how can improve my critical thinking?

Answer 1

Good - step one is realizing you can make it better.

I think it's really a life-long practice and personal predilection. I think a good part of it is just being cynical about perceived wisdom, questioning where your information comes from, and a determination of what kind of biases might be present in that information source.

Classes in rhetoric and logic would help point out to you some of the fallacies in everyday human "reasoning", how some people intentionally seek to deceive, and help you to form valid conclusions from available facts. All this will help fine-tune your BS-meter.

Most schools and classes do not teach you how to think - they focus on teaching you what to think. Good luck in your pursuit.

Answer 2

Short answer: start with something you don't like and figure out why. Easiest way to hone this skill is to watch a bad movie and figure out what's making it bad.

I could give you an English professor's righteous reading list, but it's much more fun and effective as I have found by teaching it.

Start analyzing stuff that seems silly to you. A bad movie is the best. Watch it when you can stop and start it again. Every time you come to a stupid place, stop and write down what happens there. Try to decide why it seems so stupid. Is there bad logic behind it? Is there no explanation for things, something that doesn't match up with something that went before, stuff that moves the plot along that real people just wouldn't do?

For example, I saw a movie once where a whole scene, a pretty central one, told the audience that the hero was going to a whole lot of heroic trouble, because he didn't know whether something or other had happened yet. But the audience remembered, as the writer did not, that the hero had a cell phone in his pocket and could easily have called his sister to fiind out. If the hero had done that, however, then there would have been no movie, which caused the audience to leave the theatre thinking that perhaps there shouldn't have been.

If something is funny in a place where it wasn't supposed to be, you've found something to criticize. If something isn't funny where it should be, you've found something to criticize. Now break it down and find out why.

Think about where you saw the same mistake before, or have you seen it done where it worked? What makes this different? What little thing could you change that would make it work?

One of the most important things about critical thinking is to know the categories for whatever you're talking about. Again, bad movies are the easiest target. For example, what kind of a movie is it? Mystery--assuming this is the worst mystery you have ever seen, what did the best one have, or leave out, that this one doesn't? You can do the same thing for crime dramas, psychological dramas, love stories, teen movies, medical dramas, and so on. It works the same way with everything, but movies are the easiest way to learn.

Often what bothers you is something that doesn't fit your expectations, or does what you would expect but makes you realize it has been done already too many times.

Stop any scene you want and ask yourself what you expected to happen in it. Did it happen? Did it not? How did that affect you?

One way to be critical is to look for things that make you laugh inappropriately. Critical thinking is essentially unkind. There's no getting around it.

Think about when people have laughed at you. Forget about whether or not it was a nice thing to do. Were they right? Why or why not? Think about when you have heard somebody else criticised. Forget about whether it was nice--was it right or wrong? Why?

Criticise critical thinking: have you ever heard somebody saying nasty things about someone else when he was no one to talk? Have you ever heard someone saying somebody else made a mistake, but then couldn't come up with the correct thing he should have done?

Think about politicians. Think about complaints against them. Are they right? Check out your own feelings about, say, the war in Iraq. Why or why not do you like things you hear about? What is out of place, why won't it work, what is illogical or goes against how people really act?

Are people answering questions about military matters with political solutions? Yeah, ususally. There is your classic category problem. My favorite example is a pleading from an old law case, where the plaintiff was a paranoid schizophrenic old lady who filed a civil case in a criminal court. Nobody caught it, along with not catching the fact that she had a literally infinite number of imaginary plaintiff and defendants tied to her case. Some idiot clerk let the thing go to trial. Since the eaually idoitic attorney for the defendant actually forgot to show up, the complete idiot judge, who apparently forgot what court he was in, found in favor of the plaintiff and started disbarment procedures against the attorney for the defendant, who was indeed disbarred, suggesting that at least several of our higher court judges never noticed the essential problem.

Always look for what you would naturally call "stupid," then break it down and ask what does the stupid person not know that he should know, where did he mess up in his logic, and why wouldn't people act they way he expects them to.

One of the best ways to start your critical thinking is to ask whether the person who did whatever you're critiquing kept the Big Picture in his head. Does the solution go someplace that has nothing to do with the original question?

Think of the Road Runner and the Coyote's stupid plans that always end up coming back at him. When you have to think critically about anything, ask yourself how it might be a Coyote set up. Then take it apart: what did the writer or the politician the mathematician or scientist need to know before he made the plan or the theory or the solution? Does it look like he left something out? When the violinist started playing the sonata, what did he need to know?

I heard a symphony performance once where the violinist probably had great technique and knew the music, but forgot to find out if the strings on the violin were okay. A string snapped and I sat there in agony, wanting to laugh but at the same time feeling sorry for the guy.

Critical thinking is a habit. It's not that hard to aquire, and almost impossible to break.

Have fun.

Answer 3

There's a lot of literature about critical thinking out there. A lot of what I have read has been nursing related. But within those articles there are helpful strategies you might want to check out.

Do a google scholar search.

Hope it helps.

Answer 4

Your question is unclear. Do you mean how to criticize
everything better....or do you mean to analyze and reach
a positive conclusion? Rephrase the question and get
back to us.

Answer 5

Keep an open mind.

Answer 6

this is no joke answer...... well it is not even an aswer ...

how do i improve mi thinking at all ?

Answer 7

read alot and walk .