Analysis Of Peter Elbow's Essay 'Critical Thinking'

Upon reading Peter Elbow’s essay, I was struck with the realization that I use the doubting game in much of my daily life to make decisions. I even conducted an experiment around my house and noted that all of my family plays this logic-based game also. There is no correct process to use, though, it is merely your brains instinct based off past experience. I see no main difference between these two games and critical thinking, in fact, it appears that the doubting and believing games are actually just branches off of our critical thinking process. The idea behind critical thinking and the entire reason for using critical thinking in any strategy is to evaluate the evidence and form an analysis off of the presented information. The doubting and believing game are

simply steps within the critical thinking process and there is no real difference between these processes. When using critical thinking, you are forced to use either the doubting game or believing game to assist in forming your idea. This idea then aids you in making your decision and finishes the critical thinking process. Although critical thinking is slightly different in the ways it breaks down this idea process, the games pose little differences. There is no correct process to use during critical thinking, for it is merely a template to guide your expanding knowledge. Throughout Elbow’s essay, there were numerous times when he referenced back to a fact about human nature and the different ways we react when presented with new information. Whether the reader was using the doubting or believing process to analyze his work, his message was clearly getting through that there was a process involved. Elbow loudly noted multiple times throughout his essay that whether a person uses the doubting or the believing game is based on past knowledge and encounters with critical situations. Possibly the most baffling theory I was ever presented in Algebra was the Pythagorean theorem. The Pythagorean theorem is A^2+B^2=C^2. My Algebra teacher presented us with the Pythagorean theorem before he had explained to us what to use it for. As we all sat slumped in our seats he asked us individually if we thought this idea would work and one by one we all told him no. When he came to me, I told him no and explained that if A or B was equal to C the formula would not work. He told me that if both A and C were equal to 3 yet B was equal to 0 the formula would work so that I was wrong. It appeared I was playing the doubting game whereas my teacher was teasing the believing game. Once we were explained the reason for using the Pythagorean theorem we all started using the believing game, and believed this new formula would work. It worked for the teacher and he was supposed to be way smarter than us, so if he believed this formula to work, we did too. I had to use the believing game or the “methodological belief” and believe this formula would work for it to perform the correct function. After multiple trials and errors, it did work too. If I had stopped myself from even attempting the problem and just said it wouldn’t work, I would have missed out on seeing for myself the truth. Math is a trickier subject and without believing the formulas and strategies are going to work, you wouldn’t get anywhere.

You must always have a little faith in what you’re doing, but make sure you’re thinking logically too, and it never hurts to back beliefs up with evidence. I could have doubted the Pythagorean theorem from the start, but instead, I chose to believe the formula would work and made finding the solution much easier on myself. Elbow’s essay over the differences in the believing and doubting game gives very useful insight into how we evaluate everyday issues. I can recall multiple past experiences where I have chosen to play one game rather than the other and the difference it makes most of the time is astonishing. The doubting and believing games are a part of critical thinking that we never sit down and actually think about, nevertheless, they are a very important issue and should always be taken into consideration. Elbow truly gave some important information on these two theories, and how they naturally come to us. Whether you use the doubting game or believing game in your decisions is not relevant, it’s how you use the information you are presented that makes the world of a

difference.