Gen 201 - Critical Thinking and Ethics

Critical Thinking and Ethics

Travis Snyder

GEN/201

February 8, 2016

Dr. Clarence Mitchell

Critical Thinking and Ethics

Critical thinking and ethics are responsible for more than people tend to realize.  Upon consideration, it’s difficult to imagine critical thinking without ethics.  Once critical thinking is understood, it’s easier to realize how common we all use critical thinking in everyday life.  After considering the steps involved in critical thinking then adding in your personal ethics information, the relationship between critical thinking and ethics seems even closer than before.  

Understanding Critical Thinking

Critical thinking has been described in many ways but plainly means to rationally and clearly analyze or reasoning through information to make a determination or conclusion.  Critical thinking can best be done in a six step process.  Step one is called Remembering involves the ability to remember key terms, facts or events.  Step two is called Understanding and poses the question if you can explain your idea in your own words.  Step three is called Applying and asks if you can use your idea to produce a desired result.  The fourth step is called Analyzing and asks if you can divide your idea into parts or steps.  The fifth step is called Evaluating and asks if you can rate the truth, usefulness or quality of an idea and give reasons why.  The sixth and final step to critical thinking is called Creating and asks if you can invent something new based on your idea.  

Critical thinking can be applied in any situation you may encounter in life.  For instance, if someone was trying to decide where to go on vacation, critical thinking will help you decide the best vacation destination for you.  Ask friends and coworkers about vacations they’ve been on and how their experiences were.  Don’t be fooled into believing that everything someone says about a vacation will be true for you because we are all different.  With opinions, good or bad you can then research positives and negatives to decide how much truth there is to the points of view you collected.  Using careful consideration of all the facts and information will lead you to making the best decisions about your vacation.  

Ethics Meets Critical Thinking

Ethics have a considerable impact in how we think critically in various different ways because when breaking down ethics we all have our own unique ethical lens and blind spots.  Personally, my ethical blind spot has been identified as overconfidence in process or unrealistic role expectations.  In brief, I trust process too much, forgetting that unequal access gives rise to unjust outcomes and I tend to forget that individuals are fallible regardless of their role.  My preferred ethical lens has been identified as Relationship and Reputation.  This means that I typically balance my reasoning skills with my intuition what processes, systems, character traits and virtues will best serve to achieve equality.  Being mindful of your ethical blind spot and preferred ethical lens will help a person to be better at critical thinking.