Pros of different types of thinking...?

Question

Critical thinking vs Creative thinking

What prompted this question is a conversation I had with my son yesterday. I told him I thought he was more of a logical thinker than his sister. So, jokingly, he asked me if I was saying he was a better thinker. I told him that if we were to break thinking down, I would say that his sister is more of creative thinker than he is. So, he is better at thinking logically and she is better at thinking creatively.

Obviously, both have their places. I do not necessarily think one is better or more important than the other. My question is,

In what ways do you think each of these modes of thinking "enhance" or contibute to life and/or society?

Juicy, I like your summation. Nicely put.

kckc, although I appreciate what you are saying, I think it is important to recognize and understand one's strengths. You can better apply them if you do. I would never "compare" my children in a "better" or "more worthy" sort of way. However, I think I would be remiss in my responsibilities as a parent to ignore that each one has their own gifts and by not teaching them how to foster those things.

Gee: Very nice example. Very well explained. A very nice summation as well. :)

Gee: What a great addendum that you addressed to Juicy. I agree with you on that wholeheartedly.

mommy: Very interesting point:
"a matter of which becomes more prominent"
Thanks.

Sly: It's interesting that you brought up physiology. I was telling my son about the mountain of research that expresses that, in general, boys are better at spacial thinking than girls. I have been fascinated with this whole concept in one way or another for quite some time. Great observations. Thanks!

Answer 1

My thoughts on this subject relate closely to myself and my best friend.

My best friend and I (we'll call him 'Chuck'), were having a discussion about this very topic. Chuck is actually a laboratory scientist at a major university. He made the observation that I have the thought process of an engineer, while his thought process is more suited to a scientist. I thought about this for a while and I agreed.

In my estimation, the methodology of a scientist is one of critical thinking. Pragmatic thought is essential for a scientist to successfully make progress, Engineers on the other hand, tend to be creative thinkers. While they of course need to have a scientific element in their thinking, an engineers purpose is to conceive innovative ideas and processes.

I think that these examples are supportive of how both methods of thought are important and applicable to very different areas of philosophical practice.

[to juicy] I disagree that the logical process is slow. A person such as myself has little difficulty in working through a problem with logic. In fact, the logical process is exactly how one eliminates irrelevant avenues of thought to arrive more quickly at relevant ones. The process used to make a logical decision is where the difficulty comes in. Creative thinking opens up the avenues that logic asseses. One who is adept at forming creative scenarios has much more reliability and consistency in forming them as viable alternatives.

[to Kev] Creativity provides the ideas, Logic sifts through them to assess their viability. Two different processes.

[to Oracle] I never meant to imply that scientists don't make use of creative thinking, I simply suggest that, for science, the basis of the art must be critical. Creative adaptations follow as are necessary.

Answer 2

Logic is good for getting to a sure and certain answer everytime, or at least finding out what more info you need in order to reach that conclusion. The downside is that it is slow, and has no potential to exceed expectations.

Creative thinking is much less reliable. You may an answer, you may not, and the answer may not be useful. Two creative types with the exact same data can and do come up with two wildly different conclusions. The main advantage is that it is fast. Creativity doesn't take all the little steps that logic does, often it's just data->response, with no middle ground. Creativity also has the potential to produce results so far outside the expected "best" taht it totally redefines the question.

It was creative thinking that inspired a caveman to tame a cow. It was logical thinking that figured out how to raise them faster, healthier, and more cost-effectively.

Answer 3

I hate to say this, but I think creative thinking is an overused unexamined idea. When you actually Analise it, you will find that human beings are not, by definition, creative. I know I am swimming against the current on this one, but creative seems to me to be something that is reserved for "whatever your higher power might be." The real distinction is between "artistic" thought and logical thought, but artistic thought depends upon logical thought for its existence. There would be no art if we did not have a solid economy which is based on technology, ergo logical thought. Your son has a point.

Answer 4

I like juicys answer but I got to thinking isn't the system of logic a product of creative thinking?
gee I am not arguing that I am saying that creativity is directly responsible for logic's existence that is to say humans developed logic with creative thought.

Answer 5

I really liked Gee's answer... very nicely put both logically and creatively :)

You asked for their impact to life around us.
Just as with any other form of thinking, we all have the capabilities to be both creative and logical. It is more a matter of which becomes more prominent.
Both types of thinking have an immense impact on life around us. We need both to actually complete a task.
As in Gee's instance, one scientist and one engineer. Both are import in mass construction for society. One to put his creation on paper and one to make sure the creation is actually viable.
I don't think you had any intention of pitting your children against each other. In the matter of creative vs. logical thinking, I don't think either are more important than the other. I believe that they must work in accordance with each other rather than against.
J.M.O.

Answer 6

If we all thought in the same way we would be very limited for choice,
To have both arts and sciences we need both, they compliment each other.

If you think about the influence of Scifi on science and tech.
Jurassic park both fed and fed from science in it's writing.

The story goes that the moblie phone was invented by a Treky who went off to MIT and worked on the idea he'd got from watching TV.
It's seems to be the same for automatic openning slidding doors.

In the end it's not so important which method we use to think with, but how we use it to think.

Is that fuzzy enough for you sly fox!
where have you been today? in the mountains talking to the monks. lol

Answer 7

Trina dear, I’m a scientist and a business woman. It might mean that I use two absolutely different kinds of thinking. By way of a hobby, I enjoy reading philosophers of all stripes, from Kant and Schopenhauer to Sartre and, strangely enough, Bergson. There goes another kind of thinking...On top of that, I tend to be a hopelessly romantic lover.
What I mean to say is that even if you tend to USE one way of thinking more than another, depending on the situation, your brain can use all that are available. Perhaps external approval will make you feel more comfortable with one and you use it more often. My father was also a scientist and he owned the factory I inherited from him. Obviously he approved every thought I put forward along these lines. He approved of my studies and of my choice of career. With my own kids I probably do the same, although I tend to make available to them cultural hobbies (music, reading) as well as sports. Maybe the outcome, with my kids, is that they will end up romantico-artistico-scientifico-philosophico-business-oriented adults. Like their mom ???? Francine.

Answer 8

As much as I always admire the answers Gee gives, I must disagree with the claim that scientists necessarily use critical thinking. In medicine particularly you are always having to think creatively as an adjunct to your critical thinking. In fact, I firmly believe that critical thinking must have an element of creativity if it isn't to become stale and rigid.

Answer 9

Ah ways of thinking.
This seems to break them into two distinct categories of the left brainers and the right brainers! from a mechanical point of view.

ok sorry that next bit is from some of my notes that I have made and it's a bit long. It just talks about physiology. so you may want to skip it and scroll drown to my conclusion.

(An interesting consequence of early human male and female rolls maybe the difference in brain structure. The male brain is ten percent bigger than that of the female, but this is only due to the fact the average female is ten percent smaller than the average male, this does not make for more intelligent males however, size isn't everything, the theory of brain capacity seem to be related to cranial size and the ratio between brain and spinal cord weight but it also very much depends on what's inside and how it's made up, studies by Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Centre[6] which examined the ratios between cranial volume and the amounts of grey matter and white matter in males and female the results of which show that Women have a higher proportion of the former and a higher proportions of the latter in men. Grey matter communicates on a local level and is where computation takes place. white matter is used to communicate between cell groups in different areas of the brain and seems to aid in the performance of spatial tasks (knowing where you are in relation to the world around you). Though the female brain has less overall white matter than the male, it does a larger corpus callosum which connects the two hemispheres of the brain. The overall result of these difference in male and female brain structure this that males perform much better in activities which involve a high level of concentration to one particular activity and judging the distance and location of objects, where as females perform much better at multi tasking and communication. This makes men very suited for hunting where the ability to track, circle, and kill prey without impeding the other members of the party depends on knowing where you are, where your fellow hunters are, which way the animal is moving now and where it will move next. The same skills are used when playing football. Women on the other hand needed to multi process in their daily activities not only would they have been looking for fruits, nuts, barks, vegetables, and herbs they would have been caring for, watching and teaching the young while watching for any danger, in contrast to the hunting activity of the men where moving in a close group and making noise was generally not conducive with good results, women would stay close and talk giving detailed descriptions of things they found or things to look for and where to look.)

As far as ways of thinking on a higher level are concerned I posted a question earlier today to get feed back, I am still reading the answers and responding to emails on it however the question was this one.

"How much does the Aristotelian concept of A and Not A with Empirical thought....?
Contribute to toady's black and white division in understanding life, politics, and just about any situation..
Is this a good thing or should we start getting fuzzy about things?"

The answers have shown just how difficult it is to classify thinking,
In the case of your question you could place logic as Empirical where the voting system has time to follow it's path taking in to account all the knowable details and Emotion as fuzzy where the need to know big picture is important.

if you put it into the sense of situations
Lets say you need to get to the top of a tree that you can't climb you will use linear logic to find a way there.

but if you are confronted by danger the logical processes will be to slow so chaotic logic of emotion wins.

I myself am trying to develop something which I call spherical logic. but that is besides the point.

The simple Answer after all of the is which ever works best in a given situation.
Not much of answer I know, but it is the truth.

SORRY just to add one more thing!
Gee got me thinking after I had read his answer for the second time, though a good answer, I feel he like most of us is forgetting that the Term emotional thinking is band of though processes as are creative thinking, critical thinking, and logical thinking.

Thought is a big cake, it all depends on the ingredients and how it's cooked!
Maybe the best answer for your needs Trina

Answer 10

Thinking logically is great for getting the job done,& definatly has it's place. But creative thinking puts the "fun" back in the mix.