Divorce and Critical Thinking Process

Critical Thinking and Divorce

Critical thinking refers to reflective thinking whereby a person views an event or incident objectively to develop arguments and then tries to reach some sound unbiased conclusions. The ability to think critically has occupied a pivotal position in last few decades because it allows a person to reach a conclusion that has not been colored by bias or pre-conceived notions about a certain person or issue. However critical thinking is something that most people are required to learn and not everyone is born with the skills to critically analyze a situation. Let us see how critical thinking has been defined and that will help us understand what exactly is meant by this term. We can then go on to apply critical thinking to the process of divorce.

John Dewey was one of the early thinkers to develop and present a sound definition of critical thinking. To him critical thinking was 'reflective thinking' which he defined as:

Active, persistent, and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it and the further conclusions to which it tends" (Dewey, 1909, p.9)

Critical thinking is an active process, which allows individuals to actively participate in the analysis of information and evaluation of data. Instead of passive process where one reaches conclusions naturally without the aid or involvement of his or her own intellectual faculties, an active process is one where a person participates completely in the evaluation of information in order to reach impartial objective results.

Dewey's definition was widely accepted for a long time, in 1941, Edward Glaser came up with anther important definition of the term. He defined critical thinking as:

1) An attitude of being disposed to consider in a thoughtful way the problems and subjects that come within the range of one's experience (2) knowledge of the methods of logical enquiry and reasoning; and (3) some skills in applying those methods. Critical thinking calls for a persistent effort to examine any belief or supposed form if knowledge in the light of the evidence that supports it and the further conclusions to which it tends" (Glaser, 1941, p. 5)

It is clear that Glaser borrowed heavily from Dewey's definition but he added some original elements to come up with a more comprehensive definition of the term. According to Glaser, critical thinking is not simply a mental evaluation process but is actually an attitude that facilitates enquiry and reasoning. Chance (1996) simplified the earlier definitions of critical thinking and narrowed the process down to some important steps. According to him, critical thinking was:

the ability to analyze facts, generate and organize ideas, defend opinions, make comparisons, draw inferences, evaluate arguments and solve problems" (Chance, 1986, p. 6).

In recent times, however the definition of critical thinking has changed somewhat to include character traits and cognitive development. Harvey Siegel's work plays an important role in the development of more advanced definition of critical thinking. He defined critical thinking as that thinking which is "appropriately moved by reasons" (p. 32) However because of the use of vague ideas, Siegel's definitions is rather too broad in scope and is unlikely to be adopted for serious consideration. But his criticism helped us see the problems that existed with previous definitions.

John McPeck (1981) for example had defined critical thinking as "the skill and propensity to engage in an activity with reflective skepticism" (p. 8) This definition uses the term skepticism, which carries certain negative undertones and might not work well with educationists who are looking for a more positive definition.

Now that we have seen how various scholars and thinkers defined critical thinking, we are in a position to narrow down the process of critical thinking to few important steps that almost all thinkers agreed upon. These steps are based on what was found common in the most widely accepted definitions of the term. These steps are as follows:

Observations

Knowledge

Comprehension

Application

Analysis

Synthesis

Evaluation

These are the steps given to us by Harold Bloom but they are believed to be the most commonly used steps in critical thinking process that helps us reach some sound conclusions in connection with an event or claim.

When two people are getting divorced, it sometimes becomes important to find out why the couple reached this point in their marriage. More than anyone else, the couple itself needs to find out what went wrong in their relationship so they won't make similar mistakes again. Divorce however is a very bitter experience that can clod the judgment of both parties. Therefore they need to critically think about their marriage and how ended in divorce. They need to follow the steps mentioned above to critically analyze their divorce.

Some general observations are made; for example:

We couldn't agree on money issue.

He never took care of the kids.

We were incompatible.

I was treated like a maid.

We were poles apart in our thinking.

He was cheating on me and I found out through a friend.

These are some general observations, which need to be turned into knowledge by removing the weak premises. In order for an argument to be strong, the premises must have a connection with the conclusion and it should be obvious too. From the above observations we noticed that (1) and (2) are moderate, (3) is vague, (4) is moderate, (5) is weak, (6) is strong.

We remove the weak ones. Then we need to change the vague ones to something more precise. We notice that this has already been done in (6). So the main reason was cheating. The husband was found cheating on his wife. The wife then came up with all the other reasons why her marriage wouldn't work. This is comprehension.