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Critical and Creative Thinking in Society

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Submitted By melijean
Words 1042
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Critical and Creative Thinking in Society Short Essays
PHL/458
December 1, 201X
XXX

Introduction
Critical and creative thinking are an important part of everyday life. First, this paper will describe a situation of public interest in which these could have been used for a better outcome. Next, it will define free will, truth, knowledge and opinion, how they are used to form thoughts and the role they play in critically assessing situations. It will also identify three hindrances to the critical thinking process with an experience. Lastly, it will identify a message in advertising, how it was perceived, and the reality of the advertisement and distinguish between perception and the reality of the message.
Situation of Public Interest
The current situation of public interest that will be discussed is the selling of swastika ridden wrapping paper by Walgreens. Walgreens was carrying the wrapping paper in celebration of Hanukkah when customers started to notice the swastikas. This is clearly offensive to the Jewish community who would be purchasing the wrapping paper. As a result the product has been pulled from the shelves (Huffington Post, 2014). This situation could have been avoided if a quality assurance individual or product reviewer was consulted. It is those individuals job to review the product and gage how consumers will perceive the product. The review process should include a checklist with critical thinking questions one it. One example would be to ask of the product would offend anyone. It is important to think critically and creatively when launching new products. These days’ people are easily offended and each new product must be tested and critiqued to ensure that every product can be enjoyed by everyone. This example is why critical though could have been used for a better outcome and why it’s important to think critically in these situations.
Definitions
Free will, truth, knowledge and opinion will be defined and explained how they are used to form thoughts. According to Merriam-Webster (2014), free will is defined as the ability to choose how to act, truth is defined as the quality or state of being true, knowledge is defined as information, understanding or skill that you get from experience or education and opinion is defined as a belief, judgment, or way of thinking about something. Each of these is used to form thoughts every day. Thoughts are unpredictable and each plays a role in critically assessing situations because everyone has different free will, truth, knowledge and opinions. Thoughts based on truth remove any doubt and is replaced with evidence. Thoughts that use knowledge come from personal experience. Opinion based thoughts are personal perceptions and what is believed to be true. This explained how free will, truth, knowledge and opinions are used to form thoughts and what role they play in critically assessing situations.
Hindrances
Arrogance, being agreeable, and resistance to change are three hindrances to the critical thinking process. Arrogance stands in the way of critical thinking because you prefer your own ideas because they are your own. In school this happen during group assignments; when this situation arises the best way to overcome this hindrance is to have other give their ideas and work from there. Being agreeable is thinking the way the other in the group thinks so that you do not appear to be confrontational. I believe this is a tough hindrance to overcome especially when working with people who have more experience then you. The only way to overcome this would be to use knowledge and to not care what others think. Resistance to change means rejecting new ides because you are not comfortable with a new way of doing things. Change is a constant in life. In the school environment it is easy to reject change because you are so use to doing something one way and those change each class. Rejecting changes can slow down the completion of assignments and wastes valuable time. To overcome this hindrance, you have to be open to all ideas even if it is not the usual way of doing business.
Message in Advertising Clothing advertisements, both in magazines and on television, involve selling more than just the clothes. It drives into the mind and tries to sell the clothes by relating the brand with desirable ideas such as beauty, strength, love, passion, etc. Clothing advertisements try to appeal to all the senses. They usually try to sell sex by advertising with a beautiful models or a well-known celebrity in a beautiful location. Advertisers hire beautiful people and use sex appeal to get your attention and desire. Clothing companies entice fantasy and provide a false sense of a life of happiness and love. This perception of the advertisements is that whoever where the clothing will be found desirable to the opposite sex. Reality is that clothing advertisements are just there to make you want to buy the product. The advertisements are designed to give a false sense of security so to speak, meaning they make the person think they will look just like the people. By associating the clothes to a certain idea, the marketing company tries appeal to the consumer that by purchasing an idea and the image it is portraying it could be you.

Conclusion Critical and creative thinking are an important part of everyday life. First, this paper described a situation of public interest where these could have been used for a better outcome. Next, it defined free will, truth, knowledge and opinion, how they are used to form thoughts and the role they played in critically assessing situations. It also identified three hindrances to the critical thinking process with an experience. Lastly, it identified a message in advertising, how it was perceived, and the reality of the advertisement and distinguished between perception and the reality of the message.

References
Huffington Post. (2014) Swastika Wrapping Paper Pulled From Walgreens. Retrieved from http://www.huffingpost.com/2014/12/08/ swastika-wrapping-paper- walgreens_n_6291950.html
Merriam-Webster. (2014) Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/
Dictionary/free%20will
Merriam-Webster. (2014) Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/
Dictionary/truth
Merriam-Webster. (2014) Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/
Dictionary/knowledge
Merriam-Webster. (2014) Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/
Dictionary/opinion

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