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What Is Critical Thinking?

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What is Critical Thinking?

Critical thinking begins with assumptions. We must first be aware of these assumption so that we can make genuine assessments. Critical thinking is how a person assesses the reasons for or against a decision being made. Assumptions are neither good nor bad until fully assessed. It is important to remain unbiased during a critical thinking exercise. This can be difficult due to the influence of our emotions on our decisions. Our emotions make up who we are which can sometimes cause barriers when making a critical decision. The trick is to not ignore or deny our emotions but learn how to manage and handle them. In order to manage our emotions we may need to argue with ourselves or others whether or not something is true or not. A good argument will also lead to one or more conclusions in determining what the final decision should be.
The ultimate objective in thinking critically is to come to conclusions that are correct and to make decisions that are wise. (Moore & Parker, 2012). Critical thinking is not making ill formed decisions but making decisions that have been thought through and weighed to come up with the best conclusion. It usually isn’t our first thought that comes to mind. Only after we go through the critical analysis can we correctly assess the true situation and determine the proper course of action. Once we have resolved the proper course of action we will be much more comfortable with our decisions and we will have greater confidence in the results.

References
Moore, B.N. , & Parker, R. (2012). Critical thinking (10th ed.). New York, NY:

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