THE IMPORTANCE OF CRITICAL SENSE




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You have the impression of thinking mode "autopilot"? To think and talk like most of the people who surround you, without questioning the correctness of the assumptions? Because of the routine, too often our attention to everything that happens is lowered drastically. We tend to see and do the same things so often that our responses and reactions to situations become automatic and mechanical, no more than the result of reflection and personal considerations.
 
It 'important to our mental health (but also for the physical) to awaken the critical and creative potential in us. Critical thinking is an essential tool of awareness, which is essential when we face choices.
 
We can define a critical personal ability to form your own ideas about a topic, using all possible elements to full availability, through observation, experience, reasoning, and communication. Goal of critical thinking is to shape a personal opinion, that is clear, objective and accurate.
 Sometimes it is difficult to get a balanced view on something, either because of personal bias, both for the habit to choose the easiest way, that which common sense or the majority of people prefer.  The origins of critical thinking can be found in the Socratic method described by Plato, a method that relies on the dialogue between teacher and pupil, and that is to help the student to argue correctly, to identify their point of view and to recognize the fallibility.

 
The critical sense is like a muscle through exercise and only we can make it more effective. We have more experience and more information on the object and the judgment will be more accurate and objective. The more our culture and our knowledge of reality, the greater is our objectivity and knowledge of ourselves, the greater our understanding of mental and social, the more effective our sense critico.Stress and emotions affect negatively, conditioning critical thinking: critical thinking is effective if carried out in a low level of emotionality.

Critical thinking is a kind of thinking characterized by mental processes of discernment, analysis, and evaluation processes of reflection and includes areas of tangible and intangilbili. The following sequence is representative of the process which consists of critical thinking:
 
  • Listening to views on the matter, analysis of each
     
  • Break down each topic into its basic constituents (simple sentences) and assessment of the implications of each proposition
     
  • Specific examination of the propositions and implications, in order to detect contradictions
     
  • Identification of opposing positions in the debate, and assign a weight to each of them
     
  • Then assign weights to the starting complex subjects.
     
 
There is no guarantee that critical thinking leads to a correct conclusion (ie the truth). Either because you might not have all the information necessary to assess, both because the bias of the evaluator could affect the success of the procedure.
 In order not to affect the process of critical thinking, in the early stages of gathering information is important to suspend judgment, trying as much as possible to stick to their own perceptions, avoiding to associate a certain judgment. You also need to be aware of their own fallibility taking a humble position that is free from attachment to their beliefs.
 

A very useful perspective in the exercise of critical thinking is that provided by Occam's razor. Occam's razor, also called the "principle of economy" says that we should not make more assumptions than is strictly necessary. In other words, we must adhere strictly to the model "as simple as possible." Prerogative of critical thinking is the inability to reach a conclusion "final"; by their very nature, in fact, critical thinking can only lead to conclusions obtained "by trial and error," based on assessments that can be defined as "accurate", but not "exhaustive."
 
In conclusion we can say that critical thinking is one of the main life skills as it allows to analyze the experiences in an objective manner and can contribute to health promotion, helping individuals to recognize and evaluate the factors that influence their attitudes, values​​, behaviors, and to limit the influence of others. 


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