Knowledge is generated through the interaction of critical and Essay

Knowledge is generated through the interaction of critical and creative thinking. Evaluate this statement in two areas of knowle - Essay Example People need to only reflect on how whoever writes history develops greater power and it becomes too painfully real how knowledge enhances different forms of power, including political and economic power. How people acquire knowledge and define it, however, is highly debated. The rise of emotional intelligence, for instance, questioned knowledge as pure logic. Feminists aim to call emotions and perceptions as equally valuable sources and components of knowledge. Some also argue of the unification of creative and critical thinking, because they are related and more effective in generating knowledge together (Mayfield 4; Paul and Elder 118). This paper evaluates this belief using the areas of knowledge of ethics and sciences. Knowledge is generated through the interaction of critical and creative thinking. Ethics refer to the people’s guiding principles of what is right or wrong (Means 52). Ethics uses both critical and creative thinking skills. This paper first defines and diffe rentiates critical thinking and creative thinking. In the traditional TOK Diagram, see figure 1 below, the ways of knowing are through emotions, reason, sense perception, and language. Creative and critical thinking are both ways of knowing, but they are closely interrelated (Paul and Elder 118). Critical thinking analyzes and evaluates a particular material, while creative thinking concerns inventing something new (Mayfield 4). Creativity, however, has a â€Å"critical component,† and not just portraying â€Å"imagination† or â€Å"inventiveness† (Paul and Elder 118). In business, for instance, creativity is valuable if it leads to innovation of products, services, processes, and systems. Creativity must also have a critical output too. In connection to the TOK diagram, critical thinking primarily involves reason and language, or the right side of â€Å"knowing† in the TOK diagram. Creative thinking uses emotion and sense perception, or the left side of â€Å"knowing.† Reason and language are often used by sciences, but ethics employ emotion and sense perception too. But clearly, the diagram is a circle. It shows the unity of all forms of knowing for all areas of knowledge. Ethics uses reason and language too. It must be reasonable to be embraced by people, and it must also use persuasive language to convince people of its effectiveness in differentiating right from wrong. Knowers should be able to use all four ways of knowing to arrive at a balanced and ethical decision or option (Paul and Elder 118). Figure 1: Traditional TOK Diagram Ethics cannot be arrived at by using only emotion and sense perception; it also needs the guidance of reason and language. An example is the ethics developed by Immanuel Kant. Kant argues that people should be responsible for their moral actions and they have a duty to act morally (Bartlett 224). This is based on both the emotions of doing what is right and the reason for choosing right over w rong. Emotions are important to ethics, because some people need to feel that they are doing the right thing. For instance, merely following instructions from a superior can seem right, but it can also feel wrong. This can be related to employees of Enron, who followed their corrupt executive managers, because they also wanted to be rich and improve the stock price of Enron. It seems right to be doing this for the company, but it feels wrong, because they are duping their shareholders, as well as their diverse stakeholders. Perceptions are further