Critical Thinking in Crises

Both words, “critical” and “crisis” have their roots in the same Ancient Greek word κρῑ́νω, which means “I separate, judge”. “Crisis” itself has a number of meanings, it can be an unstable situation, a turning point, a sudden change. People can expect something certain after a turning point, if they have expected this turning point. But an unstable situation and a sudden change can bring many unexpected things. An unexpected turning point can do the same. So one of the main problem with crises is that they bring many changes, the most of the changes are probably unexpected.

But our regular lives have many unexpected changes too, what is the difference? In a regular life people usually can ignore many changes and continue with their routines. So people can use their automatic thinking modes to make decisions in a known environment. In case of a crisis unexpected changes begin to dominate people’s lives. They can try to follow habitual automatic mind processes, but these processes likely can’t find necessary cues to make good decisions. Some routine decisions could be made by these automatic processes, but people also have to do something in novel situations.

So if you believe you are in a crisis now, you should apply critical thinking to avoid bad decisions in novel situations. And if you don’t know much about critical thinking it is the best moment to start learning. Begin with the definition to improve your understanding of the topic, then look for good books and online courses.

It is an interesting coincidence that “critical” and “crisis” have their roots in the same ancient word. But there are more substantial arguments that critical thinking should be used during crises. Crises bring uncertainty and critical thinking can help people to deal with uncertain situations. You may think that when a current crisis ends the world becomes certain again. It doesn’t, it was uncertain before, it only has become less certain now. So the world will stay uncertain in the future, and critical thinking will help to navigate in this world.