Do you rely on your gut?
When in doubt, should we trust our gut? Using intuitive judgment is not something you should do if you want to employ critical thinking.
Intuitive judgment used to be described as the absence of analysis. It was seen as automatic cognitive processing with lack of effort, intention and awareness. Intuitive judgment is based on perceptions or feelings. Errors and biases are then difficult to prevent.
In hindsight, errors may be obvious. To prevent them happening, however, we need careful, self-regulated monitoring and the kind of control afforded by reflective judgment. Errors and flaws in our reasoning include cognitive biases and logical fallacies.
Do you have sufficient knowledge?
According to the psychologytoday.com website, the key components of critical thinking are the following skills:
- Analysis
- Evaluation
- Inference
Even when you know what analysis, evaluation and inference are all about and are able to apply them, you still need knowledge about the given topic or problem. Without knowledge and awareness, critical thinking cannot be applied. You always need to consider the nature, limits and certainty of what information you have. For arriving at a critically reasoned judgment, you need to have a certain knowledge.
Do you have sufficient willingness?
Disposition towards thinking is also a necessity if you are to think critically. It is about the extent to which you are willing or inclined to perform thinking skills. Dispositions can’t be taught. It doesn’t really matter how skilled you are at analysis, evaluation and inference if you are not willing to use these elements.
-jk-