I think there a lot of people in the US who don’t have (or don’t use) basic critical thinking skills. This makes them very susceptible to being led around by their emotions and pseudo-reasoning than by their beliefs, principles and ideals.
I think that this is reflected in the media and in politics. How did politics come to be so divisive? If it’s possible to get any kind of information at any time, why is it that so many people choose to filter their media consumption so that they only get exposed to opinions they agree with?
I took a Critical Thinking course in college. It was nothing special… it was a lot of information I had already known, even if I didn’t have the language to express it. And yet, everywhere I see evidence of hundreds, or thousands, of people reacting to non-logical arguments as though they are perfectly valid.
At the same time I see a lot of people arguing right past each other, not just in the media, but in online forums, and even at work. It’s as if the opinions that strike a chord will get them humming, and opinions they don’t agree with will be greeted with hostility, not just disagreement.
I pride myself on being a good communicator, and especially a good listener. I am able to sort out when someone says what they think, what they feel, and what they believe, even if they are not communicating well. I am able to repeat back what I hear to verify and validate that I understand it, even if I don’t agree with it. I’m able to tell the difference between a fact and an opinion, and I can sense when people agree on basic premises and disagree on a question of degree or emphasis, even if the speakers don’t see any agreement.
I believe this level of listening involves some amount of empathy and takes a lot of practice to be good at. But, I think basic critical thinking is not that hard to pick up.
So, friends, if you’ve managed to read this far, answer some or all of these for me.
1. Do you believe you are pretty good, or at least reasonable, at critical thinking? Can you tell when an argument is logical, or when an argument is designed to appeal to your emotions and not your intellect? If so, where did you pick up basic critical thinking skills?
2. Do you happen to know any good (but short) reading material, or useful web pages, that give basic skills in critical thinking, or basic semantic analysis?
3. Someone I was talking to recently said that there are something like three basic types of information, and it was something like statement of fact, statement of values, statement of logic. Does this ring a bell and/or have you ever heard of this?
4. Do you believe that critical thinkers are in the minority? Do you think that people are easily led around by their emotions? Would a quick one-page primer on critical thinking and avoiding common fallacy arguments would help these people, or do they need more than a fifteen-minute crash course could give them?
1. I would say I’m reasonable to good at critical thinking. I can definitely tell a logical argument from one designed to pique my emotions, but both are very interesting sets of discussion, and both have valid items attached to them. Where? I’d say doing a PhD makes you think that way. :)
2. No. Mine was built over years of discussing material with various people. Never come across any resource, but I’m betting they are out there.
3. Never heard of it, but then never formally educated in this area, and also British education to boot. I’d say fact, values and logic are important, but all can be interpreted in certain ways to make them more or less valid arguments for a point.
4. Yes. I think people who think are a minority period. My experience is showing that many people, particularly younger peeople, want things handed to them without having to think about them in any shape or form. Are they led by emotion? Probably to a large extent. A 15 minute primer, IMHO, would probably do absolutely nothing. However, in those who want to learn, yes, I think it’d have an effect. I don’t think many want to think, it means using their brain. Of course, not everyone can think in this fashion, and there’s nothing wrong with that, they just think in different ways.
/spam.
Thanks for replying. I agree with you… people want everything handed to them. sigh.
1. Do you believe you are pretty good, or at least reasonable, at critical thinking?
I believe so, although sometimes my “passionate” side can just quash it all.
Can you tell when an argument is logical, or when an argument is designed to appeal to your emotions and not your intellect?
Again, I think so. Although if they appeal just right, it might take some time before I do.
If so, where did you pick up basic critical thinking skills?
I’m assuming I picked it up from my parents. I never took any classes, but the folks always challenged me.
2. Do you happen to know any good (but short) reading material, or useful web pages, that give basic skills in critical thinking, or basic semantic analysis?
That would be a big no.
3. Someone I was talking to recently said that there are something like three basic types of information, and it was something like statement of fact, statement of values, statement of logic. Does this ring a bell and/or have you ever heard of this?
See previous answer :D
4. Do you believe that critical thinkers are in the minority? Do you think that people are easily led around by their emotions? Would a quick one-page primer on critical thinking and avoiding common fallacy arguments would help these people, or do they need more than a fifteen-minute crash course could give them?
I don’t think they’re in the minority yet, but they are BECOMING the minority. It’s not that people are led around by their emotions, but with the way our education system is, and the way the news is presented these days, people expect others to do their critical thinking FOR them. So no, a one page primer wouldn’t help, because it wouldn’t fight the inherent lazyness.
Thanks for the reply. You’re saying what I was afraid of, but I think you’re totally right.
1. I believe I am quite adept at critical reasoning, though I recognize I don’t always choose to use it. I have found that straight critical reasoning sometimes causes people to disengage from a discussion, whereas good rhetoric will keep them engaged. I think my critical thinking skills come directly from training as an engineer in college. Engineering can’t be swayed by good opinion.
2. It’s not super short, but the book “Lying with Statistics” by Huff and Geis illustrates several of the things we mistake as critical thinking. It illustrates the method of reasoning outside the facts.
3. I have not heard this, but I would disagree with it. There is statement of belief, for one. Not necessarily a value, but a perception can be spoken of.
4. I think critical thinking is a dying art, but possibly due to inequities in society and their public view. The reality is, most people feel the strongest and most loyal to the causes that help them directly. An African American male is more interested in the actions of the NAACP than NOW, while a woman is generally more interested in curing breast cancer than prostate cancer, and a white male is likely to be more interested in child support laws being lessened than the United Negro College fund. As a result, people tend to, I believe, unconsciously filter evidence to meet their world view, and then present it as critical thinking. Here is my evidence, here is my thinking. I think you hit the nail on head when you noted that people tend to limit their information sources to those that present according to their current world view. I think we all do it. I know for myself, anything Sean Hannity, Bill O’reilly, Al Franken, or Micheal Moore say, I completely ignore. I find them all to be biased posturing partisans, with very little useful information.
What surprises me most often is how people rarely see that Sean Hannity and Michael Moore are flip sides of the same coin. People will support one while discarding the other.
Thanks for the reply. I wish critical thinking would make its way into some high school curricula.
1. Do you believe you are pretty good, or at least reasonable, at critical thinking? Can you tell when an argument is logical, or when an argument is designed to appeal to your emotions and not your intellect? If so, where did you pick up basic critical thinking skills?
I consider myself pretty good at it. It’s been quite a while since I’ve
actually heard an argument designed to appeal to my intellect, though.
I think where I picked them up is tough to say, though they do say that
that’s what Ph.D. programs are for. It’s sad that you need to make it
through 18 years of schooling before that’s considered a worthwhile topic.
Though, now that I think of it there was an engineering core course I took
called ‘Technological Survival’ that was supposed to teach critical thinking.
Maybe it’s a matter of instinct, or intelligence-sourced cynicism, that
forms the basis.
2. Do you happen to know any good (but short) reading material, or useful web pages, that give basic skills in critical thinking, or basic semantic analysis?
Ehn. No, not really. Though the statistics one is a good start.
3. Someone I was talking to recently said that there are something like three basic types of information, and it was something like statement of fact, statement of values, statement of logic. Does this ring a bell and/or have you ever heard of this?
I hadn’t, but it seems lacking — oversimplified, maybe, to fit the ‘rule of threes’.
4. Do you believe that critical thinkers are in the minority? Do you think that people are easily led around by their emotions? Would a quick one-page primer on critical thinking and avoiding common fallacy arguments would help these people, or do they need more than a fifteen-minute crash course could give them?
Yes. I think that there are a number of reasons for it:
1) Schooling relying more on fact regurgitation than analysis.
2) Soundbites.
3) The “bang out an angry letter” mode most people operate in doesn’t really lend itself well to quiet reflection.
A quick primer won’t help people that don’t want to be helped — it’s a lot of work, and doesn’t have an immediate benefit to the worker, so it fails the quick-reward test.
Thanks for the reply. It would be cool if high school students could be exposed to some critical thinking skills… I think they could handle it, but it doesn’t seem to fit neatly into a specific subject.
Not sure I agree with that… it’s easy to /incorporate/ but it’s hard to grade with a Scantron (TM).
My high school had critical analysis as part of history, but that was more because of an actual qualified teacher rather than a district mandate — and
it was only available to students in the “gifted” program.
I don’t have time to give a thoughtful reply right now, but the article
Why smart people defend bad ideas from scottberkun.com may be of interest to you.
1. Yes, I think so. But then I think most people think they are critical thinkers. I learned from my parents, hs and college.
2. No, I think critical thinking comes from you yourself analysing something either by talking or writing, not through reading.
3. Nope.
4. No, I think well-educated people are in the minority. I think most people do think about the narrow set of things they’re concerned with. But we’re bombarded with information all the time and most people don’t have the context to understand how it relates to them. So they ignore it. That’s why many people don’t vote and are apathetic to politics. Unfortunately it takes an understanding of US and world history and politics to understand the current complex events. And it’s a lot easier to listen to sound bites. I agree with others who’ve said there’s a lot of posturing from both the left and the right.
However I also think the media likes to set up “wars” between left v.s. right, black v.s. white people, stay-at-home v.s. working mothers etc. because conflict makes for more interesting news. But the fact is that most people, most voters are in the middle. They don’t know enough to have a strong opinion, one way or another.
1. Do you believe you are pretty good, or at least reasonable, at critical thinking? Can you tell when an argument is logical, or when an argument is designed to appeal to your emotions and not your intellect? If so, where did you pick up basic critical thinking skills?
Hell yes. I make it a point to not let my emotions rule my thinking as often as possible. I’m usually the last person to lose their temper in any fight, and I’m armed with enough logical defenses to wait out the other guy until I can get my thoughts out.
There are several ways you can tell when someone’s just using their emotions — keywords, mostly.
2. Do you happen to know any good (but short) reading material, or useful web pages, that give basic skills in critical thinking, or basic semantic analysis?
Nope. All of my training is from seminars and classes that I’ve taken. Well, that’s not quite true. I recommend “Powerful Communication Skills: How to Communicate with Confidence, Clarity, and Credibility, from National Press Publications.” Designed to be read in 60 minutes.
3. Someone I was talking to recently said that there are something like three basic types of information, and it was something like statement of fact, statement of values, statement of logic. Does this ring a bell and/or have you ever heard of this?
Yes, I have. I don’t know where from, but it’s very familiar. The opposite side of the coin is ‘statement of belief, statement of emotion, statement of judgement.’
4. Do you believe that critical thinkers are in the minority? Do you think that people are easily led around by their emotions? Would a quick one-page primer on critical thinking and avoiding common fallacy arguments would help these people, or do they need more than a fifteen-minute crash course could give them?
Yeah. I believe that as a society, many people I’ve encountered have been taught to ‘go with our gut’, ‘he who shouts loudest gets their way’, and ‘charisma counts’.
I think the people you really should try and help are the people who are already critical thinkers; they are the people who can use the information on how to defuse, correct, and re-route emotional thinkers without getting stomped on.
-Traveller