The Interaction of Critical and Creative Thinking - Essay Example

May Knowledge=Critical + Creative Thinking Modern society is increasingly called a “knowledge society,” because of the importance placed in gathering, generating, sharing, and distributing knowledge by different sectors and organizations. That knowledge is power or can be a means to enhance and develop power cannot be understated, even if it sounds like a cliche, because it is true that whoever defines what is knowledge can affect society’s diverse areas of knowledge, such as history, ethics, arts, and mathematics, and sciences. People need to only reflect on how whoever writes history develops greater power and it becomes too painfully real how knowledge enhances different forms of power, including political and economic power. How people acquire knowledge and define it, however, is highly debated. The rise of emotional intelligence, for instance, questioned knowledge as pure logic. Feminists aim to call emotions and perceptions as equally valuable sources and components of knowledge. Some also argue of the unification of creative and critical thinking, because they are related and more effective in generating knowledge together (Mayfield 4; Paul and Elder 118). This paper evaluates this belief using the areas of knowledge of ethics and sciences. Knowledge is generated through the interaction of critical and creative thinking. Ethics refer to the people’s guiding principles of what is right or wrong (Means 52). Ethics uses both critical and creative thinking skills. This paper first defines and differentiates critical thinking and creative thinking. In the traditional TOK Diagram, see figure 1 below, the ways of knowing are through emotions, reason, sense perception, and language. Creative and critical thinking are both ways of knowing, but they are closely interrelated (Paul and Elder 118). Critical thinking analyzes and evaluates a particular material, while creative thinking concerns inventing something new (Mayfield 4). Creativity, however, has a “critical component,” and not just portraying “imagination” or “inventiveness” (Paul and Elder 118). In business, for instance, creativity is valuable if it leads to innovation of products, services, processes, and systems. Creativity must also have a critical output too. In connection to the TOK diagram, critical thinking primarily involves reason and language, or the right side of “knowing” in the TOK diagram. Creative thinking uses emotion and sense perception, or the left side of “knowing.” Reason and language are often used by sciences, but ethics employ emotion and sense perception too. But clearly, the diagram is a circle. It shows the unity of all forms of knowing for all areas of knowledge. Ethics uses reason and language too. It must be reasonable to be embraced by people, and it must also use persuasive language to convince people of its effectiveness in differentiating right from wrong. Knowers should be able to use all four ways of knowing to arrive at a balanced and ethical decision or option (Paul and Elder 118). Figure 1: Traditional TOK Diagram Ethics cannot be arrived at by using only emotion and sense perception; it also needs the guidance of reason and language. An example is the ethics developed by Immanuel Kant. Kant argues that people should be responsible for their moral actions and they have a duty to act morally (Bartlett 224). This is based on both the emotions of doing what is right and the reason for choosing right over wrong. Emotions are important to ethics, because some people need to feel that they are doing the right thing. For instance, merely following instructions from a superior can seem right, but it can also feel wrong. This can be related to employees of Enron, who followed their corrupt executive managers, because they also wanted to be rich and improve the stock price of Enron. It seems right to be doing this for the company, but it feels wrong, because they are duping their shareholders, as well as their diverse stakeholders. Perceptions are further highlighted in ethics; by having a formal ethical system, Kant wants to abolish relativism which can vary for different cultures or settings (Geva 777). He calls for people to have the same basis for perceiving what is right, so that people will not be blinded by different motivations and ideals. Kant proposes the principle of “categorical imperative” which can be stated in different ways (Kaler 212). The universality principle states that people should only select an action that can be universalized (Kaler 212). Language has a power of being applied to all. Reason should also be common to all interests. The reciprocity principle emphasizes that people should only treat each other as ends, and not as means to their ends (Kaler 212). It is reasonable and it feels right to treat people as ends, and not as means to people’s ends. This example shows how reason, emotions, language, and perceptions can be used to “know” and differentiate right from wrong. Another way of exploring this argument is saying that ethical knowledge is generated through the interaction of critical and creative thinking. Using Kantian ethics again, critical thinking is crucial, because it depends on a “well-developed epistemological understanding,” says Kuhn (Moon 110). Critical thinking involves meta-knowing or thinking about the generation of knowledge itself (Moon 110). Critical thinking involves knowledge that comes from within and knowledge drive from outside people. On the one hand, knowledge can be obtained from outside sources. When people think about their duties, they are thinking about socially-imposed duties. Their families, education, religious and cultural beliefs, and other basic institutions serve as the source of outside knowledge. People can realize critical thinking of duties by recognizing the knowledge that these social structures possess. Hence, they are generating knowledge from the outside, or by recognizing knowledge that has been molded or conditioned in them. On the other hand, critical thinking also means about meta-knowing; it is about criticizing existing beliefs and forms of knowledge, including the assumptions and language used by knowledge (Mayfield 5). Critical thinking involves generating knowledge from within, through analyzing present beliefs. Kant promotes meta-knowing, when he compels people to think about what is right or wrong through their sense of duty to seeing humanity as ends, and not as means. Human beings are ends; they are not mere pawns for selfish interests. When the government says that the army should attack the rebels, by invoking the violence first to justify the war, then this is evidently wrong, because if the army does it, then it is not being critical of the decisions of their leaders. People should also criticize the source of outside knowledge. They should not be blinded by the authority of social structures and instead, they should strive to generate knowledge from within, using their critical thinking skills. Furthermore, creative thinking is needed in ethics, because ethics involves intuition and perceptions (Mayfield 6). When people ask, what is your duty? It takes creative thinking to consider diverse and oftentimes, conflicting duties, such as duty to family and duty to the self. In The Glass Menagerie, for instance, Tom Wingfield is torn between being a writer and providing for his family. It seems that he cannot do both. However, he fails to use creative thinking in finding a win-win solution. In the end, he leaves his family to chase his own dreams. It is possible to use creative thinking to criticize existing options and assumptions. It is possible to pursue self-happiness and the happiness of others all the time? At the onset, the self versus society is a familiar struggle. In reality, creative thinking argues that it can be solved inventively, by expanding the horizons of choices. Tom has many choices: He can leave his home and sustain his family by writing, if he has money. Or, he can bring Laura with him if she wants. She is, after all, the most valued member for him, at least from this author’s personal perceptions. Or Tom can both write and earn a living. Many other writers have done that, because they cannot leave their duties to their families. Tom only needs to use creative thinking to resolve ethical dilemmas. Thus, ethics concerns integrating creative and critical thinking, because they result to better ethical decisions. The sciences are areas of knowledge that are at the forefront of critical thinking only; after all, what role can intuition play in the logical pursuit of knowledge? But many discoveries are not based on reason and language alone. Numerous insights are derived from sensing or perceiving patterns and following intuition or “gut feelings.” Gregor Mendel, an Austrian monk, became interested in science and mathematics, during his time at the monastery. In 1856, he experimented on peas that led to his discovery of the basic laws of heredity. He wanted to know how characteristics are passed down from one generation to another (Haven 155). He self-pollinated and carefully wrapped each plant to prevent cross-fertilization and pollination by insects. At this point, he acted rationally to ensure the validity of his experiments. He collected the seeds from these plants and examined the plants made by these seeds. In one of his experiments, he crossed a dwarf pea plant with a tall pea plant and planted the seeds. The new seeds were remarkably all tall pea plants and there were no dwarf ones. When he self-pollinated the new tall pea plants, the next generation showed three tall pea plants for every dwarf pea plant. For six years, he could not understand the three-to-one pattern, until one night, he was walking in his room and the answer came from “in” him (Haven 156). He realized that three-to-one rather defines rather than defies nature (Haven 156). He proposed that there are four possible combinations of traits provided to second-generation plants: dominant-dominant, dominant-recessive, recessive-dominant, and recessive-recessive (Haven 156). Traits do not mix, as previously believed; traits are inherited from generation to generation, appearing only as dominant for different generations (Haven 156). This shows how knowledge comes outside and inside a person. Data comes from outside, but scientists have to think of the data to discover patterns. They come up with creative ideas to leverage their critical thinking. Furthermore, it is also argued that scientific knowledge is generated through the interface of critical and creative thinking. I will use Mendel again as an example. The pre-existing belief in his time is that crossbreeding produced a mixture of characteristics (Haven 156). Naturalist Charles Darwin believes that sometimes, new traits or mutations would appear and be passed on to children, but he could not explain why (Haven 156). Mendel used his critical thinking to determine that the present knowledge on genetics is inadequate. There is a need to pursue further studies to generate new findings and hypotheses. He used reason and mathematics to pursue his studies on peas. However, Mendel also uses creative thinking. Creativity is about passion and dedication. For so many years, Mendel tested and tested his peas to find and understand the underlying genetic pattern. Even if he could not explain his findings yet, he persisted and he followed his emotions that he is on the right track. Later on, after constantly being exposed to the same data, he discovers a creative insight. He identifies the pattern and its underlying causes. He appreciates the beauty of the pattern of nature and understands that the pattern is beautiful and cunningly simple, because of the mathematical structure involved (Haven 156). This example demonstrates that science is a product of creative and critical thinking. Knowledge can be constructed and recognized; it can be made inside people or derived from outside sources. It can be constructed through creative thinking and realized through critical thinking. Critical and creative thinking involve two modes of thinking more predominantly, but these modes are heavily intertwined. Even scientists use emotions and perceptions to understand scientific complexities. At the same time, people also have to use reason, not only emotions, to define what is right and wrong. The areas of knowledge will benefit from integrating critical and creative thinking, because it will exhaust all forms of knowing and will avoid overlooking other sources of knowledge that can corroborate or undermine knowledge. Therefore, knowledge is a spectrum of knowing; it is a dynamic process of creating and identifying itself. Works Cited Bartlett, Dean. “Management and Business Ethics: A Critique and Integration of Ethical Decision-making Models.” British Journal of Management 14.3 (2003): 223-235. Print. Geva, Aviva. “Moral Decision Making In Business: A Phase-Model.” Business Ethics Quarterly 10.4 (2000): 773-803. Print. Haven, Kendall F. Marvels Of Science: 50 Fascinating 5-Minute Reads. Connecticut: Libraries Unlimited, 1994. Print. Kaler, John. “Discussion: Putting Ethical Theory in its Place.” Business Ethics: A European Review 9.3 (2000): 211-217. Print. Mayfield, Marlys. Thinking for Yourself. 8th edition. Massachusetts: Wadsworth, 2010. Print. Means, Thomas L. Business Communications. Ohio: South-Western Cengage, 2009. Print. Moon, Jennifer A. Critical Thinking: An Exploration of Theory and Practice. Oxon: Routledge, 2008. Print. Paul, Richard and Linda Elder. “Critical Thinking, Creativity, Ethical Reasoning: A Unity of Opposites.” Morality, Ethics, and Gifted Minds. By Don Ambrose and Tracy Cross. New Jersey: Springer, 2009. 117-132. Print. Read More