CT (Critical Thinking)

Seems as if this critical thinking is all I've ever been doing.

Formal education is the accumulation of knowledge.

To learn is both the gaining and the shedding of knowledge.

We must do both to benefit from it.

Sounds to me as if you're saying that the cat is better than the turtle, but that's just wrong. After all, they're both here, so you cannot say that the cat's method is better than the turtle's.

And to call philosophy a "radically critical self-consciousness" is not very accurate as I see it, since most philosophic works, if not all, are laden with the pride of the author along with his misconceptions. A true philosopher will denounce all philosophies.

Cyracuz

It took me a very long time to discover the meaning of philosophy. CT is a good place to begin your search. This is a good site to start
http://www.bu.edu/wcp/Papers/Educ/EducHare.htm

chuck-

Cyr won't search that.You saw what he said.A true philosopher will denounce all philosophers.Too right.
The bigger they are the harder you kick.

http://www.csun.edu/~dgw61315/fallacies.html#Introduction

I think that the most important foundation for high level CT is philosophy logic! It appears that CT could be the threshold that one crosses on the way to a true appreciation or "love" of knowledge.

Radically critical self-consciousness is where the monkey wrench is thrown in. A person must have or acquire a certain amount of humility in order to achieve critical self-consciousness. Current public and/or cultural sentiment is not generally in line with humility, so this could cause such an adjustment rather difficult, but not impossible. Anyway, it appears that not all of the students/individuals in society are going to be conducive to critical self-consciousness which in turn may be why there
are not a large volume of philosopher types. rcsc may be the final most critical threshold for a student/individual to cross in order to become a "true philosopher" (master of critical thinking).


Good stuff!!! chuck


Lastly, I think that focused CT on external forces is another key that most seem to catch onto fairly easily, with the exception of the focused/constructive aspect!

Yardsale

I did not understand this statement.

"Lastly, I think that focused CT on external forces is another key that most seem to catch onto fairly easily, with the exception of the focused/constructive aspect! "

This is all a bit abstract.

It's the theoretical.

Let us try a bit of practical work with critical thinking that goes beyond sitting around tossing nebulous concepts around.

Apply CT to courtship rituals.After all if CT requires humility where better to start?

"It is a truth universally acknowledged,that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife"

Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice.(1st sentence).

What is this CT that ordianiry T is not? Critical thinking as opposed to... what? Mindless consumption?

I understand how one will reach the wrong conclusions if one tries to understand on one's own terms rather than the actual facts. But that's just poor logics, for whatever reason.

Another thing. Who's supposed to be critical in thinking? No one can force thoughts to appear. That happens when the thought comes, not when you want it to come. Critisism can only be applied after the thought has entered your head, and if you're the one who decides what thoughts go and what thoughts don't, then how can you be sure it is critical thinking? Our foundation for this type of critisism is a socially based herd mentality, to put it bluntly, and this critisism is, in my mind, the exactly oposite of true philosophy.

True philosophy is to be guided by thought, not to guide them. The moment you try to govern your thoughts you have replaced your love for wisdom with your love for self.

Chuck,

My bad, I apologues for not connecting the first time! Most people seem to be good at critical thinking involving thoughts/ideas from others verse their own internal thoughts/ideas. It seems more difficult to achieve a high level of internal (self) critical thinking verse external (others).

It's a mistake, I think, to believe we can "be guided by thoughts" rather than "guide them." Or rather, we should recognize that it's a two-way street; one feeds into the other. Critical reflection begins when we acknowledge the systems of belief (or "ideology," to use the controversial term) that guide (I'll bite the bullet and say determine) our thoughts. And this is not to say that we should feel bad about having a prevailing ideology... it is to say that we should acknowledge and assess alternative ideologies, and make sure we have good reasons for sticking with the ones we do.

I think that a major concern about what guides us in our every day life are the habits we form that in turn determine our character that in turn determines our attitude. If we wish to have a better posture we consciously form the habit of standing with good posture. Over time this become fixed and we walk with good posture. Likewise with everything in our life. Habit and the will to achieve are what determine our attitudes.


What is character? Character is the network of habits that permeate all the intentional acts of an individual.
My understanding of character and the quotations that follow concerning the nature of character are taken from "Habits and Will" by John Dewey http://www.alexandercenter.com/jd/johndeweyhabits.html.

I am not using the word habit in the way we often do, as a technical ability existing apart from our wishes. These habits are an intimate and fundamental part of our selves. They are representations of our will. They rule our will, working in a coordinated way they dominate our way of acting. These habits are the results of repeated, intelligently controlled, actions.

Habits also control the formation of ideas as well as physical actions. We cannot perform a correct action or a correct idea without having already formed correct habits. "Reason pure of all influence from prior habit is a fiction." "The medium of habit filters all material that reaches our perception and thought." "Immediate, seemingly instinctive, feeling of the direction and end of various lines of behavior is in reality the feeling of habits working below direct consciousness." "Habit means special sensitiveness or accessibility to certain classes of stimuli, standing predilections and aversions, rather than bare recurrence of specific acts. It means will."

We display an attitude toward most any subject. An attitude cannot be described explicitly but is a notion, which is an inference, based upon behavior. We are all inclined to behave consistently to a situation and this behavior is attributed to our attitude. Our attitudes can be observed by others and the quality of such attitudes are judged based on observed behavior.