Authored by Karen Warren, the essay The Critical Self explores distinct aspects of critical thinking together with the concept of critical self-giving providing a detailed description of the essence of the two notions in people’s lives. This paper summarizes the essay by thoroughly exploring the two concepts to understand their efficacy in the society, as postulated by the author.
Critical thinking is paramount in our lives. As Karen posits, critical thinking is a reasonable and reflective thinking that aids an individual to decide on what to believe in or what to do (Warren 1995, 62). Critical thinking has many profound benefits. Critical thinking for schoolchildren plays pivotal roles in the learning and conceptualization of diverse cases. Critical thinking improves students’ thinking as well as performance abilities. Students fail philosophy exams even with adequate preparation prior to the test because they fail to articulate philosophical arguments such as Plato’s arguments, as they lack skills in critical thinking. Thus, developing satisfactory skills of critical thinking will improve students’ performances in many subjects.
Consequently, critical thinking enables students to engage themselves in distinct philosophical reflections about life questions and profound experiences that they encounter as they grow. Critical thinking also improves the self-esteem of students in schools. In addition, critical thinking aids in developing essential skills such as problem solving skills, assessing both inductive and deductive arguments, comparing and contrasting various challenges, amongst others. In general, creative thinking enables people to deal with various challenges facing them by instilling valued traits such as accuracy, precision and correctness.
It is imperative for people to develop their critical selves, as it provides remarkable benefits on their lives. Critical self is an embodied, relational, feeling and rational self. Critical self draws inferences, formulates diverse arguments, draws various inferences, offers amicable definitions, and makes predictions. Critical self aids one to improve his/her critical and creative thinking as well as amassing valuable knowledge. Thus, he/she is able to confront various life challenges. The critical self is of immense essence in comprehending the complex self such as knowing self, public self, and others. Critical self offers many benefits to learning. It aids learners in realizing their full potential by providing a strong background for learners to synthesize subjects taught in class and pass different tasks. Secondly, critical self helps learners gather and process information, which is paramount to effective learning. Thorough critical self, one can draw inferences, compare and contrast varying information, and classify information obtained in the learning process. Moreover, critical self increases self-esteem of the learners. This is achieved as the learner experiences an increased ability to give valid and logical arguments, solve problems, and formulate hypotheses. Critical self also aids one on becoming a global citizen, as he or she is able access new technologies and information through critical thinking. Through critical self, one can keep at par with new technologies.
Based on the expositions made in the paper, it suffices to declare the article a must-read, as it expounds on the knowledge of critical thinking that every person requires. Learning to be a critical thinker is paramount in order to develop efficient critical self, which provides many benefits to people’s lives. Immense rewards emerge from critical thinking that aid realizing a personal growth and addressing life challenges. To realize the full potential of a person, he/she has to embrace critical thinking in a bid to develop critical self.
Reference
Warren, Karen T. 1995. The Critical Self. Perth: Murdoch University Press.