Critical and Creative Thinking in Society Short Essays
Joshua T Lemmerman
PHL/458
April - 13 - 2015
Matthew Fallesen
Critical and Creative Thinking in Society Short Essays
A couple months back there was a gentleman by the name of Eric Garner. This man was from New York and got into an altercation with police. Eric Garner was no angel, but he was not complying with the police officers. One of the police was given an order to subdue the gentleman via chokehold. Eric had asthma and the chokehold ultimately ended his life. Now the public is completely appalled and sickened by events like these. We are not police and sometimes we do not understand how hard their job really is. This situation could have had a completely different outcome if the police had actually had a critical and creative thought process before the chokehold order was given. It is hard because the police did not know this man was asthmatic, but they went off instinct and were trying to detain the gentleman from moves they have been taught. The police in this situation did not use critical thinking to their advantage. Instead they trusted the orders that they had been given. This entire situation could have been avoided by simple critical and creative thinking. They did not evaluate the issue in order to form their judgment. There was no evaluation thought at all, just the simple fact that they were given the order to use excessive force and it cost Mr. Garner his life. If the police would have been able to understand that cops are under a microscope and need to watch every single move they make. Instead they react and create more controversy and now are under National spotlight. The attorney for the officer that decided to use his chokehold had this to say, "Daniel Pantaleo did not use a chokehold, he used a takedown technique that he learned in the academy. He said he never excreted any pressure on the windpipe. He also never intended to hurt Mr. Garner." (Prokupecz, 2014).
Free will is the ability to look at problems creatively and critically only if you can say that you alone have control over what you say and do. "Truth is what is so about something, the reality of the matter, as distinguished from what people wish were so, believe to be so, or assert to be so." Knowledge is something that is obtained by personal experience, observation, and report from others. Opinion is something that is very personal. It someone's own collection of freewill, truth, and knowledge formed to create their own reality of their thoughts being truth. Each of these are used to create and form thoughts. Without any of these no one would be able to create their own thoughts. Each one of these are so critical in assessing situations. One can only take free will, truth, knowledge, and opinion to make decisions and form thoughts which result in outcomes.
There is quite a few hindrances to the critical thinking process. The mine-is-better habit, resistance to change, and stereotyping are just a few of the hindrances to the critical thinking process. The mine-is-better habit is personally the worst habit to acquire. No one individual is better than another. We are equal on this planet. Many people do not understand this, they believe because they are smarter or have acquired more wealth they believe they are better. A way to overcome this to stop it from blocking the critical thinking process is to actually step away from oneself and physically make it a point to let others know that what they are doing is amazing. That not only is their idea great it actually was a better idea than their own. Resistance to change is one of the most difficult hindrances to overcome. When an individual has walked this earth and gained their knowledge and experience, it is almost impossible to deter these people from change. These