The Need for Critical Thinking

 A couple of years ago, I essayed a piece on critical thinking and the necessity for it.

It used to be, if you went off for four years of university, you would get a fair dose of critical thinking and get the skill sets to accomplish it.  Over the past twenty years, I'd suggest that you could make it through college today, without much of a mention over the 'art' of critical thinking.  

To define it....you have a problem or situation, and you need judgement over what this is (defined), the root causes, and then if you engaged to remedy the problem....you have some options on the solution.

Generally, you need to know how to evaluate a situation and gather facts or semi-facts to build a judgement. By semi-facts, I mean things that are generally assumed but yet to be proven as absolute fact.

Somewhere in this analysis.....you are also working up a unbiased nature, where you can accept certain things which you'd normally not support.

Then there's the fine art of skepticism, where you've been told a semi-fact, but question this....to the point where you realize it can't be proven, and it can be stamped as fact.

A new way of thinking with critical thinking?  No....the Greeks came up with this....over 2,000 years ago.

Why disengage from critical thinking?  That's the curious thing....without this skill, anything you picked up for the four-year period or the $80,000....is utterly worthless.  It would make no sense, unless the objective was to 'lose' critical thinking skills in our society.  

So, maybe a reading from Socrates and Plato might make sense right now, and asking some stupid questions which ought to have rational answers.