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Running head: CRITICAL THINKING

CRITICAL THINKING

Critical Thinking

Ebony Mares

LA498M

July 3, 2016

CRITICAL THINKING

There are numerous crossroad situations that require an individual to critically think about them so as to make a sound and effective decision. Typically, an individual mulls over the expected consequences of the action to be taken and a decision is made based on whether the expected outcomes would attain the set objectives. In history, there are several scenarios that required individuals to critically think before making decisions e.g. the decision of the General Dwight Eisenhower to shift the D-Day of Normandy attack from 5th to 6th June 1994.This decision was made after factoring in several factors that would have negatively impacted on the attack had it been carried out on the initially planned date. Additionally, the crossing of the Rubicon River by Julius Caesar and his army required him to make a decision that was derived from critical thinking. Apparently, crossing the river to Rome was considered an act of war and as such it was forbidden by the Senate. This implies that Caesar and his army knew exactly what lay ahead of them as they crossed the river to Rome.

I will discuss several core critical thinking skills in justifying the decision taken by the leader in the case study provided. The various cores of critical thinking skills include analysis, inference, explanation, evaluation, self-regulation, and interpretation (Halpern, 2014). Each of these core aspects of critical thinking skills entails a series of questions that an individual has to answer before they make a decision concerning the situation at hand. The inference aspect requires an individual to thoroughly analyze the evidence provided which help in drawing conclusions, querying the evidence and conjecturing of the alternatives. In the explanation, an individual is able to understand how they came to a certain interpretation of the situation, state the expected results, justify the procedure to be taken and present various arguments. In the evaluation, individual mull over whether the facts provided are right which help in testing the quality of arguments and credibility of the claim. The self-regulation core requires an individual to self-correct and self-monitor based on the credibility of the evidence provided. The interpretation skills enable a person to categorize, decode the significance and clarify the meaning of the evidence. Finally, analysis core of the critical thinking skills answers the question “why do you think that?” Under this core the ideas are examined and then arguments, claims and reasons are identified.

In the case study provided, Julius Caesar leads his army to cross the Rubicon River to Rome even though he knew that it was forbidden by the Senate. Julius had served in the leadership of this region for a while but after this period he sought to accumulate power and be the overall leader (Halpern, 2014). Being an enemy of the state, he was burned from his political activities which in fact was a blessing in disguise. The call burn Caesar increased his popularity among the people hence he ended up having a huge following of army. Julius thought of being frozen from leading the people and did the unthinkable by crossing the river which according to the Senate was an act of war. The war was fought and Caesar and his army emerged the winners and took over the leadership of Rome.

The cores of the critical thinking skills highlighted above are essential in determining the factors that influenced the decision that was taken by Caesar. To begin with, he wanted to lead the people and having the army on his back, Caesar must have used various thinking skills cores to determine whether he could come out victorious. For instance, he must have used the facts provided to him to liberate on the strength of what his army was going against. Interpretation and explanation of the various facts probably led to positive outcome hence his decision to cross the river. On my perspective, I will discuss further the cores of the critical thinking skills and determine how they might have influenced the decision taken by the leader in the case study provided.

Clearly, the decision to cross the river was made after a critical thinking of the expected consequences which according to Caesar was worth taking (Howard, 2015). Based on this case study and several other situations, critical thinking has proved to be an essential tool in decision-making process.

References

Halpern, D. (2014). Critical thinking across the curriculum: A brief edition of thought & knowledge. New York: Routledge.

Howard, L. (2015). Teaching critical thinking skills: Ability, motivation, intervention, and the Pygmalion effect. Journal of Business Ethics, 128(1), 133-147.