The unexamined life is not worth living. –Socrates
Recently a number of experiences have come together and have invited me to once again put finger to key and offer you, Gentle Reader, some considerations with a focus on Thinking Critically. To provide you with a bit of context here are a few of the experiences: The lack of critical thinking that ran amok during the recent confirmation hearings for our next Supreme Court judge; the lack of critical thinking that is blatantly lacking from almost all of the attack ads now running amok on television; the lack of critical thinking demonstrated by our President during his rallies and during his off-the-cuff responses to crucial questions.
I am, however, not without hope. Last week I had the privilege to spend three hours with 19 undergraduate students; I was a guest in their case studies and ethics class. The students were juniors and seniors and the course is a required course for their major (actually, at least13 of them have double-majors). With minimum guidance these students embraced the challenge of thinking critically.
I presented them with an ethics dilemma; I was a thought-partner to the person who held the dilemma (in this case it was both a right-right and a harm-harm dilemma; talk about upping the dilemma ante). The students embraced and engaged the dilemma; helped each other; challenged each other; were open to listening to understand one another. Their questions to me were thought-provoking as were the questions they offered one another. I left the room hope-full.
As I have noted in previous postings, as a nation/culture/society our need to develop critical thinkers is, today more than ever before, crucial and imperative. For me, the development of critical thinkers is a national/cultural/societal priority. This development is crucial and imperative for both civic and economic reasons.
Civically, a critically informed society/populace is required for democracy to function effectively, efficiently and faithfully (think: being faithful to our constitution). Economically, it is crucial that all of us learn to think critically so that we can both counter the greed that continues to run amok amongst us and to engage a global community that is both collaborating and competing with us economically.
Sadly, it seems to me, and to others, that there continues to be a lack of correspondence between what is required of an educated citizenry and what is ‘taught’ in our schools – beginning with our elementary schools. Recorded history taught us – continues to teach us – that although individuals can develop critical thinking skills and capacities (and use them effectively), as a collective the ‘emotional mob/tribe’ continues to win out. The insightful Reinhold Niebuhr captured this in his 1934 book, Moral Man and Immoral Society. A must-read for We the People (my view, at least).
Consider that as adults we are on the verge of thinking critically whenever we question why we, or others, behave in certain ways. Parents are on the verge of thinking crucially when they begin to question why they parent as they do (critical thinking can help us parents discern, for example, why we might choose an encouragement model of parenting or why we might choose a discouragement model of parenting, As I observe parents today the discouragement model is alive and well).
A populace that asks ‘awkward’ questions of their elected officials and those seeking our ‘vote’ is on the verge of thinking critically. A populace that calls for our elected officials to account for their choices and actions and who challenge existing policies and political structures (think: gerrymandering) are on the verge of thinking critically. A populace who is skeptical of all media depictions is on the verge of thinking critically (a democracy requires a major tap root of healthy skepticism if it is going to survive and thrive).
So, Gentle Reader: How do we go about recognizing critical thinking?
To refuse to examine the assumptions one lives by is immoral. –Robert K. Greenleaf
Searcher-Seeker 