Critical thinking is the positive reflection of Non-idolatry, worshiping nothing and no one on this planet. Critical thinking does not believe things or join things without seeing what they demand and casting a critical eye on traits like intolerance, exclusion and ganging up.
Men like Hamilton, Jefferson and Franklin were critical thinkers who fashioned a plan for a nation that could and would endure. It has done so by honoring basic values which are enshrined in our Bill of Rights.
We need to look within and access the part of ourselves that is critical, that thinks, that stands up for things that make good common sense.;
We need to see truth is cumulative and that beauty is not confined to some art world or other. Critical thinking is a capacity to look at all things with a questioning mind that is not satisfied until it genuinely understands, knowing that complete understanding of anything is not possible in this life.
Critical thinking means there are no dumb questions. You do not earn brownie points for making believe you know things when you don’t. Ignorance is not bliss, it is often wisdom.
The value of critical thinking is incalculable. In terms of preventing harm, it is the voice in the room that raises the issue of harm in the first place. What endangers? How do we correct it? Who is responsible?
We hear a good deal about changes in the journalism landscape. But one thing that surely may be happening is that more and more are aware it is they who must take up the burden of learning and reporting the truth. The more whistle-blowers the better. The more critical thinkers the safer our world.
When we examine the spectrum of evil in chart above, we will see that a spirit of group think exists and can abet evil. Those who fail to exercise their minds may join gangs or become bullies. Yes you can say there are other causes like environment, prior abuse and so forth. But conscience does not make excuses. Conscience knows that if tangible harm is done it will be registered at some level in the perpetrator. And if it is not somehow made right it will hamper freedom and hobble choice.
It is never right to join in or foment a violent response to things. The right way is to withdraw to a safe place and live to NOT fight another day.
Critical thinking is the gold standard for anyone who truly wants to succeed as a person. Following this or that group may be the wrong way, particularly if the critical faculties are dulled and the lures of conformity and false community are present.
Without critical thinking we would have no progress. No new science. No move beyond what proves over time to not work very well. No advance in any groups. No move forward in personal lives. For finally, the real beneficiary of critical thinking is the one doing the thinking. I do not mean that every day should be a full-scale life review with everything up for grabs. But I do mean that when things are not going exactly right, there is room for a critical look at what one is doing and at what might be an improvement.
There is one area of critical thinking that may be worth the time you have spent reading just these few words. Musing. Musing is allowing the mind to operate free form. It does not mean suspending your critical capacity but allowing whatever occupies your mind the freedom to roll about, to lead you in a completely new direction. To muse is to be at complete peace as the OBSERVER of what is taking place. The mind is immensely resourceful and often waits to be thus employed to do its stuff.
The great philosopher C. S. Peirce used to walk about and muse. Just let his mind wander. And in this state things would rise of their own accord. And then his critical capacities would kick in. Who knows which of the massive number of hand-written pages he left us contain musings as yet not committed to print that could revolutionize the way we understand things?
A final note: Do not assume because some small-minded person has called you stupid or dumb that they spoke the truth. Rather apply your mind in your own way. It is your unique angle of vision that tells. And sometimes minds that do not exactly fit in are just the minds in which the light of discovery will one day prove the world very wrong.
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