Have you ever noticed that there are some individuals who always seem to have the best solution to any problem? If they are believers in critical thinking this may just be the case? "Critical thinking is the careful, deliberate determination of whether we should accept, reject or suspend judgment about a claim and of the degree of confidence with which we accept or reject it." (Moore & Parker, p.6) Critical thinking is a process used to come to the most logical of conclusions to a problem.
When we choose to think critically, we have decided to perform a process that will allow us to come to the most informed and logical of conclusions and not simply accept the opinions of someone else. Assumption, perception, emotion, language, argument, fallacies, and logic, are some of the processes used in critical thinking. It takes great effort and persistence for one to come to a logical conclusion. Our personal experiences and views may assist us in the decision making process, but in reality they would most likely hinder the use of logic and informative information when making decisions. To successfully implement critical thinking we must first be aware of our perceptual blocks to effectively perform our perceptual process. .
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Perceptual Blocks.
"Who we are is how we think. Where and how we were raised may determine whether we are pessimists or optimists, conservatives or liberals, atheists or theists, idealists or realists. Our upbringing shapes our fears, which keep us from facing thoughts. It shapes our self-concept, which moves us to defend our thoughts. And it shapes our emotions, which can distort our thinking to an exceptional degree." (Kirby, Goodpaster and Levine, p. 13).
Whenever I am thinking, I am taping into all that formulates me into the person that I am. If I were using the processes of critical thinking correctly I would be accessing information, past experiences, beliefs, preferences, knowledge, etc, to come to a logical conclusion.