What is critical thinking Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

What is critical thinking - Essay Example It also involves the observation of things in open-minded ways and examining them from various perspectives. Critical thinking allows people to see beyond their view of things and understand the opinions of other people better. Critical thinking is usually used in discussions to form well-rounded and cogent arguments. Critical thinking uses multiple skills such as logic, accuracy, relevance, fairness, clarity, precision, and completeness. Critical thinking has benefits that range from personal life and working place to scientific research and academic education. It is quite unfortunate that most people’s thinking are distorted, uninformed, partial, and biased, which form barriers to effective critical thinking (Moore & Parker 2011). Critical thinking requires the ability from an individual to approach situations and problem in a rational manner. Thinking in a rational way requires proper analysis of what is known and deriving conclusions based on evidence or facts rather than feelings or opinions. Reasoning in an honest way requires thinkers to acknowledge motives, personal goals, and emotions that can corrupt one’s thought processes and opinions. Rational thinking should identify and eliminate prejudices that inhibit fresh and objective approaches to situations (Moore & Parker 2011). Critical thinking is important as it generates new avenues of problem solving. Critical thinking requires people be open-minded. Being open-minded permits people to find all possible answers to an obstacle and accept solutions and answers different from the initial expectations. Being open-minded requires people not to assume their ways of providing solutions are always right or the best. Scientists, for example, should be aware that the results of research or experiment will not always meet their expectations. Results obtained from such experiments can be challenging, but will eventually lead to meaningful discoveries (Moore & Parker 2011). Critical thinking