Critical Thinking Blog #1

I often use the process of critical thinking. In fact, sometimes I think about things too much. I think it can be described in a number of different ways, but I believe many of us (especially us girls) use it quite often. We can critically think while shopping, and deciding how those high heeled pumps would look. Or critically think about that woman who is wearing jeans two times too small for her. Or we can all critically think when watching the news, and try to determine what was going through the mind of that person that just committed a crime. Critical thinking is the process of taking something as we see it and asking questions such as when, where, how, and why. A very common scientific/religious critical thinking question is "evolution versus intelligent design". Of course this question and answer would also be followed by morals and family background.

Something I haven't critically thought about is the order my life will be in. This is what I mean, since I've been little it was a known thing to get up and go to school. After high school, I go to college. After college, I'll get a career. Career, then get married, and so on. This of course was my parents contribution (possibly a little brainwashing hehe) but that's the order of my operations. Not that anyone else is wrong if done out of order, just have mine planned that way.

"We often long for surefire, step-by-step procedures [to help us solve problems] and the more personally threatening a situation is, the more we want foolproof rules. But there are no rules that guarantee our thinking will be correct . . . The only way we can decide whether to follow certain rules is if we use our best reasoning to determine that those rules are reasonable, that they lead to reasonable results when followed." – Gerald Nosich, Learning to Think Things Through

The word intellectualism has a very positive connotation to it for me. When I think of intellectualism, I think of an answer being critically thought about, and answered with some intelligence. Logic and reason have basically the same meaning to me, and can be used in place of each other. Meaning making a sound judgment. These also have a positive connotation. All of these words make me think of answering a question or finding the answer to a question.