While most of this course has focused on the types of reasoning necessary to critique and evaluate existing knowledge or to extend our knowledge following correct procedures and rules, an enormous branch of our reasoning practice runs in the opposite direction. Strategic reasoning, problem-solving, and creative thinking all rely on an ineffable component of novelty supplied by the thinker. Despite their seemingly mystical nature, problem-solving and creative thinking are best approached by following tried and tested procedures that prompt our cognitive faculties to produce new ideas and solutions by extending our existing knowledge. In this unit, you will investigate problem-solving techniques, representing complex problems visually, making decisions in risky and uncertain scenarios, and creative thinking in general.
Completing this unit should take you approximately 2 hours.
Read this tutorial about what to consider when defining a problem and the three major classifications that problems usually fall under. Problem-solving is an activity that combines skills of critical and creative thinking. The first task in any problem-solving scenario is to identify the type of problem one is dealing with.
Complete the exercises for this tutorial, and check your answers.
Read this tutorial, which outlines the mathematician George Pólya’s four-step problem-solving procedure.
Read this tutorial, which introduces the technique of process analysis. This course has focused primarily on problems that are relatively simple in structure. You should be aware that many problems encountered will be highly complex, involving multiple variables and a mixture of problem types. You will read about flowcharts next.
Read this section on flowcharts. It may also be helpful to review subunit 6.2.5 on cause-and-effect diagrams. There are several useful visual techniques to facilitate solving complex problems.
Read this tutorial about basic decision-making rules. Decision theory provides tools for evaluating the best course of action in scenarios involving risk and uncertainty.
Read this tutorial on principles of creative thinking. Creativity is a ubiquitous human activity, not just the province of artists and inventors. Human beings solve problems creatively every day. The nature of creativity thus incorporates both spectacular creative acts and more modest instances of creative reasoning. This tutorial explains what all forms of creativity have in common.
Read this tutorial on the creativity cycle. Although something remains mysterious about what occurs during a flash of creative inspiration, there are nonetheless certain procedures that encourage creative thinking. This tutorial outlines a repeatable four-step creative process based on what is known objectively about producing novel ideas and solutions.
Read these tutorials, which offer procedures for initiating creative thinking based on our existing factual knowledge. The quotations in the second tutorial demonstrate how these procedures form part of the creative process of some of the most famous minds in art, science, and philosophy.
Consider your experiences with thinking creatively. In particular, using a personal experience as an example, discuss whether and to what extent one of the strategies in this section for thinking creatively has been or would have been helpful.
Share your thoughts on the discussion forum. Make sure to review and respond to other students' posts, as well.