How do you think your knowledge and understanding in culture, society and politics helps you think critically with our current situation?
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How do you think your knowledge and understanding in culture, society, and politics helps you think critically with our current situation?
You ask about my knowledge and understanding of culture, society, and politics. I think these contribute (such as I am able), but something else helps me more to think critically: As a child, I was taught and encouraged to think critically, not to accept statements at face value, and to search for the truth behind everything.
I remember one day at sea. An old man asked me, “Where is the island.”
I looked around, and it was nowhere in sight. I was frightened. I figured the adults knew how to get back, but I knew I was lost. I said, “I don’t know.”
That’s the first part of critical thinking: to come to the realization that I don’t know.
Then, he said, “The clouds will tell you.”
I looked and looked, and I saw nothing. Later, I had found nothing, and he said, “Look for the cloud that does not move.”
After more than an hour, I did indeed find a cloud that did not move. It changed, but it stayed in the same place. He said, “That’s where the island is.” Then he asked, “When we get there, where will we land? Remember, we cannot land on the rocks. We need the beach. Find the beach.”
Again, I was lost, and he said, “Look for the lightest part of the bottom of the cloud, which also does not move.”
After a long time, I found it.
That is the goal of critical thinking: to see the evidence that is right in front of us, but which can be subtle and unseen until one takes the time to carefully search it out.
Critical thinking is a learned skill. It is not some fact, which once learned, remains as it is. It is a skill that must be applied differently in all situations.
As you can see, I was raised in and on the great ocean, its waves, reefs, creatures, and storms. One learns to approach the world with watchfulness, prudence, and skill, or one risks suffering the consequences of inattention, foolishness, and incompetence. More than anything else, critical thinking is the application of watchfulness, prudence, and skill.