Critical Thinking as Philosophy

What is Critical Thinking and Why is it Important?

The most important differences between everyday thinking and critical thinking are that critical thinking involves an active engagement with information so as to determine what is relevant to addressing an issue or challenge. Critical thinking is based in objectivity: it is about asking questions, seeking answers, and identifying solutions that are the most accurate, practical, and doable. Everyday thinking on the other hand tends to be more subjective and affected by bias. It can be distorted by opinion and it can suffer from a lack of necessary or important information. Everyday thinking may come across as lazy in some ways because it is not really focused the way critical thinking is.

Critical thinking is certainly important because it goes hand in hand with the expansion or acquisition of knowledge (Halpern, 2014). Information gathered by the senses will be of no use to anyone if there is no way to assess it, analyze it, and make decisions based on it. Thinking critically about problems by asking questions and sifting through the most pertinent data is what helps one to become wise.

The fact that in Europe critical thinking is generally regarded as philosophy shows the true nature of critical thinking and how it should be regarded. Philosophy is the study of or love of wisdom (Kristjansson, 2014). Thinking critically is what helps one to come to wisdom. So it makes sense that it should be associated with the art or science of studying wisdom, which is philosophy. We should definitely care about philosophy, just like we care about critical thinking, because wisdom is what enables us to be the best versions of ourselves that we can be. As Kristjansson (2014) explains, simply by studying Aristotelian philosophy individuals can sharpen their minds and put themselves on the path toward leading more virtuous lives.