Personally, in terms of critical thinking I most often tend to fall along the pattern of sponge-style thinking, but sometimes employ the pan-for-gold approach. An illustrative recurring example of my absorbing a large amount of given information without questioning it, is when I read a particularly thrilling book, such as crime fiction. In this case, I choose to "drink in" the author's words, as they make me feel part of the story.
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Personally, in terms of critical thinking I most often tend to fall along the pattern of sponge-style thinking, but sometimes employ the pan-for-gold approach. An illustrative recurring example of my absorbing a large amount of given information without questioning it, is when I read a particularly thrilling book, such as crime fiction. In this case, I choose to "drink in" the author's words, as they make me feel part of the story.
However, at times I feel compelled to analyze the intake of information by asking questions designed to help me gain a better understanding. For instance, when a friend of mine launches in the account of a true story that happened to him, I listen carefully, make mental side-notes, and when he's finished speaking, ask him questions for the purposes of satiating my curiosity and trying to form an opinion. In my view, both approaches are equally useful, but panning-for-gold is more dynamic and therefore requires additional energy.
A current issue which captured my interest is the matter of same-sex marriage. I believe the right answer is legalizing it. I profess several reasons why this would be a positive measure. Firstly, both heterosexuals and homosexuals pay taxes to the government, therefore both should have the freedom to legally marry as they please. Secondly, if two people fall in love and choose to share happiness in a lifetime commitment, I don't see why it would be anyone's business to hinder them. Gay marriage will have no impact whatsoever on heterosexual communities, just as racial integration in the 60's had no negative impact on the majority white communities. It simply overturned an ugly, immoral attitude that upheld segregation. The same goes for legalizing gay marriage; it will grant the LGBT community a right that has been unjustly denied to them. Furthermore, same-sex marriage will increase the chances for thousands of foster children to gain loving parents and families.
Weak-sense thinking involves the defensive attitude towards an existing opinion when someone challenges it, and employing critical thinking for the reason of rebuking or dominating that person from this point-of-view. On the other hand, strong-sense thinking defines the availability to critically reconsider an opinion, leaving aside personal preference. A critical re-evaluation of a cemented opinion can even surface evidence to strengthen it.
When it comes to values, almost anyone will provide a lengthy list. I can easily identify several abstract precepts that act as guidelines in the sense that they tend to influence me at a large extent. Among these are a particular regard for human frailty translated in compassion, an aspiration to harmony, a predilection for honesty, tolerance, cooperation, collective responsibility, ambition, courage, autonomy and justice. The aforementioned values justify their existence as a result of my education and all the spectrum of personal experiences until this day. I am aware of their existence because they influence all my actions, and they are also what I expect from other people.
The four most important values of a critical thinker are rationality, flexibility, competition and excellence. Critical thinking is the self-taught, individually practiced form of thinking which ventures to reason at the highest level of quality in a non-biased way. People who employ this critically pattern constantly strive to live rationally, reasonably and empathically. Critical thinkers are acutely aware of the innate predisposition towards chaos of human thought when left unchecked and aspire to diminish the bad destructive influence of egocentric or sociocentric tendencies. A critical thinker will use the intellectual tools of concept and principle in order to assess, quantify and improve thinking. It is a diligent work, dedicated to develop the intellectual virtues of integrity, modesty, civility, intellectual empathy, sense of justice and confidence in reason. It is also a continuous struggle to improve the world as much as possible and contribute to a society more governed by reason.
An issue is the matter put into question, the subject of concern which is attended by a writer/speaker. A descriptive issue is focused on determining an existing matter, like who was elected president? A prescriptive issue, on the other hand, highlights something that has to be changed or put into question, such as how many books should I buy this week?
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