Critical Thinking: Thinking for Yourself

Even one tale, with its load of mystery, is useful. Even a story, a tale, with the thousand nuances it brings with it, helps, already as children, to cultivate a precious asset for our being in the world. critical thinking.

CRITICAL THINKING

How can we define critical thinking, or even critical reasoning? In the simplest and most concise way: a style of reasoning, based on a compass with four cardinal points. Four verbs. ReflectOnly through the pause, the breath before the word, does an idea, a thought, become rounded. Otherwise, they remain sulfurous, and risk having no consistency at all.

DoubtCritical thinking secularly considers doubt as the privileged path to reach the truth. Even that which is expressed through faithExtremist and intolerant thought moves in the opposite direction; it begins with the affirmation of a (presumed) truth, affirms its commandment, and rejects any possibility of revision. Not even a marginal one. DiscernCritical thinking, while open to accepting opposing opinions, never abandons the exercise of discernment. Through discernment, one avoids relativizing everything. Critical thinking discerns, and thus distinguishes, with a clear and distinct boundary, good from evil, false from true. motivationCritical thinking fuels the activism of our intelligence. It stimulates knowledge, Curiosity, analysis, in-depth analysis. Evaluations, one way or another.

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WHY IS CRITICAL THINKING IMPORTANT?

There are a thousand reasons to give importance and centrality to critical thinking. But one is crucial. Critical thinking is like an anti-virus mask: we can wear it, outdoors and indoors, to avoid infection. conformity, of the banal adherence to the ideas of others without any analysis, of cheap superficiality, of presenteeism, of the quiet breath of the air that blows. All these things, taken together, form a single thought, or rather the opposite of critical thinking.

HOW DO YOU DEVELOP CRITICAL THINKING?

Critical thinking doesn't develop by carefully reading a textbook or taking a few online psychology courses. If we stick to the four key verbs (reflect, doubt, discern, motivate), it's clear that critical thinking needs its own space to grow and mature. A vital space. Where, for example, the information has a central role. As long as it comes from reliable sources, which by their nature cannot be the social, and is in any case filtered by our subsequent evaluations. Another important element, synonymous with good information, is the knowledge, made up of curiosity, interests (not just houses and money), and passions. And lots of reading. Critical thinking also develops in the habit of our minds opening up, being ready to evaluate hypotheses different from those we considered certain until yesterday. And even in silence.

WHEN DOES CRITICAL THINKING FORM?