All About Critical Thinking and Creative Thinking

All About Critical Thinking and Creative Thinking

The phrase “critical thinking” carries two words – “critical” and “thinking”, and we find two different meanings. The former term has been derived from the Greek word “criterion” which means a standard for judging. It implies the meaning of analyzing things based on a standard.

The core idea of criticism is not negativity but a procedure for analyzing knowledge and evaluating it. The latter term “thinking” is a conscious purposeful mental activity, or it affects the mind to connect ideas. “Thinking” is often associated with reasoning and imagining. It can be automatic or forced, directed or undirected.

Both terms together cover wide meanings. Critical thinking signifies processes and methodologies of reasoning, of the working of insight, awareness, imagination, sensibility, and many other activities. It also refers to the interpretation of something that requires observation, analysis, reasoning, and evaluation.

Critical thinking is not an entirely negative approach to reasoning. It is not always employed to find faults. It is also effective for appreciating tiling. It is for consciously observing, analyzing, reasoning, and evaluating a thing according to proven standards. This human trait demands knowledge about critical thinking concepts, word ‘precision, rules of reasoning, and media literacy.

Proved standards that are applied to critical thinking are clarity, accuracy, precision, relevance, completeness, reliability, soundness, and fairness. Exercising skills that critical thinking requires are observing, analyzing, conceptualizing, synthesizing, evaluating, problem-solving, and researching.

Some of the basic questions that critical thinking is concerned with are given below:

• How to improve reasoning skills?
• I low to construct arguments?
• How to put forward acceptable evidence to construct arguments?
• How do be objective concerning reasoning skills, arguments, and evidence?
• How to be analytical (considering similarities, differences, and topics) by emphasizing comparison, differentiation, and relation in an argument?
• How to be evaluative (giving opinion or judgment) by ways of assessment, comment, or interpretation? etc.

Creativity is a conscious purposeful mental activity. It is the use of skills and intelligence in creating new ideas and things. Creativity is creative thinking that consciously generates and expresses new ideas, forms, and solutions. Most often imagination is employed in creativity. It works in a playful spirit while dreaming, fantasizing, or producing new ideas. It is also related to an aesthetic aspect of art and literature.

Critical thinking is also conscious purposeful mental activity. It involves different mental activities, processes, and methodologies of reasoning, working of insights, awareness, imagination, sensibility, interpretation, and so on. skills of consciously observing, analyzing, reasoning, and evaluating a thing according to proven standards of clarity, accuracy, precision, relevance, completeness, reliability, soundness, and fairness are applied in critical thinking.

Creative thinking differs from critical thinking in the sense that the former generates and expresses new ideas, forms, and solutions by applying the above skills of critical reading. In short, creative thinking is a step ahead of critical reading. Nevertheless, both share skills of observing, analyzing, conceptualizing, synthesizing, evaluating, and problem-solving.

A poet like Robert Burns observes a red rose and generates a new idea that his beloved is like a red, red rose. The beauty of the rose is associated with the beauty of his beloved. William Wordsworth observes daffodils and conceptualizes their movements to be better than the waves of lake water. The flowers are like the shining stars. Most remarkably, the sight of the daffodils brings “little thought” that proves to him a great wealth. He generates the idea that the presence might of nature is the absolute bliss of solitude.

Being rational creatures, all human beings have more or less skepticism. More or less they apply reason in every activity. Yet most of them lack proper skills of critical thinking. They have to develop these skills for better reasoning, constructing better arguments, comparing and contrasting, presenting evidence to strengthen the arguments, and giving an objective and sensible response. All kinds of problems can be solved with these skills. Most remarkably, in literary activities, one can give a good response to an object or work of art.

We must cultivate habits of critical thinking. One should observe sell in the process of thinking. He should collect all kinds of information before giving final judgments. For research, different assumptions, inquiries, and interviews can be made. Convincing evidence and valid reasoning should be found and submitted to support arguments. One should be much more sensitive to word connotation, slant, definition, and ambiguity, and also it is necessary to recognize logical fallacies, unfair persuasion, and propaganda He should admit mistakes and thereby forward a better argument.

Creativity is a mental process involving the generation of new ideas or concepts, or new associations of the creative mind between existing ideas and concepts. An alternative conception of creativity is that it is simply the act of making something new.