What thinking skills are crucial to have in life? Discover 5 thinking skills that help you effectively navigate life's many situations.

I have an uncle named Sam. Sometimes the US government is called "Uncle Sam." My uncle Sam does not work for the US government, but he's a creative guy. The other day we were talking. He was helping me think about a logo for The Philosophical Life. While I wanted to just pick an idea and run with it. Sam encouraged me to think creatively. He encouraged me to play with the elements of the design and to stay open to the possibilities. This resulted in thinking of all sorts of interesting possibilities for a logo.

Creative thinking can be applied to relationships and life. It can help you better love and serve others, as you think of new ways to make their day. It can help you better solve problems, as you imagine new possibilities. It can help you enjoy life, as you see it as a playground ripe for your own unique take on things. 

We come up with explanations all the time. Sometimes explanations come easily. Why is my dog itchy? Because she just rolled around in grass and is allergic to grass. Why is the value of my home rising? Because the market for homes in my area is appreciating.

But sometimes explanations escape us. Imagine that you plan on meeting a friend for coffee. You show up, but he does not. You try texting and calling him with no luck. You might come up with hypotheses to explain why he stood you up. Perhaps your friend forgot about your meeting. Perhaps he is mad at you and cannot bear to tell you. Perhaps he had an emergency that prevented him from meeting you for coffee.

Some of the hypotheses will be more or less likely given your background information. Is your friend flaky and forgetful? Is your friend vengeful and spiteful? Is your friend a walking disaster, prone to accidents that land him in the hospital? The evidence you have for the hypotheses can change how probable they are. Scientists engage in this thinking when they propose hypotheses and run experiments to confirm or disconfirm the hypotheses.

Scientific thinking can help you avoid reaching conclusions not supported by evidence. Considering the example of your friend standing you up for coffee. Imagine that you are a sensitive person. You are prone to think that others do not value you and when something doesn't go your way you tend to take it personally. But, you also think scientifically. So, even though you're prone to over-personalize things, you reason scientifically to avoid thinking bad thoughts about your friend and potentially damaging your relationship. For instance, even though you're prone to think your friend intentionally stood you up, you reason that your friend is not flaky and he is not spiteful, so the most likely hypothesis given that he no-showed your coffee date and you cannot reach him is that he had an emergency. Instead of getting mad at your friend or thinking less of him, you are genuinely concerned and hoping that he is not injured or hurt.

Suppose that one of your friends sold a car to another friend of yours. You know that there's a problem with the car. However the friend that sold the car did not disclose the problem. In fact, when asked if there was anything wrong with the car they lied. They said there were no outstanding problems with the car. Should you tell the friend that purchase the car that your other friend lied to them? Should you tell them that they bought a car with a known problem needing repair? Ethical thinking may give you a principled basis on which to make a tough decision.

Very generally speaking, there are two ways of thinking ethically. One way of thinking looks at the consequences of an action. It says the right action is the one that promotes the best overall outcome for all the people involved. Usually that involves looking at the total happiness produced by the outcome. This is utilitarian ethical thinking. Imagine that in the scenario above if you told the friend that they were lied to, then that friend would go beat up your other friend. In such a situation utilitarian thinking favors not telling your friend that they were unwittingly sold a lemon.

Another way of thinking ethically involves duties. You have a duty to tell your friend the truth regardless of consequences. You owe it to your friend to be truthful with them. You do not owe it to your friend that lied to cover up their deceit or fail to disclose it. Such duty-based ethical thinking commends you tell your friend the truth. It may also commend you to tell the friend not to beat up the friend that lied to them in selling them the car.

Ethical dilemmas are not always easy to navigate. But ethical thinking can help you navigate tricky situations in a principled way.

Imagine that someone tells you "da Bears" will win the Superbowl this year. Being the good thinker you are you ask them for their reasons for this conclusion. They tell you that this years team has a good defense like the 1986 Bears team that won the Superbowl, so it's likely that this year's Bears team will also win the Superbowl. Is this a good argument?

How good arguments by analogy are depends on how tight the analogy is between the two things. For instance, you might respond to your friend that the 1986 Bears had Lawrence Taylor on their team--one of the best linebackers ever. The current team's defense does not have such a player on their team. You might also note that this year's team is not as strong on offence as the 1986 Bears team. So, even though this year's team has a good defense, that does not mean that there is a strong enough analogy between the two teams to support the conclusion that the Bears will win the Superbowl this year.

Using analogical thinking is powerful. People have used such reasoning to argue that God exists. This is known as the argument from design. Given that the design of a watch implies that it had a designer, and given that the earth exhibits deign, it too must have a designer, namely God. Countering this argument involves showing that the connection between a watch and the earth is not a tight enough connection to support the conclusion.

How you use your mind makes a difference in life. Critical, creative, scientific, ethical, and analogical forms of thinking are powerful. These thinking skills offer you the ability to make more informed decisions, more persuasive arguments, more ethically-informed choices, and envision more possibilities to make a difference in the world.