In today's tutorial class, we were asked to watch a short YouTube clip of "A Guide To Critical Thinking - How Not To Be Stupid". I must admit, the title is a bit funny and I think it is intriguing to whoever hear or see it. Anyway the lecturer told us to find out about the characters in the video and their characteristics, then to give our own opinion about it.
So in this video there are two groups of people with T-shirts labelled with "Critical Thinker" and "Wishful Thinker" which reflect the outside world nowadays, that everybody is divided into two groups of thinkers:- the critical thinkers or the wishful thinkers. The first question that being ask to determine in which group a person categorized into is "Are you stupid?". I must admit it is a bit funny though, but from there we can see how people are reacting to it, some say yes, some say no and others just shrugged.
If your answer is yes, then there is still hope for you. That is the first step in knowing whether you are a critical thinker or a wishful thinker. So I did my own research about critical thinker and found out this video that is quite helpful too. It is about the characteristics of a critical thinker and what differentiate them from others.
I think this video, is a bit easier to understand since there is something I can see, read and write about. I must admit the video that provided by the lecturer "A Guide To Critical Thinking - How Not To Be Stupid" is a bit of hassle watch, the backgrounds are distracting and the dialogue are too fast to catch up. Nonetheless I had tried my best to understand it.
In the video above, it starts with an introduction of critical thinking. It is a bit similar to my first lecture class, but more enjoyable and easy on the eye rather than power point slides. But
I digress; a critical thinker is someone who cultivates attitudes of curiosity and eagerness to widen their perspective with their knowledge. They are willing to do the work required to keep themselves properly informed about a subject.
They recognize that explanation must actually explain and be testable for serious consideration. The legitimate theories must clearly defines the circumstances which when they concede defeat. They embrace skepticism By skepticism it doesn't mean that they are indiscriminate rejection of idea but doubting and suspending their judgement about claims in which they are presented so they don't fully accept claim which might not be justified without examining the reasoning, possible assumptions and biases behind them..
The qualities of a critical thinker are someone who can handle uncertainty, prefers to be aware of their areas of ignorance, and they can wait for valid evidence or evidence based answers. Someone who has an intellectual independence is willing to explore and open to new possibilities. A particular someone who is willing and able to discover and solve problem by himself.
On the contrary, wishful thinkers are those who like to gather only the data that agrees with them and supports their conclusion. They refuse to hear the other side opinion to avoid being confused, flustered and angry. They find that new information is something that is threatening and tedious. When they believe in something, they stick to it and thinking that they got their fact straight.
They are prone to make a conclusion before evidence, they like to make conclusion first and then only the evidence that support their conclusion. They rely completely on their memory and they are lazy to do researches to avoid difficulties or being rejected. They are people who rather stay in the comfort of what they already believed and refrain themselves from researching other points of view to avoid being uncomfortable and scared. Wishful thinker finds that ignorance is comforting hence they rather stay in denial.
Someone who believes something that they can see and rely on one person testimony. They use their own personal bias as statement of an argument. Relying on their feelings or instinct as facts is one of the criteria of a wishful thinker. They make their decision under the worst situation and can be influenced by them. They tend to make generalization, judgement and conclusion based on their own or others personal experience.
They believed in extraordinary claims without questions and they see clarity as a threat to their sense of power and importance. They tend to have their reality all fogged up and blurred to avoid being small and insignificant. Facts that make them feel better and powerful tend to get their favor. Emotional and moving testimony is the most convincing to them. Wishful thinkers tend to believe opinions and beliefs because they feel that their opinions are a lot better than the facts.
In a nutshell these are a few of the qualities of critical thinker and wishful thinker. I learned a lot about them and I can see that I have both qualities and thanks to these videos I know I can improve myself more and be the better person who can apply what they learn in their daily life. I hope after this I can see things more clearly and control myself from being a wishful thinker.
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