Critical Thinking Chapter 1 Summary

Chapter 1 of Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing: A Brief Guide to Argument by Sylvan Barnet, Hugo Bedau, and John O’Hara states that critical thinking has been misunderstood as negative and should be understood as the act of being able to think skillfully, observationally and consciously. This chapter also discusses that a critical thinker should not act upon opinionated and prejudgment beliefs, but should take consideration, and make themselves knowledgeable by finding factual information before making certain claims. Thus making the critical thinker capable of having sound judgment by being able to analyze the situation at hand intelligently and deliberately.
In this chapter, I learned that being a critical thinker, reader and writer requires being capable of finding solutions to ideas, questions, and concerns by becoming aware of circumstances. Furthermore, a thinker should be able to have the ability to observe, examine, and weigh out what outcomes that there may be.
In addition the way to do this is to cluster which means to question your idea/question to get the facts. For example, Alexa Cabrera essay “Stirred and Strain: Pastafarians Should Be Allowed to Practice in Prison” showed that although she may have had indifferences before we may never know because in her essay she thought logically and brought up the fact that, Stephen Cavanaugh has rights to practice whatever religion he chooses under the RLUIPA. Moreover, Kim Davis a county clerk of Rowan County refused to give marital licenses despite the law saying it was legal. To elaborate, this is a great example of not thinking critically being that she only took account of her own beliefs. This chapter made me realize that since our country is very diverse critical thinkers have to put there own opinions on the back burner and think