How to Improve Your Critical Thinking?
The ability to think critically is an essential skill, which means you have to dig deep into what everyone is saying and check the words or thoughts to see if they are real or not.
However, critical thinking is not limited to identifying false speech only, you also need it to make specific decisions. For example, you need this thought in general life situations, whether it’s making a decision to buy or rent a home, change your diet, or to keep studying or leave it for work. Each of these decisions are difficult and important, so the ability to think critically about these things can make a huge difference in your life.
The wrong way to improve critical thinking:
I’m going to begin with what I think is the wrong way to improve critical thinking, which is unfortunately often what we learn in schools. This approach begins by teaching you one of the basic rules of logical deduction, the ponens method, some examples of mistakes, and a set of philosophical terms, then they give you some problems that you need to work on, and after that, you’re supposed to be able to think critically in order to solve real-world problems.
While there is nothing wrong with studying logic and rationality in itself, I don’t think these methods are helpful in real life. In particular, there are certain facts about our way of thinking , which makes our way to improving rationality obscure. We should be aware of certain problems with critical thinking.
The first problem: Critical thinking is not a capacity
Psychologists Edward Thorndike and Robert Woodworth dealt with this problem over a century ago. The common view of learning in their time was the idea that the human brain contained large and distinct “capabilities,” such as, logic, memory, and judgement, which by training them on topics regardless of their relevance to the real world, they will improve these capabilities just like lifting weights in the gym builds your muscles.
The problem is that mental theory does not work for the brain because the brain is not like muscles. Rather than having general and abstract abilities that can be enhanced through undefined exercises, mind-related improvements are very specific, and general improvements result from accumulating a number of specific improvements, not general and unrelated improvements.
For example, consider you’re learning a language. One theory says, “thinking critically about your ability to learn English will improve your linguistic capacity in general. Despite this advantage, the major part of the effort to learn any language requires learning a specific vocabulary. So, if you want to learn Japanese for instance, it’s better to learn Japanese vocabulary. Mastery of English first will not help you much to learn Japanese”.
Similarly, critical thinking is not only a unique homogeneous ability that includes abstract logic forms, rather, it is a number of facts, conclusions, inferences, and contextual capacities that need to be reinforced through exposure to many real situations.
The second problem: Thinking is too rational
The dialectic theory of mind suggests that the apparent failure of most types of human reason is misinterpreted because humans do not rely on the true function of mind. Instead of being a general means of making better decisions, the mind is the ability to produce interpretations and evaluate the interpretations of others.
Intelligence comes from all parts of the brain through intuitive units which are defined and formed through practice, rather than being an inner ability doing critical thinking. If this theory is correct, then another reason that critical thinking is hard to improve is that we often fail to make smarter decisions when we think critically, but we try to design more attractive arguments for our positions or sharper attacks on other people’s arguments.
While this type of “ critical thinking through argument” has great benefits for advancing our knowledge as a group, it does not help a lot on individual assistance. Instead, when we use critical thinking, it is a tool for justifying our ideas instead of systematically evaluating them in order to make better decisions.
The right way to improve critical thinking:
If the traditional view of critical thinking is wrong, what is the correct way to proceed? There are two ways to make better decisions:
- Create a context that leads to better decision- making, given what we know about human thought.
- Acquire plenty of information from the world and incorporate it into your life through the practice of making decisions. In other words, critical thinking comes when a person is intelligent.
Two strategies to improve critical thinking are as follows:
1. Create contexts to make smart decisions:
This strategy is to identify what you actually do when you think of things and use that knowledge to try to avoid making common mistakes. Given what we know about the functioning of the mind, there are some things you can do:
1.1. Look at the decision you make a lot of times and in different places and moods:
Since the mind is more likely to justify than to make a proper judgement, one way to avoid making mistakes is to think of the same issue that you face in a number of different contexts.
Stereotypical theory of mind says that instead of the functioning of the brain as a unique and coordinated function, the brain is composed of many semi-autonomous units which each choose the best action and send it to the brain. Depending on which unity you do more powerfully with the context around you, its choice will gain more importance. So, if you are hungry, afraid, angry, asleep, happy, or even sad, you might get different perspectives on the right decision.
So, thinking about making a decision in multiple moods and places will give you a variety of circumstances to think about, and if the decision you make is the same each time, you will be more confident that you have the correct evaluation.
1.2. Speak with more people and discuss more:
The controversial theory of mind indicates that mind does not work well alone, but when it is incorporated into the general debates, most of the known problems of human thought disappear after a group of people come together and talk about the existing problem.
Discussing your decision or judgements with others is a good way to reject your thoughts or allow more powerful thoughts to emerge although there is a risk of following group thinking. If you meet large enough and diverse groups of people, you will probably find better ideas, and this will win the opinion of the majority of people.
1.3. Never bet your reputation:
One of the greatest challenges to overcome in critical thinking is that you may change your beliefs in the face of new evidence, and your old beliefs may remain the same, even if you prove to be false.
Part of this may be because, according to the dialectic theory of the mind, we try to justify our intuitive beliefs instead of arguing against them. So, if you are just looking for a reason to prove you’re right, you obviously don’t know the reason you’re wrong. However, another part of this matter may return to the social consequences of fluctuating your opinions. If your reputation and identity depends on the validity of an idea, you certainly won’t change it when you are exposed to reasons that could undermine your views.
I tried to counter that myself by writing when I’m wrong about something. By sharing my beliefs, I try to get away from the content of my thoughts to get rid of thoughts that don’t work, instead of clinging to them for fear of looking like a fool.
2. Get smart by learning more:
The second strategy to enhance critical thinking that actually works is as easy as getting to know the world better. The more you know about something, the better you think about it.
Recently, I had an experience when someone told me that he was worried that the Wi-Fi signals on his phone might cause cancer. I explained to him that it doesn’t make sense because Wi-Fi signals are microwaves and their energy is so low, and cancer can occur when the DNA is damaged, and for that to happen, the radiation must be strong enough to break partial ties.
UV rays are strong enough to do so – that’s why you should wear sunscreen outside- but the visible light is not- that’s why sunscreen doesn’t need to be applied inside- microwave radiation has a much lower frequency; therefore, it can’t cause cancer.
The problem was not that this person did not have good critical thinking skills, and it is reasonable to assume that the new technology may have unintended consequences- and that may cause cancer- Rather, the problem was that the person did not have enough knowledge about electromagnets to understand why their request was unreasonable. If they knew enough about this, they should have been more concerned about light bulbs that emit high-frequency, high-energy visible light everyday than the low microwave beam that the phone emits.
Conclusion:
Critical thinking is not enhanced by studying an abstract logical figure and arriving at valid findings, but when you have enough information about the way the world works to rule out an improbable or impossible possibility.
The negative side to this is that critical thinking cannot be gained solely by success in universities or schools. This means that you need to continuously learn about everything in order to make smart decisions.
The positive side is that it is possible to make more intelligent decisions. Far from being an abstract ability that you either have or don’t have, critical thinking is part of the defining process, which can be enhanced as you learn more throughout your life.