Critical Thinking

INTRODUCTION

Aristole said: " humans are a thinking animal". Let assumed that a long time ago when humans and animal are able to communicated with each other, then I'll tell you this story. There was the village where people living together peaceful and happy. Their main work are in the rice field, some do the hunting in the nearby forest, some do fishing in the river which separated a village with a forest. It's a hot day, the big tiger lazily lay down on the open end of the jungle across the river, watching the farmer and his two working ox preparing the field for planting with rice. Seeing the two big and strong ox jointed together between the plow, behind them was the little man with the whip-cord in hand whipping and ordering the cows to pull plow where he want it to be. At noon, the farmer release his two ox from the plow, let them rest and eat hay under the big tree, then he goes home for lunch. Curious of what he saw, the tiger cross the river, walking toward the two resting ox and asks " why you two, big and strong, let the smaller human control of you without any resistant ". The ox answer "we, physical, are stronger than him. But he has a powerful human's intellectual. We can't beat it so we have to obey him". Tiger asks "what is the human's intellectual, I don't see it with him". Ox said "It something about his thinking. He always keep it in his mind, we don't know how it look like, you may ask him when he come back from lunch, he might let you see it ". When the farmer come back from lunch, he see the tiger among his working ox. It's scare him. He know that he has a trouble He is about running home, but he can't afford the loss of his two working ox, it's all he has. So he come straight to the tiger and ask "what can I do for you , sir". The tiger said "your ox tell me you have the human's intellectual, what is it and I want to see it". The farmer said "Oh! The human's intellectual, it's a human's thinking, I put it in my mind and left it at home". The tiger said "go and get it for me while I guard your ox. If I don't see you come back I will eat those stupid oxen, and looking for you later". The Farmer "yes sir! but you are the meat eater, how can I be so sure that you are not kill my ox while I am not here, you got to make me trust you before I go home to get the human's intellectual for you , and I am ensure you it's a beautiful and the most powerful thing you ever see". Tiger "ok, what can I do so you can trust me". The farmer "If you let me tie you down to the tree so I know you can't touch my oxen, it's just a matter of trust". Because of curious and wanting so much to see the human's intellectual the tiger let the farmer tie him to the tree. After tie the tiger and secure the line the farmer take out his whip-cord, start whip the tiger hard and said "this is human's intellectual, now you can see how powerful it is, with some thinking and planning I was able strap you to the tree and kill you". The tiger "yes, I see it now, would you please untie me so we can talk". The farmer "no-way, if I let you go you will kill me, so I"ll keep you there for my people make decision". The tiger was so upset and hurt, he cries out loud for his stupid. The ox laughing "you see, we had toll you so".

Even-thought the story above is just the kid's bed time story, it's not the true story, but I like it's concept: With intellectual human is higher order than any animal. Do farmer's thought and acted in the story are the critical thinking ? Before we go into that, let find out what is the critical thinking.

WHAT IS THE CRITICAL THINKING

By define: " critical thinking is that mode of thinking - about any subject, content, or problem - in which the thinker improves the quality of his or her thinking by skillfully taking charge of the structure inherent in thinking and imposing intellectual standard upon them". ( Michael and Richard, 2004)

We, humans, usually think before doing. It's our nature to do so. According to Gary Kiby and Jeffery Goodpaster in the An Interdisciplinary Approach to Critical and Creative Thought. First, your thoughts, then become your words, then your action, then your habit, then your character, then became you. It's more than the thinking, critical thinking is the intellectual with process of thinking and actively. Critical thinking can be seen as having two components: "1) A set of information and belief generating and processing skill and 2) the habit, base on intellectual commitment, of using those skill to guide behavior". ( Michael and Richard, 2004). Critical thinking varies according to the motivation underlying it. For knowing it better, the first process is understanding the part of thinking or element of reasoning, such as: purpose, question, information, inference, assumption, point of view, concept, and implication.

Now we go back to the question a bout the farmer and his critical thinking. The farmer, when he first saw the tiger among his ox , he know he got the problem. He got two choice: 1) Run away from the tiger and abandon the ox, or 2) He can't afford to lost his ox so he got to come back there. He thought the tiger is the meat eater, to save his life and his ox he got to kill or disable a tiger's strength. But how ? he doesn't know. So his purpose is to kill or disable the tiger strength. He need a information which can answer his questions. He doesn't know what going on back there. He walk to the tiger and ask: "what can I do for you?". He is seeking for information. The tiger answer: "your ox tell me you have a human's intellectual and I want to see it". Now the farmer has the information he want. He need to interpret (inference) that information for his purpose ( kill the tiger). To his point of view, the tiger want so much to see human's intellectual, it probably willing to do any thing to satisfy it's curiosity, so he think he can bargain with the tiger (assumption ). "If you let me tie you down to the tree so I know you can't touch my ox. It's just the matter of trust" (Implication.). The whole process of thinking and skillful