Responding to Decision Making with Critical Thinking

In an earlier article, we explored the benefits of a moral compass to help us make decisions that are aligned with our dignity, well being, and integrity.

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Teachers in secondary and post-secondary education emphasize critical thinking practices to achieve deeper than surface understanding of issues. Critical thinking helps create worthy arguments to present a point of view.

Ransom Patterson writes that  an important element in the decision-making process is the ability to think critically.

It helps you make hard decisions. I’ve written before about how defining your values helps you make better decisions. Equally important in the decision-making process is the ability to think critically. Critical thinking allows you compare the pros and cons of your available options, showing that you have more options than you might imagine

The data expressed in the graphs below show current responses of Americans to questions about choice and abortion. To facilitate some critical thinking we will not identify the “red” or “blue” opinions. The graphs show that the alternate opinions are supported by approximately the same number of people.

Pro Choice Americans https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2018/01/18/poll-shows-strong-majority-americans-want-restrictions-abortion 

The chart above shows the number of people in the survey who self identified as “Pro-choice”.

Limits on abortion https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2018/01/18/poll-shows-strong-majority-americans-want-restrictions-abortion

The second chart shows the number of people who would accept “significant limits” on abortion.

Ransom Patterson suggests the strategy of Try Reversing Things to make progress on hard problems.

A great way to get “unstuck” on a hard problem is to try reversing things. It may seem obvious that X causes Y, but what if Y caused X?
The “chicken and egg problem” a classic example of this. At first, it seems obvious that the chicken had to come first. The chicken lays the egg, after all. But then you quickly realize that the chicken had to come from somewhere, and since chickens come from eggs, the egg must have come first. Or did it?
Even if it turns out that the reverse isn’t true, considering it can set you on the path to finding a solution.

Critical Thinking Exercise 1

List the Benefits to Self of a “Pro-Choice” approach to abortion.

List the Benefits to Others of a “Pro-Choice” approach to abortion.

	Critical Thinking about Pro Choice approach to abortion
	Benefit to Self	Benefit to Others
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Critical Thinking Exercise 2

List the Benefits to Self of “significant limits” on abortion.

List the Benefits to Others of “significant limits” on abortion.

	Critical Thinking about "significant limits" on abortion
	Benefit to Self	Benefit to Others
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Changes in demographics and the social and political environment result in shifts in the position of the population on important cultural questions.

Critical thinking exercises help identify the nuances that are too often lost in an uncritical dualistic treatment of these serious issues.

References

(2017, November 16). 7 Ways to Improve Your Critical Thinking Skills | College Info Geek. Retrieved February 1, 2018, from https://collegeinfogeek.com/improve-critical-thinking-skills/

(2018, January 18). Poll shows a strong majority of Americans want restrictions on abortion .... Retrieved February 2, 2018, from https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2018/01/18/poll-shows-strong-majority-americans-want-restrictions-abortion