Week 6 - Thinking about Your Thinking and Critical Writing
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Introduction
Critical thinking is self-reflective, self-monitored, and self-corrected. Critical thinking asks that we assess the quality of others' thinking, but our assessment will only be as good as our own thinking. For example, it is difficult to assess the biases of others if we are unaware of our own. Therefore, critical thinking requires a steady and ongoing assessment of one's own thinking.
The two most common impediments to critical thinking are egocentrism and sociocentrism. Egocentrism emerges from our innate human tendency to view the world from a narrow, self-serving perspective. Its ultimate goals are gratification and self-validation. Sociocentrism is egocentrism raised to a group level. Both are naturally self-serving and dogmatic. For example, as Americans citizens we participate in our group by reciting the pledge of allegiance, singing the national anthem, and believing that we live in the greatest country in the world. Indeed, to believe otherwise, is considered unpatriotic. But how many Americans have rationally examined this belief? This same sort of sociocentrism is common in most countries.
We can use the elements and standards to strategically analyze our own thinking and rationally challenge egocentric and sociocentric thinking as we work up through the stages of development in critical thinking.
