Socratic Thinking: Appropriate Levels Of Critical Thinking

Critical Thinking

Dating back to the emanation ages of critical and creative thinking, various philosophers have held varying definitions of critical thinking. Nonetheless, one thing that sticks out critical thinking entails the arriving at clear, categorical, well-reasoned out and judged decisions. Consequently, critical thinking is allied to Socratic thinking in that both methods of reasoning entail the disciplined arriving at a decision, solution or conclusion through inquisitiveness, reasonability and reflection (Cottrell 43). As such, this forms the genesis of the skills and qualities of a critical thinker.

Inferring from the above definition, therefore, a critical thinker is someone who is able to inculcate critical thinking into their life. Critical thinkers, thence, may be characterized as people who possess observatory, analytical, inferential, evaluative, inquisitive, metacognitive and explanatory skills (Cottrell 25). In order to be qualified as

According to William Golding, critical thinking is delineable into three concrete levels based on the exhibited levels of thinking. In his classification, he asserts that classifying critical thinking mainly encompasses what personal development includes (Moore and Parker 34). Therefore, the first level is grade-one critical thinking in which is the highest level. In this level, a person seeks to unearth the truth and realizes that the ultimate truth in life is actually truth in itself (Fisher 94). Secondly comes grade-two critical thinking. This is the level of critical thinking in which a person is able to question things and note out contradictions occurring around them. At this level of thinking, a person possesses the ability to question why things are done and why they are done in certain ways (Cottrell 74). Consequently, this creates insightfulness to note put contradicting