Critical thinking and reasoning is an aspect of psychology that most people do not understand. The roadmap to understanding how the brain works is quite complex. However, there are aspects of how we use our brains to think, reason, acquire information, retain information, and effectively apply the information in a real-life situation. This paper will look at the different ways in which information is stored in the brain and how individuals utilize the information. The difference between inert information, active knowledge, and active ignorance will be outlined. Furthermore, the difference between assumptions and inferences and how our brains perceive these concepts will be highlighted. The paper will then discuss various aspects of critical thinking and utilize the Paul-Elder critical thinking model to explain how concepts, ideas, and theories are important in critical reasoning.
There are three forms of ways in which the brain stores information. These are in inert form, in assumptions form, and in for of inferences. When stored in inert form, the brain takes up the information but does not actually conceptualize it. People like to think that they have understood the information while in reality, they have not. For instance, when defining democracy, most people know that is a form of government of the people, by the people, for the people. This definition is catchy and sticks in people’s mind easily and hence we like to think that anyone who defines democracy that way understands what it means. However, almost all people do not know the difference between the three parts of the phrases. For example, one cannot tell the difference between a government for the people and a government by the people, of the difference between a government of the people and a government by the people. Information stored in inert form is not sufficiently understood to transform it into something that is meaningful by the brain. Most of the information stored by the brain tends to be empty words. A critical thinker works to identify any information that is inert in the brain and analyzes it to transform it into something meaningful.
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Information can also be stored in other different ways; in the form of inferences and in the form of assumptions. What differentiates these two elements of reasoning is the way we interpret the information. Elements of reasoning tend to interrelate in the brain. This means that one element of reasoning is always being influenced by another. Inferences and assumptions are two major ways in which these elements interrelate. The two methods may be confusing to understand. An inference is a step that the mind takes by which an individual is able to conclude that something is true because something else is true or seems to be true. For instance, if I notice someone walking towards me with a knife in his hand, a true situation, then my mind may infer that the person means to stab me, which may be true. Inferences can either be accurate or inaccurate, justified or unjustified, or logical or illogical.
On the other hand, an assumption is an item that the brain presupposes or takes for granted. A lot of the time, it is the knowledge that we acquired initially but did not look into deeply. It forms part of what our system believes. We then take these believes in and make them part of our lives. For example, one can believe that walking at night is dangerous whenever you are in a big city. If such an individual is put in New York, they would infer that walking there at night is not safe. In this situation, the belief that walking late at night in such a big city is unsafe has been taken for granted. If the belief is reasonable, then the assumption also is reasonable. If the belief is not reasonable, the assumption is certainly not reasonable. Hence, beliefs and assumptions can either be justified or unjustified depending on the reasons we have for holding them. Human beings naturally use their beliefs as assumptions and tend to create inferences from those assumptions. This enables us to have a sense of what we are about, where we are, and the activities happening around us. The figure below illustrates the relationship between assumptions, inferences, and information.
As seen, information stored and not interpreted or used by the brain is referred to as inert information. On the other hand, we have information that the brain uses. However, it does not utilize all information in the right ways. Some of the information is false. This concept breeds two other broad types of knowledge. The first is activated ignorance while the other is activated knowledge. In the former, the brain takes up information and actively uses it. However, the information being used is false even though it appears to be true to the individual using it. One such instance is when Rene Descartes, a renowned philosopher, came to believe that animals never had feelings like humans do (Descartes, 2011) . Rene knew that animals were like robots and based on this, he would perform painful experimental procedures on animals and ignore the noises made, arguing that they were mere cries. Through active ignorance, some people think that they understand events, things, situations, and people that they actually do not. Acting upon these ideas leads to suffering and waste. Active ignorance can cause a wave and involve a lot of people. For example, the Nazi idea involved millions of people yet it was falsely based on the fact that the Jews were an inferior race compared to the Germans.
Active knowledge, on the other hand, means that taking up information that is not only true but also insightful and actively using it. Such use of knowledge leads to the gaining of more knowledge. For example, researchers tend to have activated knowledge of how the scientific method works. They utilize methods such as hypothesis formulation, controlled experiment, and provisional conclusions to perform further research and obtain more knowledge on a subject matter. Active knowledge is a powerful tool as it not only safeguards against misuse of knowledge but also forces humans to be disciplined in their thinking. Active knowledge forms the basic principles of critical reasoning. This is which critical thinking, which is associated with science, mathematics, and research methods, demand high intellectual autonomy. Thinking for oneself can be difficult especially during the early stages of research. This is why scientific methods agree on the concept of literature review which allows individuals to look into the intellectual works of other individuals and gather knowledge and other thinking perspectives from them before proceeding with their own research.
The discussion on active knowledge opens doors to concepts, theories, and ideas and why these abstract things are good for critical reasoning. Intellectual standards tend to be associated with intellectual traits. Such traits include confidence in reasoning, perseverance, humility, autonomy, and fair-mindedness among a few more. These traits are developed by elements of reasoning such as implications, assumptions, points of view, information, and purposes. For these elements of reasoning to work, intellectual standard such as significance, logic, accuracy, sufficiency, and depth must be applied to them. This thinking mode is known as the Paul-Elder critical thinking model (Duron, Limbach, & Waugh, 2006) . Critical thinking can be defined as a mode of thinking in which an individual tries to improve his or her quality of thinking by utilizing the structures that are in place by taking charge of them and imposing intellectual standards. Theories are the structures that intellectual thinkers take advantage of to come up with new information. Concepts are facts that must be applied accurately in order to validate the outcome of the critical thinking process. Ideas are the new items that are introduced to the structures to enable new knowledge to be formulated. Concepts, theories, and ideas, therefore, are central to good critical reasoning. Below is a diagram that illustrated the Paul-Elder critical thinking model. The relationship between intellectual standards, elements of reasoning, and intellectual traits are clearly shown.
In a nutshell, we can establish that critical thinking is an art that highly depends on structures. Its purpose is to improve the way individuals think. Admittedly, we need the frameworks that had been set up by others to help us gather more knowledge. Understanding how our brains store information is key in the critical reasoning process as it helps to differentiate facts from false information. Inferences and assumptions are ways in which our brains store and interpret information. Furthermore, the knowledge of inert knowledge, active knowledge, and active ignorance is crucial as it helps individuals to understand better how the brain takes in information. Not all information we have is useful. However, with the right concepts, ideas, and theories, we can utilize useful information to come up with more useful information. This enhances our critical reasoning capabilities.
References
Descartes, R. (2011). Animals are machines. Journal of Cosmology , 14 .
Duron, R., Limbach, B., & Waugh, W. (2006). Critical thinking framework for any discipline. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education , 17 (2), 160-166.
