CriticalThinking is a relatively unfamiliar word. The definition of encyclopedia is: critical thinking is a reasonable and reflective thinking, which is not only a thinking skill, but also a thinking tendency.
This description is a bit abstract. Simply put, having critical thinking can almost be equated with metacognitive ability. Everyone should be familiar with the concept of metacognition. Meta-cognition is the cognition of cognition, and it is the individual's self-awareness, self-reflection, self-evaluation and self-adjustment to the cognitive process. Critical thinking includes cognitive skills and emotional characteristics (psychological tendency), and the "self-correction" contained in critical thinking skills obviously belongs to metacognition.
What are the benefits of learning critical thinking?
In an era of information flooding, almost every once in a while, there is a news screen. Is it true or behind? Did a celebrity say what he said? Every day, people try to change your cognition and belief, so who is telling the truth, who is telling lies, why are they telling the truth and why are they telling lies? ...
In the era of knowledge payment, various learning communities are flooding: getting, Zhihu, Himalayas, doing things ... As we love reading and learning, should we use sponge thinking to absorb this knowledge widely?
If you want to be a person with the ability to say "I think …" and "My opinion is …", then you need to learn critical thinking. Beyond Feeling: A Guide to Critical Thinking can help you understand critical thinking systematically. This book is divided into three parts: the background explains important concepts such as personality, thinking, truth, opinions, bases and arguments. Overcoming attitudes and concepts that prevent critical thinking and mistakes that are easy to make will teach you to identify and avoid critical thinking, which will help you acquire various skills to solve problems.
First, critical thinking learning style
Anyone who is proficient in an activity must first know its tools and rules. For critical thinking, it's like playing golf, carpentry, flying a plane or having brain surgery. But in critical thinking, tools are not visible objects, but concepts, and their rules govern the operation of the mind rather than the body.
This book can only help you open your brain and learn some concepts and laws of critical thinking, but don't expect to master critical thinking just by reading this book. Just like learning to play golf, you need to learn the concepts and rules, start with the exercises at the back of each chapter of this book and go through repeated training. It is a very good idea to master this very valuable tool, think hard and reflect on yourself.
Second, become a truly independent individual.
1. Take your first reaction to anyone, problem or situation as common sense. No matter how attractive it is, don't accept it until you have checked it.
2. Judge why you react like this. Consider whether you have borrowed money from others-parents, friends or celebrities, fictional characters on TV. If possible, determine what specific experience influenced you to make such a choice.
3. consider your other possible reactions to this person, this problem or this situation.
4. Ask yourself if there is any more appropriate reaction besides your first reaction. When answering, exclude the influence of your constraints.
In order to ensure that you will truly become rather than just claim to be an individual, put these guiding principles into your study and daily life of this book.
Third, exercise thinking and writing skills.
One of the best ways to develop your thinking and writing skills is to write down your observations, questions and thoughts in a diary; If time permits, reflect on what you have recorded-consider the meaning and application of all the observed things, answer the questions raised, explain these ideas (question them when appropriate), and record your opinions. A good way is to record your initial observations, questions and thoughts on the left side of the page, and leave a blank on the right side for future analysis and comments. The value of this reflection process is so great that you should consider keeping such a diary.
Fourth, feel and think.
Feeling is a subjective response including emotion, emotion and desire; It usually occurs spontaneously, not with the help of conscious mental activity. We don't have to use our brains to feel angry when humiliated and afraid when threatened ... these feelings are spontaneous.
Feeling is useful in guiding us to pay attention to the problems we should think about, and it can also provide the enthusiasm and dedication needed to complete hard mental work. But it is never a good substitute for thinking, because it is extremely unreliable.
"From the beginning, I felt selective and tended to simplify the world around us. Memory continues and accelerates this process. "
Borrowing the concept of thinking, fast and slow, feeling is using system 1, thinking is that system 2 is working. The system 1 responds quickly, but it often makes mistakes. System 2 is slow and lazy, but more accurate.
Many people may just tell you to think without explaining what thinking is and what qualities a good thinker has.
How do you make the most effective use of your personal inventory to improve your critical thinking ability? You can find the answer by the following steps:
A. Answer all the questions in the detailed catalogue of critical thinking honestly and thoroughly, and admit not only pleasant facts about yourself, but also unpleasant facts.
B. Reflect on your answers and pay attention to the aspects that you are particularly prone to make mistakes.
C whenever you solve a problem, predict which problems may destroy your thinking and consciously resist their influence.
Verb (short for verb) Know yourself.
"90% of the sorrow in the world comes from people's ignorance of themselves, their own abilities, their own weaknesses, and even their own true virtues. Most of us are completely strangers to ourselves almost all our lives. " -Sydney Harris. "
In the process of knowing yourself, some are very happy and some are very painful; But all these can make valuable contributions to our self-improvement.
The above five points are only a small part of many important concepts and principles in Beyond Feeling: A Guide to Critical Thinking, so I will share them here and update them in the future.