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    The Critical Mind: Enhance Your Problem Solving, Questioning, Observing, and Evaluating Skills
    The Critical Mind: Enhance Your Problem Solving, Questioning, Observing, and Evaluating Skills
    The Critical Mind: Enhance Your Problem Solving, Questioning, Observing, and Evaluating Skills
    Ebook98 pages1 hour

    The Critical Mind: Enhance Your Problem Solving, Questioning, Observing, and Evaluating Skills

    By Zoe McKey

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    About this ebook

    Excel at analyzing the way you think and presenting evidence for your ideas. Become a more independent, self-directed learner.



    If you want to become a self-directed, self-disciplined, self-monitored, and self-corrective thinkerinstead of an irrational and snap-judging one, this book is for you.
    Critical thinking skills grant you rigorous standards of excellence and mindful command of their use, effective communication and problem solving abilities, and help to overcome egocentrism and sociocentrism.
    The Critical Mind offers a thorough introduction to the rules and principles of critical thinking. You will find widely usable and situation-specific advice on how to critically approach your daily life, business, friendships, opinions, and even social media.


    Critical thinking not only saves you time, but saves you money and helps you prevent misunderstanding and disappointment.



    •Learn the main elements of critical thinking.
    •The theories and practices of the best critical thinkers of the world.
    •Tips to keep your brain in good shape and receptive to analysis.
    •Solve your problems with critical thinking.
    •Become a quicker and better decision maker.


    Critical Thinking promotes creativity..



    The Critical Mind is a guideline for everyone who wishes to learn the basics of critical thinking. If you work in business, education, healthcare, or you study, you’ll find the book equally useful. The book takes a deep look into the framework of geniuses like Richard Paul and Linda Elder to give you a well-established foundation on effective thought.
    •Become a more effective communicator having relevant argument points.
    •How to apply critical thinking for self-reflection.
    •Guiding questions that help you think more critically.
    •Four types of critical thinking exercises to deepen your knowledge each day.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPublishdrive
    Release dateNov 7, 2019
    ISBN9781705961490
    The Critical Mind: Enhance Your Problem Solving, Questioning, Observing, and Evaluating Skills

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    • 2/5
      I tried getting through this book, but couldn’t get past all the grammatical errors.
    • 4/5
      I went through this book and it is easy to read and gives a few checklists that are practical to keep developing our critical thinking. I like the Piaget segment on children's learning.

    Book preview

    The Critical Mind - Zoe McKey

    ‹‹

    Introduction

    Did you know that clothing made out of cotton is the healthiest for your skin? No, seriously, I’m telling you. Believe me. My grandmother said it, so it’s true.

    My friend, a bodybuilder, always washes his chicken meat before he cooks it. You should wash your chicken too. I mean, he is a bodybuilder, he eats chicken each day, so he probably knows best.

    I know for a fact that even the most intelligent people use only 10% of their brain’s capacity. All the rest is a wasted potential… Well, I read it in an article on a website called Bored Panda. I also saw that movie, Lucy…

    Shall I go on, or have you given me enough credit already?

    What about watermelon seeds causing appendicitis? Or the five-second rule when you drop your food on the ground? Or that lightning never strikes the same place twice?

    The exampled mentioned above are urban legends at best. Why do we invent them and believe them then? Because humans are wired to look for explanations for everything. We hate the unknown and love security. Thousands of years ago we tried to explain the unknown by attaching superhuman attributives to natural phenomena. Today we try to get to the bottom of our questions using science. But we crave the need for an explanation.

    We are also lazy and impatient. Therefore, we wish to get our explanation as quickly and as easily as possible.

    That’s why I never questioned my grandmother about her village knowledge about cotton. I didn’t take the trouble to — first and foremost — check her age and involvement in contemporary science. When she was young in 1930, there might have not been alternative materials to cotton that resisted the hard washing procedure my great-grandmother and her mother before her put the clothes through. They literally cooked each cloth, from panties to the bed sheets in gigantic pots. As detergent they used homemade soap they also cooked out of tallow or lard (or both). No germ could survive such an atrocity, I give them that. But since then, the clothing industry has developed a lot. Today there are breathe-through synthetic materials which are more optimized for different skin types than cotton. They are hypoallergenic, better for handling sweat, and so on.

    The same goes to my bodybuilder friend. Since I saw him wash the chicken, I also started washing the chicken. Why? I believed he knew better because he cooked chicken more often than I did. Only later, I researched the topic and I found that washing before cooking does not benefit the meat itself because the hot oil will kill everything possibly harmful. The chicken-water splashing around the sink, on the other hand, will stay in a lukewarm environment, helping the bacteria to thrive. So washing the chicken actually does more harm than good.

    The popular belief about the brain? Wrong. Scientists have proven that we actually use 100% of our brain each day — just not at the same time. ¹

    Today, it is easier to research information than ever before. However, at the same time, it is also easier to acquire false information. If we put a little effort into our thinking instead of accepting the first thing we hear or read automatically, we could reduce the possibility of being wrong.

    Cogito ergo sum. I think, therefore I am, said René Descartes. This famous conclusion was the end of the search the French philosopher carried out for a statement that could not be doubted. He discovered that he could not doubt his existence, as he was the one doing the doubting in the first place.

    Let’s take this analogy even further: Dubito, ergo cogito, ergo sum. I doubt, therefore I think, therefore I am. Descartes discovered early on that it is possible to take a skeptical viewpoint on anything. The main message of his argument is that you can doubt almost everything about the world, but you can't doubt that you're doubting. Because if you doubt that you're doubting, you're still doubting.

    Before we enter into deep philosophical debates let me tell you why Descartes’ message is important for this book:

    "I doubt, therefore I think. However, ‘I think’ doesn’t automatically imply that I know."

    Thinking and knowing are two different states of mind. Just because we think something, it doesn’t make it knowledge — much less the truth.

    Please question my words. Question your own words. Question the news, the latest statement of your father…

    Critical thinking is a way of thinking where you don't simply accept all arguments and conclusions. When you get exposed to new information, you approach it with a curious, questioning attitude. Critical thinking means making decisions, forming opinions based on reason and logic. You don’t accept claims as the truth by default, rather you seek the evidence supporting them.

    This book discusses the best critical thinking strategies and cognitive pathways that will lead you to the least wrong answer possible. Why didn’t I say the right answer? Find out in this book. Learn to use your logic to the fullest, and make better decisions in business and your personal life.

    One

    What is Critical Thinking?

    The philosopher Richard Paul has described three kinds of people: vulgar believers, who use slogans and platitudes to bully those holding different points of view into agreeing with them; sophisticated believers, who are skilled at using intellectual arguments, but only to defend what they already believe; and critical believers, who reason their way to conclusions and are ready to listen to others.

    — Carole Wade and Carol Tavris

    Critical thinking is a cognitive process spiced with questions like, How do you know that? or How did you come to this conclusion? or What is the evidence that supports that claim? or Are there any alternative possibilities to this theory?

    It sounds very obvious. You may think, that’s it? I already know these questions. Sure. We all do. But how often do we actually use them?

    Critical thinkers prioritize reasoned judgments over gut responses, logic over emotions. They don’t sign up for arguments simply because someone said it, but rather have a questioning attitude. They are like the thought police — they want evidence.

    Critical thinking requires three key qualities according to experts: curiosity, skepticism, and humility. I would like to add another, very important skill that makes all the difference between a critical thinker

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