Persuesive And Scientific Thinking
Introduction
Most people apply persuasive thinking in their everyday lives though they may not be aware. It involvers following a structured process enabling the problem solver to identify and appreciate the wide range of variables in the art of persuasion. On the other hand, scientific thinking basically includes the integration of inquiry skills, experimentation, and evaluation of evidence as well as generation of inference.In this text, I will come up with two different real world problems and look at how the first problem can be solved using persuasive thinking and how the second problem can be solved using scientific thinking. Here, I will come up with a summary of the solutions to each problem and how the solution will solve that particular problem.
The description of the two problems
Problem one: climate change
By definition, climate change involves the overall statistical weather distribution over a given period of time. This change in the statistical weather distribution may be global or limited to a given region or place. Experts have pointed out a wide range of factors that are responsible for climate change. According to Burroughs (2007), some of the main causes of climate change include human activity, green house gas emissions, the earths orbit deviation, solar radiation variations amongst other causes.Of great concern however has been the contribution of human beings into the problem of climate change. This has sparked debate on how to best reduce further human influence or impact so as to find ways of mitigating the various consequences of climate change.The effects of climate change have been far reaching. We have had heavier rainfall in some regions causing severe flooding as well as extreme draught in other areas. The ecosystem is changing and we have had more frequent and strong storms leaving a trail of destruction especially in the Atlantic since the early 70’s (Burroughs 2007). this are some of the effects of climate change and scientists have predicted that if urgent measures are not taken to mitigate the causes of climate change especially human activity, then in future we might have more devastating effects of climate change.
Problem two: the uncontrolled use of herbal medicines
In the last decade, we have seen an increase in the use of herbal medicines to treat a wide range of ailments and while this has been hailed as progress in the fight against common diseases, some medical professionals have expressed fears that there could be some hidden problems with regard to herbal medicines. In the light of the increased use of alternative medications, issues have been mainly raised when it comes to patients being handed herbal prescriptions by people with no knowledge or experience whatsoever when it comes to herbal products.A recent case in time is when a 46 year old man in Mexico was given some herbal products by a herbal practitioner to treat what looked like hypertension (Lee-Treweek et al. 2006). A month later, the man was found dead as a result of extreme reaction to casimiora edulis, an extract from the leaves of a fruit commonly found in the Mexican-American boarder. It later turned out that the man was suffering from lung inflammation and not hypertension as had been claimed by the herbal practitioner.Lee-Treweek et al. (2006) notes that as a result of widespread reports of wrong diagnosis and inability of herbal drugs to treat serious and complicated medical problems calls for an urgent probe over the efficiency of alternative medicines.
Solving the first problem using persuasive thinking
Persuasive thinking can be used to solve the first problem due to the significant contribution of human activity to the same. It is easier to use persuasive thinking to solve the first problem by convincing people especially policy makers to look at the effects of climate change in the long term if nothing is done to contain the current situation. Keeping in mind that persuasive thinking involvers following a structured process which enables the problem solver to identify and appreciate the wide range of variables in the art of persuasion, it will enable stakeholders to appraise both the benefits and the disadvantages of various approaches that can be adopted in containing the climate changes and implement the best decision.
Solving the second problem using scientific thinking
Scientific thinking involves verification of facts using experimentation. With regard to the use of herbal medicines, scientific thinking can be used to test their viability in the treatment of various ailments. In this line, scientific thinking will help the investigators to verify facts for or against alternative medicines through experimentation and come up with recommendations as to whether herbal medicines should be used to treat all diseases across the board.
Conclusion
It is important to note that the applicability of the various styles of thinking depend on the problem at hand or the kind of decision to be made.
References
Burroughs, W.G. (2007). Climate change: a multidisciplinary approach 2nd Edition. CambridgeUniversity Press
Lee-Treweek, G., Heller, T., & MacQueen, H. (2006). Complimentary and Alternative Medicine: Structures and Safeguards. Routledge
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