Decision making should be more than the aggregation of performed opinions. Opinions must be confronted with each other in the public sphere, and all participants in this public discourse should truly listen to each other's arguments. To make proper democratic decisions, no groups should be excluded- (Lipset, 1995). Critical thinking helps us ask the relevant questions, weigh evidence offered in support of arguments, interpret complex problems, and we use this to make wise decisions. This is especially important when you realize that many problems do not lend themselves to clear-cut solutions. .
Defining critical thinking and decision making were made easy to understand by the materials for this course; weekly lectures give great glimpses and examples of how we should understand and use critical thinking and decision making. The Supplemental Material gave shows steps of the decision making process and critical thinking case studies. Decision making styles on the Web Links gave me ideas for the premise for this paper. .
If we did more critical thinking we would be willing to be more honest with ourselves and to admit what we don't know or that we don't know everything. We would be less afraid to say "I was wrong", which my husband would probably pass out if he heard, and be able to learn from our mistakes and the mistakes of others. Our beliefs would really be our own, not simply passed on to us by others. We would be less easily engineered and think more freely. .
The benefits of being a critical thinker are helping us develop the ability to put ourselves in the place of others and understand their viewpoints. We would develop the ability to listen with an open mind, even with a conflicting point of view. Being a critical thinker we would no to have the patience to think before acting. Our emotions would be less likely to cause us worry or possibly harm if we can't control them; we would develop ways to sort through our feelings and constructively harness our emotions.
