Introduction
Critical thinking is a necessary and essential part of every person’s everyday life. Critical thinking is what needs to be used to evaluate situations, identify the possible outcomes, make decisions and form opinions. Our thought process is in a constant attempt for critical thinking, but there are many hindrances that appear in the way of our evaluation and prevent it from being objective. Critical thinking is a very skillful type of thinking, it requires objective application of knowledge, deep and correct understanding of the problem and very accurate judgment.
Recently I heard a story about a girl who liked her shoes to match her clothes in summer. Since she owned lots of colorful outfits – she needed as many pairs of summer flip-flops to match all of her clothes. That was her subjective desire, her wish. Rationally she knew that she was not able to afford to buy so many pairs of shoes, besides, having several dozens of pairs of summer flip-flops was simply impractical.
Critical thinking led the girl to a creative approach. She decided to invent a way out of the situation and came up with an idea for a new design of summer flip-flops with removable straps. She could have straps of all types and colors, and she only needed one base for the – one pair of flip-flops turned into many different options. The best way out was achieved – the girl saved her money, made her wish a reality and started her own business. This is how critical and creative thinking helps a person achieve better results, see more than others can see, and have better and more innovative ideas.
Free will, truth, knowledge, opinion
We are all the time surrounded by information, critical thinking helps to evaluate this information in the most objective way. An important step towards critical thinking is realizing that our thinking is limited in many ways, opening our minds for new information, going beyond the traditional idea of things. A common way of thinking starts with receiving information, hearing multiple views on it, and then forming own opinion based on personal interests and knowledge, received also from subjective sources. This opinion then starts to be considered the truth. Truth can be of two types: subjective and objective.
Objective truth is something that is right for everyone, like gravity laws, for example. Subjective truth is a person’s individual perception of some situation. When it is raining, there is always someone who is happy to see the rain and someone who is upset because the rain is causing them discomfort. In reality, rain is neither good nor bad. The conception of free will is based on the question of whether it is possible for a person to have absolutely objective thinking, or we are always under the influence of many hindrances preventing us from thinking critically. The correct way to think critically is seeing the subject, then collecting information and knowledge, applying critical thinking, and after that identifying an informed opinion.
To develop critical thinking skills one must learn to see the hindrances and overcome them. Egocentrism, described by Butterfield (2009) as “seeing the world from your own point of view, assuming you are the norm” (p. 58), limits the ability to apply critical thinking. To avoid egocentric thinking a person needs to be open-minded, flexible and never judge opposing opinions. Another obstacle is an assumption, defined by Rudinow and Barry (2007) as “a claim taken to be true without support” (p. 27).
Hindrances and methods to avoid them
Also, the authors suggest a method to learn overcoming assumptions by picking a topic and trying to think about it without making assumptions. A big hindrance to critical thinking is created by social conditions. We tend to think of ourselves as a part of a whole and take the beliefs and opinions of our social group as truth. To overcome this obstacle we need to try to go out of the box and consider other ways of thinking about different subjects.
I once faced a situation when social conditioning became my hindrance to thinking critically. An elderly person I know announced she was going to get married. According to a social tradition, this person was not at the “right” age for marriage. I found myself judging the decision of this person, but quickly realized that I must keep my mind open and flexible and avoid judging others, basing my opinions on what is taken as a “norm” in my social group.
Conclusion
The message I would like to analyze comes from the advertisement of Honda cars. “Let’s do those things that can’t be done. Like less fuel in, for more miles out. An impossible made possible.” The message was skillfully designed to affect as many potential buyers as possible; this is why it takes one of the biggest dreams of any car owner – driving the longest distances using the least amount of fuel.
The creative thinking of engineers worked to make the wish come true. To emphasize the importance of this innovation, the authors of the advertisement use the phrase “an impossible made possible”, creating an illusion that the new Honda car is so outstanding it breaks the laws of physics. While in reality, it is innovation is based on calculations and clever solutions. The phrase “let’s do those things that can’t be done” works to assure the viewer that the car is one of a kind and encourages owning it, in order to become one of a kind person.
Reference List
Butterfield, J. (2009). Illustrated Course Guides: Problem-Solving and Decision Making. Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.
Rudinow, J. & Barry V. E. (2007). Invitation to Critical Thinking. Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.