Role of Organization in Critical

¶ … Role of Organization in Critical Thinking

Organizing in Critical Thinking

Critical thinking skills are a vital requisite in problem solving as well as in the development of new understanding and knowledge. The honing of good critical thinking skills, however, is contingent on an individual's ability to organize and connect up jumbled bits of data till a clear picture emerges (Kirby & Goodpaster, 1999, p. 119). Indeed, it can be said that organization is key to the art of reasoning since it brings method and order to an individual's thinking, irrespective of the field of her or his enquiry. Further, such method and order in thinking is important if critical thinking is to result in using only relevant, verifiable facts, and a strong overall conclusion (Duplass & Ziedler, cited Beyer, 2002).

Interestingly, it appears that the role organizing plays in critical thinking is explained by the very order that exists in the universe as well as in the human mind. While this implies that much of the order within our mind may have been learned from the natural order of the universe, the fact is that the human mind itself is designed to receive, store, retrieve, process and interpret data to produce meaning. Thus, it is evident that the ability to understand and apply order leads to knowledge about the way the universe and life functions (Kirby & Goodpaster, 1999, p. 119-120)

From time immemorial, human kind has observed, learnt from, and thereafter harnessed the four natural orders of topical, analogical, chronological and causal for productive purposes. For instance, knowledge of the topical order of various elements has led to many a scientific, agricultural and industrial breakthrough, resulting in exponential advances in the material quality of human life. Similarly, the human ability to discern analogies between animal and human life has, for example, helped predicate the effects of foods such as saccharine: "...saccharine caused bladder cancer in rats, scientists analogized that it might also be carcinogenic in humans." (Thagard & Shelley, 2004, para 4)

Human beings may have benefited a great deal from the use of natural orders, but perhaps human civilization has benefited as much from the development of mental orders such as the arbitrary, logical, five Ws, and scientific orders. In fact, just a moment's reflection will reveal the extent to which human society has been built on the basis of both natural and mental orders. The chronological order of the seasons is used by the fashion industry to plan and market clothing appropriate to the season, while detectives use the five Ws to investigate crimes, and philosophers use both the causal and logical orders to explore moral and ethical issues. Of course, much of human thinking is guided by the scientific order of observation, hypothesis, experimentation, and validation (Kirby & Goodpaster, 1999, p. 122-3).

Orderly thinking also plays a role in debunking existing theories. Indeed, the organization of facts using the three-step method of clustering, analyzing, and prioritizing helps establish both the verifiable truth and logical fallacies in existing arguments. For instance, it is accepted practice to refute the arguments of opponents by effectively demonstrating how data can be regrouped, analyzed, and prioritized to reach a different set of conclusions. In fact, this method is often deployed in debating arguments on ethics, morals, or social right issues such as abortion, same sex marriages, and gun control: "Once you have clarified your purpose, think carefully through the clusters and the items and add, subtract, and change them as necessary to support your purpose and give a fair presentation of the other position." (Kirby & Goodpaster, 1999, p. 126)