Define Critical Thinking Essay Example

Critical Thinking is an interesting subject that has been worked on throughout the past 2500 years. The term "critical thinking" has its roots in the mid-late 20th century. We offer here overlapping definitions, together which form a substantive, transdisciplinary conception of critical thinking. ("Defining critical thinking,") There are many different definitions on what “critical thinking” means, whether it being “Critical Thinking means good thinking, almost the opposite of illogical, irrational, thinking. Someone who is able to summarize complex ideas clearly with fairness to all sides, or a person who can come up with the most coherent and justifiable explanation of what a passage of written material means” (Facione, 1990) or “commonly understood to involve commitment to the social and political practice of participatory democracy, willingness to imagine or remain open to considering alternative perspectives, willingness to integrate new or revised perspectives into our ways of thinking and acting, and willingness to foster criticality in others”. (Wikipedia, 2011) Some consider critical thinking to be an unnatural act because naturally people are determined to preserve their beliefs, even to the point of irrationality. We tend to discard evidence that conflicts with our beliefs and to attack those who offer such evidence (Carroll, 2011). It can even be broken down systematically into 35 dimensions based on affective, cognitive macro abilities, and cognitive micro skills dimensions. (Elder, Paul & Thinking, 2007).

Defining critical thinking. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/defining-critical-thinking/766

Facione, Peter . (1990). Charastics of strong critical thinkers. Retrieved from http://www.insightassessment.com/

Wikipedia. (2011, November 16). Wikipedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_thinking

Carroll, R. T. (2011). critical thinking. Retrieved from