a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
comment by o11c
o11c  ·  3152 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: How to think for myself and how to become a more critical thinker?

I don't find philosophical literature to be particularly useful, though formal logic is.

In particular, familiarize yourself with the most common logical fallacies, because people use them a lot. That Wikipedia page is probably not a good introduction, but you could probably learn them by selecting a few from each section each day and reading the linked articles.

To actually start applying critical thinking, go through a day, look for the things that you assume implicitly, and then ask yourself why they are so.

For example, you probably take it for granted that people drive on the right side of the road (or the left in some countries) and stop at stop signs and traffic lights, but there are countries where people feel no such obligation. Or waiting in line at the checkstand.

Note that in a lot of cases, the answer is nothing more than "because that's the way we've always done it (or, we all implicitly agree to do it)." Even if that's so, it is not a justification to stop doing it that way, unless you can prove a significant benefit of doing it the new way. Humans are social creatures, and it is a tremendous benefit when we can look at someone and immediately tell where they are fitting into a role.





user-inactivated  ·  3152 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    Note that in a lot of cases, the answer is nothing more than "because that's the way we've always done it (or, we all implicitly agree to do it)."

Reasons for doing stuff are never that simple: there's always an underlying cause. Why do we stop at the red light? Because it's part of the order of the road, induced implicitly by the law of the government. Why do we need order on the roads? Because an orderly society is much easier to run and service: when people abide by the law, you can expect them to act in certain ways, which are, most often, designed to not hurt other citizens and/or their interests. Why do we need to protect their interests?..

And so on. Such an analysis is superior in that it both provides more information and allows for deeper research on the subject. Granted, not many subjects deserve such a research in the first place, but as long as you train, you can - and should - use this on everything you might gaze upon. Once you're settled on the general idea and critical thinking becomes a reflex, it's better if you drop constant analysis and let your background processes/subconsciousness/intuition/gut learn.

user-inactivated  ·  3151 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Incidentally that's one of my favorite analogies for Libertarianism.

"A Libertarian is someone who comes to a stop light in the middle of nowhere and decides not to wait for it to change."