Intellectual Traits for Critical thinking

http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/valuable-intellectual-traits/528

Valuable Intellectual Traits

Intellectual Humility: Having a consciousness of the limits of one's knowledge, including a sensitivity to circumstances in which one's native egocentrism is likely to function self-deceptively; sensitivity to bias, prejudice and limitations of one's viewpoint. Intellectual humility depends on recognizing that one should not claim more than one actually knows. It does not imply spinelessness or submissiveness. It implies the lack of intellectual pretentiousness, boastfulness, or conceit, combined with insight into the logical foundations, or lack of such foundations, of one's beliefs. Intellectual Courage: Having a consciousness of the need to face and fairly address ideas, beliefs or viewpoints toward which we have strong negative emotions and to which we have not given a serious hearing. This courage is connected with the recognition that ideas considered dangerous or absurd are sometimes rationally justified (in whole or in part) and that conclusions and beliefs inculcated in us are sometimes false or misleading. To determine for ourselves which is which, we must not passively and uncritically "accept" what we have "learned." Intellectual courage comes into play here, because inevitably we will come to see some truth in some ideas considered dangerous and absurd, and distortion or falsity in some ideas strongly held in our social group. We need courage to be true to our own thinking in such circumstances. The penalties for non-conformity can be severe. Intellectual Empathy: Having a consciousness of the need to imaginatively put oneself in the place of others in order to genuinely understand them, which requires the consciousness of our egocentric tendency to identify truth with our immediate perceptions of long-standing thought or belief. This trait correlates with the ability to reconstruct accurately the viewpoints and reasoning of others and to reason from premises, assumptions, and ideas other than our own. This trait also correlates with the willingness to remember occasions when we were wrong in the past despite an intense conviction that we were right, and with the ability to imagine our being similarly deceived in a case-at-hand. Intellectual Autonomy: Having rational control of one's beliefs, values, and inferences, The ideal of critical thinking is to learn to think for oneself, to gain command over one's thought processes. It entails a commitment to analyzing and evaluating beliefs on the basis of reason and evidence, to question when it is rational to question, to believe when it is rational to believe, and to conform when it is rational to conform. Intellectual Integrity: Recognition of the need to be true to one's own thinking; to be consistent in the intellectual standards one applies; to hold one's self to the same rigorous standards of evidence and proof to which one holds one's antagonists; to practice what one advocates for others; and to honestly admit discrepancies and inconsistencies in one's own thought and action. Intellectual Perseverance: Having a consciousness of the need to use intellectual insights and truths in spite of difficulties, obstacles, and frustrations; firm adherence to rational principles despite the irrational opposition of others; a sense of the need to struggle with confusion and unsettled questions over an extended period of time to achieve deeper understanding or insight. Confidence In Reason: Confidence that, in the long run, one's own higher interests and those of humankind at large will be best served by giving the freest play to reason, by encouraging people to come to their own conclusions by developing their own rational faculties; faith that, with proper encouragement and cultivation, people can learn to think for themselves, to form rational viewpoints, draw reasonable conclusions, think coherently and logically, persuade each other by reason and become reasonable persons, despite the deep-seated obstacles in the native character of the human mind and in society as we know it. Fairmindedness: Having a consciousness of the need to treat all viewpoints alike, without reference to one's own feelings or vested interests, or the feelings or vested interests of one's friends, community or nation; implies adherence to intellectual standards without reference to one's own advantage or the advantage of one's group.

Unconscious Bias

Meeting Agendum April 27

For our next meeting, we will be at the Eastside Branch of the Lexington Public Library, 9:45am-11:45am, April 27.

Our topic will be chosen from among your suggestions and these past recommendations:

 -- Knowing one's biases.

 -- Starbucks -- at the meeting, we decided to broaden this topic to Organizational Behavior

 -- Freedom

 -- Music as inspiration, reflection of culture.

 -- Conscious v unconscious

 -- Rationality vs irrationality

 -- What constitutes attention.

 -- The nature of work/career.

 -- Accepting limitations.

If you have further suggestions, send me an email at jimmonomoy@gmail.com

Science Daily

https://www.sciencedaily.com/



Raymond Kurzweil

Jared Diamond

https://www.amazon.com/Collapse-Societies-Choose-Succeed-Revised/dp/0143117009

Jared Diamond at Goodreads

Topics for future meetings

 -- Knowing one's biases.
 -- Starbucks
 -- Freedom
 -- Conscious v unconscious
 -- Rationality vs irrationality
 -- Music as inspiration, reflection of culture.
 -- What constitutes attention.
 -- The nature of work/career.
 -- Accepting limitations.

Meeting 4-20-18 -- Lifelong Philosophy SIG

For our next meeting, we will be at the Eastside Branch of the Lexington Public Library, 9:45am-11:45am, April 20. 

Our topic will be chosen from among your suggestions and this recommendation by me:

How can we think about the future?

You may want to watch these two videos:
https://youtu.be/FePeytAqZu4  -- Raymond Kurzweil

https://youtu.be/5rLPBZzAk-w  -- Jared Diamond

If you have suggestions, or if you want to add to the list, please write me -- jimmonomoy@gmail.com. See our web page at https://reasonockhammencken.blogspot.com/

Douglas Hofstadter on Truth

Relying on words to lead you to the truth is like relying on an incomplete formal system to lead you to the truth. A formal system will give you some truths, but as we shall soon see, a formal system, no matter how powerful—cannot lead to all truths.

 -- Douglas Hofstadter

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24113.G_del_Escher_Bach

The Future -- II

https://youtu.be/FePeytAqZu4

The Future

https://youtu.be/5rLPBZzAk-w

What Is Fake News?

Screenshot from https://www.webwise.ie/teachers/what-is-fake-news/

Closer to Truth

https://www.closertotruth.com/series/what-extended-mind#video-58126

Complexity

https://youtu.be/K68BanMVlgE

Tell the Truth

Nobody asked but ...

Mark Twain wrote, "When in doubt, tell the truth."  That seems, on its face, to be simple enough, but what does it mean?  We live in a land of lawyers, where what is the truth becomes more and more a matter for speculation.  POTUS has labeled a whole genre of purported information as "Fake News."  But what does that mean?  Does it mean news that he doesn't like, or does it mean misinformation for which determinate  proof of falsity exists?

I take a very clinical approach to the concept of truth.  A fact is true or false.  A fact not presently in evidence is speculation either as to the past or the future.  Things that are speculative fall somewhere between wishful thinking and likelihood.  "Is true" and "was true" or "will be true" are disjunct -- only the first has truth, the latter two have only a degree of potential proof.

An example:  the US may be contending that the Syrian incumbent government has used chemical weapons on people in its claimed territory.  The action itself has passed, therefore we can only speculate as to the meaning of evidence that may remain.  The truth of the evidence itself is dependent on sources of information.  We are in the zone of hearsay.  Who is passing the information?  What is the content being passed?  How (in what circumstances) is the information purported to have been created?  When did an event happen?  Where did an event happen?  Why did the motivations involved produce the apparent facts involved?

The questions above are crucial to an understanding of the past as a representation of the facts at the time.  But one can readily see how fragile each of the questions are in terms of answers that are objectively capable of revealing truth.

-- Kilgore Forelle

Truth at IEP

https://www.iep.utm.edu/truth/

Truth Tables

Meeting April13

Meeting 4-13-18 -- Lifelong Philosophy SIG

For our next meeting, we will be at the Eastside Branch of the Lexington Public Library, 9:45am-11:45am, April 13.

Our suggested topic will be chosen from among your suggestions and these two recommendations by me:

• What is truth?  What is fact?  What is speculation?  What is superstition?
• Are self-driving cars the next big thing?  Robotics

When in doubt, tell the truth.

If you have suggestions, or if you want to add to the list, please write me -- jimmonomoy@gmail.com. See our web page at https://reasonockhammencken.blogspot.com/

Meeting April 6

For our next meeting, we will be at the Eastside Branch of the Lexington Public Library, 9:45am-11:45am, April 6.  Since I will be in Chicago on that date, Mary Fran Soulis has kindly agreed to be the facilitator this Friday.  I will miss your excellent participation.

Our suggested topic will be chosen from among your suggestions and these four recommendations by me:

Favorite or most rewarding experience, and why?
What is truth?
What is fact?
Are self-driving cars the next big thing?

If you have suggestions, or if you want to add to the lists, please write me -- jimmonomoy@gmail.com. See our web page at https://reasonockhammencken.blogspot.com/

Best regards

On Thu, Mar 22, 2018 at 2:24 PM, Jim Carigan <jimmonomoy@gmail.com> wrote:

For our next meeting, we will be at the Eastside Branch of the Lexington Public Library, 9:45am-11:45am, March 23.

Our suggested topic will be chosen from among your suggestions and these four recommendations by me:

• Most effective non-fiction, and why?
• Best place(s), and why?
• Favorite or most rewarding experience, and why?
• What is truth?

If you have suggestions, or if you want to add to the lists from prior weeks, please write me -- jimmonomoy@gmail.com. See our web page at https://reasonockhammencken.blogspot.com/

Best regards

Jim Carigan