Episode 30: Full Circle: Empowering Your Mind with the Art of Critical Thinking

Ever felt lost in a sea of information, unsure of what to believe or how to make the right decision? Tune in to Full Circle with Shawn, where we unravel the complexities of critical thinking, providing you a compass for navigating life's myriad choices. We're not just talking about the ability to distinguish fact from fiction; it's a deep dive into the very essence of rational, unbiased judgment. From the roots of the Socratic method to the cutting edge of modern educational systems, I'll be your guide, busting myths and equipping you with the precision tools needed to dissect arguments, recognize fallacies, and enhance your decision-making prowess.

It's a modern-day intellectual toolkit, and you're invited to build yours with us. This journey isn't just theoretical—we're rolling up our sleeves to apply these vital skills to the challenges of the digital world. We'll navigate the daunting terrain of social media engagement with a critical eye and explore resources that transform how you process the world around you. Books like "Thinking Fast and Slow" and "The Demon-Haunted World" are just the beginning. Online platforms, podcasts, and courses await to further hone your skills. So, whether you're a professional seeking an edge, a student eager to learn, or a curious mind striving for clarity in a cluttered world, join me, Shawn, on Full Circle, where we shape sharper minds for a brighter future.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hello and welcome back to Full Circle with Sean. I am your host, sean, and today we are talking about critical thinking, and if you do a quick search, you'll find a lot of people that devote a lot of their time to talking about critical thinking. So this is more of a high level, as we've been doing all this foundational work. So what is critical thinking? So critical thinking is just the ability to analyze facts and form a judgment. So that means it's basically the process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing and even evaluating different bits of information. It involves questioning assumptions and identifying biases. Now why is critical thinking so important? It basically enables informed decision-making. It helps you to avoid impulsive reactions. It also promotes creativity by encouraging the exploration of alternative solutions. It's really critical for problem solving in very complex or dynamic environments and it is an essential skill to develop for professional careers. It also helps in navigating our everyday decisions. It really gives us that better judgment and fosters an open-mindedness and even the ability to entertain opposing viewpoints. So let's dive a little deeper, okay. What exactly is critical thinking? And it's basically a process, as I said, of evaluating, analyzing and synthesizing information information that we've gathered from observation, experience, reflection or communication. And then it leads to be more rational, to be more clear and more unbiased in your conclusions or your solutions. So let's look at some of the value of critical thinking in various contexts. Okay, let's start with personal. So, as we develop our critical thinking in our personal life, it'll enhance our decision-making skills, it'll lead to better life choices and even problem-solving abilities. It will encourage self-reflection and it'll help us to understand our own values and our own motivations. It also promotes emotional intelligence and we had a whole episode on that and it promotes that by understanding different perspectives and managing personal biases. And now let's move to the values of critical thinking in our professional life. So here we are again. It'll improve our problem solving capabilities, it'll improve our creativity and it is essential for innovation and even adapting to change. It will enhance our communication skills and it will really help us with a clear, precise and well-reasoned thought process. And then, finally, it'll help us with teamwork, right? So it'll help us better with conflict resolution and even collaborative thinking. And finally, let's look at the societal impacts and the values of critical thinking. So what does it do? It supports democracy and civil engagement by enabling individuals to evaluate arguments and make more informed decisions. It encourages tolerance and understanding and this really helps with diverse groups by considering multiple viewpoints. And then, finally, it helps in identifying and debunking misinformation and that really helps the public to be more informed.

Speaker 1: 3:35

So let's look at some of the history and the evolution of critical thinking. Okay, so we had Socrates. So Socrates was what? 469 BCE, and he emphasized the importance of questioning and introspection through the Socratic method and this really involved continuous asking of questions to really stimulate critical thinking.

Speaker 1: 4:01

You have Aristotle in 384 BC, critical thinking. You have Aristotle in 384 BC and he developed formal logic and he really emphasized empirical observation and systematic reasoning right. And then, if we move to say the Middle Ages, we had scholasticism and that was really prominent in medieval universities and the method was really focused on dialectical reasoning and this was used to resolve contradictions between different thoughts, and particularly in theology and philosophy. And then we move to enlightenment and now we have rationalism and empiricism, and this is where you know it was promoted. That reason was due to empirical evidence and that was the primary source of knowledge and they really advocated for systematic doubt and methodical inquiry. Now, if we look at, say, the 20th century so more modern education, right, we have John Dewey, and John Dewey really championed critical thinking and education. He advocated for it as a central part of democracy and even citizenship. We have critical pedagogy, and that was where there was an argument for critical consciousness that challenges oppression and encouraged dialogue. And if we continue on and look at some of the approaches today, so we've embedded critical thinking into a lot of educational curriculum globally and it's basically a fundamental educational objective. And if we look at it in our professional development, it's actually recognized as a key competency in the global workforce and it's highly emphasized in fields ranging from your normal business to healthcare. And then, of course, we have the digital age challenges, right where the focus on critical thinking has really intensified, specifically with the rise of digital media and unreliable information.

Speaker 1: 6:00

Let's jump back for a second and look at some common misconceptions. Okay, so myth one critical thinking is purely negative, and okay, I get it. Critical thinking involves questioning and challenging ideas, but its goal is constructive. It aims to arrive at a clearer and more accurate solution or more accurate conclusions. Conclusions.

Speaker 1: 6:22

Myth number two critical thinking is natural and doesn't need to be taught. And that's not true at all. Critical thinking is a skill and it can be improved with practice and instruction, and, in fact, education systems around the world emphasize teaching methods and strategies to enhance critical thinking. Myth number three critical thinking and intelligence are the same, and while intelligence does involve your cognitive abilities, critical thinking is about how to use these abilities to really evaluate arguments and evidence critically, and that really involves specific trainable skills beyond just intelligence. And another myth is critical thinking is just about thinking harder, right, and it's not merely about the effort expended, but about using specific strategies and even frameworks, such as like logical reasoning, evaluating sources and recognizing biases, to process information effectively. Another myth is critical thinking leads to universal agreement, because it's not true, because it involves analyzing and weighing different viewpoints and evidence. In fact, critical thinking can lead all too often to well reasoned but different conclusions depending on somebody's perspective and the interpretation of the information that they've got in front of them. And then, finally, critical thinking kills creativity. And critical thinking can actually enhance creativity because it encourages the exploration of new ways to solve problems and new ways to navigate complex informational landscapes.

Speaker 1: 8:05

So we've talked a little bit about some of the componentry to critical thinking, so let's dig into that. What are the components of critical thinking? And there's basically five, right. So there's analysis, evaluation, inference, explanation and self-regulation. So what are those Analysis? So, analysis basically involves identifying the arguments and the structure within a line of reasoning. You can examine the relationships among various parts of the information, like how they react, how they contradict, and you can break complex information into smaller, understandable components to assess their base and connections.

Speaker 1: 8:47

And then, if we're looking at evaluation, so we're basically assessing the credibility of the source and, if the arguments are valid, we are reviewing the evidence and determining the strength, of the reliability or even the relevance, and we're making some judgments about the value of information and arguments, considering, like, the context and possible biases. And then inference, so inference, we're drawing conclusions and we're drawing those conclusions based on the available evidence and reasoning. And here we're going to start predicting and hypothesizing potential outcomes by applying logical deduction and induction. We're going to generate new insights by linking data and also reasoning to form coherent conclusions. And then explanation. So in explanation, we're going to articulate our understanding and reasoning behind our conclusions. We're going to communicate this effectively using structured and coherent arguments to explain our thinking process. And we're going to use support statements with appropriate justifications, assumptions and reasons.

Speaker 1: 10:02

And then, finally, we have self-regulation, right. So self-regulation really involves ongoing self-assessment and correction of your own thought process and your own biases. You're going to monitor your own cognitive activities and you're basically going to reflect on the adequacy of their knowledge and belief. And then, finally, you're going to adjust your beliefs and strategies based on reflective critiques that you've done to yourself, your beliefs and strategies based on reflective critiques that you've done to yourself, to enhance reasoning and your outcomes. And that shouldn't be any surprise to anybody, because I talk a lot about self-reflection and now we know a lot about critical thinking.

Speaker 1: 10:41

So let's look at the process to really drive down in our own critical thinking. So we're going to start by we have something going on. We're going to start by gathering information, right. So we're going to identify the information we need. We're going to research that information, and that could be in books, journals, websites, interviews, other people. We're going to research as much as we can, based on what we're looking at, and then we're going to organize that information right. We're going to categorize, we're going to research as much as we can, based on what we're looking at, and then we're going to organize that information right. We're going to categorize, we're going to store it and we're going to make sure that it's easy for us to access and reference.

Speaker 1: 11:15

And then the next thing we're going to do is we're going to question assumptions. So we're going to identify our assumptions and not just our assumptions, but the assumptions that might be in some of those journals or the websites or the interviews right? We're going to challenge the assumptions by considering alternative perspectives and then we're going to basically avoid assumption bias. So we're going to be aware of common biases that might influence the acceptance of an assumption unless there's some critical examination of it. Right? Then we're going to evaluate the evidence. So we're going to check our source credibility, we're going to analyze the data quality and then we're going to use logical reasoning. And logical reasoning is basically we're going to apply logic to see if the conclusions logically follow from the premise provided and if there's any errors in that reasoning. So it's pretty simple, right? So we're going to gather information, we're going to question our assumptions and then we're going to evaluate the evidence. There you go.

Speaker 1: 12:22

Now let's look at some critical thinking and creativity, right? So what can critical thinking do to our creativity? And basically, it can expand our perspective, right? Because it encourages openness. Critical thinking opens up new ways of looking at problems and they can really lead to novel ideas and creative solutions. But not only that it will facilitate diverse viewpoints, solutions. But not only that it will facilitate diverse viewpoints. We'll be evaluating different perspectives and individuals can combine and refine ideas and that can create, you know, really creative outcomes. It can really enhance that. We're looking at enhanced problem solving, so we improve our questioning, we optimize our solutions. You know, supports the idea, the complexity often inherent in the innovation process and it also links concepts.

Speaker 1: 13:34

So what are some barriers to critical thinking? And that would really start with, say, emotional influences, right? So personal bias, so your personal experience, your beliefs and preferences can really cloud your judgment and your decision-making process. And then your emotional reactions. So strong emotions can really impede objective thinking and they can lead to snap judgments or irrational decisions. And we've all been there.

Speaker 1: 14:02

You could have cognitive limitations like overconfidence, so believing too strongly in your own knowledge and skills can prevent the consideration of alternative viewpoints or even new information. And then there's always confirmation bias, so you're seeking out or favoring information that confirms your own pre-existing belief or your own hypothesis. There's also social factors. One of them is called groupthink, so the pressure to conform with group norms and opinions can really hurt individual critical thinking or lead to poor group decisions. Then there's information overload, so you get excessive data, so too much information can really lead to decision paralysis or the selection of the simplest solution and I do talk a little bit about decision paralysis on another podcast. And then you have misinformation, right so, and we all know misinformation, but difficulty in distinguishing between credible and non-credible sources, and they can lead to really bad conclusions. And then, finally, you have education and environmental limitations, so that can include like lack of training or even restricted environments, so environments don't encourage open dialogue or even questioning.

Speaker 1: 15:18

Okay, so now we know a lot more about critical thinking, but where do we use this in our everyday life? In decision making? It's purchasing decisions, it's financial planning and problem solving. It's everywhere, from home maintenance to navigating conflicts For health and wellness. It's medical information, you know, or diet and exercise planning, media literacy so we all know that. One right, so news consumption and advertising. Learning and education you have self-directed learning, you have educational choices, social interactions, you have social media and civic engagement.

Speaker 1: 15:55

And if we look at even further and to where critical thinking is absolutely essential, we might look at health care decisions right? So choosing the right treatment option. We might look at business strategy and market expansion. And then there's technology implementation right? So choosing the right treatment option. We might look at business strategy and market expansion. And then there's technology implementation right so, adapting new technologies, environmental policy, educational reform, crisis management so emergency response, legal analysis that could be court cases or public policy. So regulation development, court cases or public policy. So regulation development or ethical dilemmas?

Speaker 1: 16:32

So I know what you're asking. Are there any strategies or techniques that can really help us out here? And I would start with ask fundamental questions. So start by questioning very basic assumptions and even the origins of necessary information to deepen your understanding of the topic, and then apply Socratic questioning where you question and you use discipline, questioning that can help to explore complex ideas, it can uncover underlying beliefs and it can correct misconceptions. And then engage in reflective thinking, and I can't stress it as much. I talk about reflective thinking all the time, all the time, as I said before. So you should regularly reflect on your own thinking process, your own biases and the effectiveness of your decisions and your solutions.

Speaker 1: 17:24

We want to practice mind mapping so we can create visual diagrams to organize information, connect ideas and visually navigate complex topics. Remember that the point here is to enhance the clarity and enhance the comprehension. We can utilize logical reasoning. So by applying principles of logic, such as I don't know avoiding fallacies and building sound arguments, we can think more clearly and we can think more effectively. We can develop foresight, so we can start to consider potential consequences and implications of decisions or our opinions, to really try to anticipate possible future scenarios and then prepare accordingly. We can analyze arguments and we talked about this a little bit so we break down arguments into their little pieces and we assess the validity and the soundness in a structured way. We can also seek diversity right, so we actively seek out different viewpoints and different opinions and we challenge our own thinking, and that'll really help to expand our perspective. We can practice decision analysis, so we use structured methods to evaluate risk, to evaluate benefits or costs and uncertainties associated with different choices, to make better informed decisions. And finally, we should be conducting cost-benefit analysis right, so we weigh the cost and the benefits of a decision or an action and that'll help us to determine if it's worthwhile and it really will help us to make more rational choices. Right, and it'll be based on empirical data.

Speaker 1: 19:09

And then here we all are in the digital age, and what problems do we have? So, again, we have information overload, okay, so we need to identify what information is relevant among all that data that's out there and available to us online. We need to be able to filter the quality of that data. We need to decide what's high quality and what's reliable and what's less reliable or lower quality. We need to combat misinformation. We need to verify our facts and check the accuracy of information. We can use fact-checking websites, we can use reliable sources. We can go to many different places and try to figure out what's real and what's not real, and we also need to understand the context. So evaluate the context in which information is presented and that'll help you assess its intent and that'll help you determine if there's any biases. So what we can do is you know, we try to enhance our digital literacy and we do this by developing media literacy skills. So we try to understand how media messages are created and we learn to read between the lines. We start recognizing tactics and biases and we practice safe computing right. So we apply critical thinking to protect personal data and even our privacy from scams, from phishing and misleading online practices, our privacy from scams, from phishing and misleading online practices.

Speaker 1: 20:40

And then we have to look at decision-making online. So we have to make informed choices. We have to analyze when making decisions based on online reviews or advertisements or user recommendations. We have to evaluate digital tools. We need to assess the utility and the implications of new digital tools and technologies before we adopt them. In social media, right, we need to analyze the content. We need to think critically about the content shared on social media. We need to understand the source, the purpose and the impact of what we're consuming. We need to engage constructively. So when we engage, we need to engage constructively. So when we engage, we should be meaningful, we should be respectful and we should avoid echo chambers. We need to really think of the ethical considerations, so we should reflect on the implications. We should think about the content that we share, or the content that we like, and what implications that has when we're spreading such information online.

Speaker 1: 21:42

Now let's go a little bit into the future, right? So what does the future hold? We could be looking at global integration. So more educational systems start doing critical thinking as a core component of their curriculum from a more early age. We might even have some kind of standardized testing, so tests that measure critical thinking skills alongside traditional subjects. We can expect technological integration, right? So digital tools for critical thinking, which can be, you know, the development and adoption of AI-driven tools that help students learn and practice critical thinking skills, and even VR simulations right, virtual reality. And then in our professional development, we will see more workplace training. We'll see more continued learning, where it'll be more of a lifelong learning and reskilling in critical thinking to adapt to rapid technological and economic changes.

Speaker 1: 22:40

So what are some resources that you can learn more about critical thinking? So there's one, there's a book called Thinking Fast and Slow right, and this really explores the dual process theory of the mind and its implications for decision making. There's the Demon Haunted World, science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan. And there's Critical Thinking Tools for Taking Charge of your Professional and Personal Life.

Speaker 1: 23:09

There are plenty of websites, so the Critical Thinking Community, khan Academy and, as everybody knows, ted-ed, right, and then there's online courses, so Corsia has them, there's so many of them out there. And then there's podcasts like you Are Not so Smart, the Skeptic's Guide to the Universe, the Foundations of Critical Thinking there's, like I said, they're everywhere. Some people devote a good portion of their life to learning and teaching critical thinking, because it is a very massive subject and we've only really went very high level as we build our foundation for what we talk about later. So thank you very much for joining me today on Full Circle with Sean. The next episode we'll be back to a startup, a startup pain series episode, and that is on pitch decks, so I look forward to seeing you there.