear and concise statements about the outcomes because we all know now that clear logic leads to clear thoughts and clear thoughts lead to clear and intentional action and guess what clear and intentional action leads to clear feedback and clear feedback leads to improved understanding of our world. And, if you have a clear understanding of the world around you, you’re going to be better at solving problems.
In the coming weeks, start to ask more questions, and…
Start to look at your world from a cause-and-effect perspective and you give yourself positive feedback, whether you’re right or wrong about the outcome you can now start to look at other people and look at them and say, are they thinking critically or have they missed A+ B that will then = C… The thing is that critical thinking allows you to look at things in society that are fallacies; often used to prove a point, but not as necessarily correct about the point they are proving.
Take the Fallacy of Popularity, just because something is popular doesn’t mean that it’s right or correct and that’s the beauty of critical thinking. We recommend you start solving more problems around you, and see how your clarity of the world around you improves.