anotheranon | the lack of critical thinking?

I ran across this article on Slashdot as part of a comment on a discussion about pseudoscience: Sesame Street, Epistemology, and Freedom, an essay on the lack of formal training in abstract and critical thinking.

It reminded me of a phone conversation I had with my sister. She lives in a conservative area and gets very frustrated by people around her who uncritically accept what they're told and go about their lives without ever having a creative, original, or "abnormal" thought.

She calls them "muggles" and derides them as stupid and I tried to explain to her (with doubtful effect) that they're not dumb, they just never learned. The article describes how the total of most people's exposure to formal critical thinking skills is in the Sesame Street skit "One Of These Things Is Not Like The Others", and suggests that many people never progress beyond kindergarten-level abstract thought, hobbling their efforts to make decisions and evaluate information in adulthood. It's an interesting possibility, especially reading it so soon after "President of Good and Evil", which suggests that George Bush suffers this very same deficiency of reasoning skills.

Disclaimer: I'm not going to be a snob and suggest that I've got spectacular reasoning skills and am somehow "better" - like many people I fall into the habit of only paying attention to information I agree with or like. I do try, however, to see all sides of an argument or issue; if I did learn anything beyond "OOTTINLTO" it wasn't until well after childhood, when my dad encouraged me to always question whether a source of information was worth my time or valid, and what perspective the source is coming from, but it's not as if he ever sat me down with the evening paper and made me go through each headline weighing it's biases and flaws (though perhaps he should have).

Like my sister, I am frustrated by ineptitude and lack of inquisitiveness, but unlike her I think it's just a lack of training, not something innate.

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I do try, however, to see all sides of an argument or issue

Seeble! Sometimes I find myself paralyzed by multiple perspectives.

I agree that, in probably the vast majority of cases, it's a matter of education rather than innate ability.

I think critical thinking ability has got to be due to training (or lack thereof), even if we don't remember where we learned it. Much as I'd like to think I'm special in some way, I'm not - I was just lucky enough to be born and grow up in an environment that taught me at least the rudiments of reasoning.

I agree, although I have seen some students with what appears to be an innate lack of reasoning, but they are so submissive in their overall personality that it could be a combination of that *and* a lack of training.

I grew up in a household with parents who had radically divergent ideas about almost everything, and had no problem expressing their opinions at the top of their lungs. In later years, my father has said that he's proud that I have such reasoning skills, but I gently explained to him that my skills (and to a great extent, my *weirdness*) were the result of having no sense that there was anything like "reality" in my life -- everything was a matter of perspective and relative to the situation. Total moral, scientific, religious, social, perceptual Relativism.

That's why I don't focus on ideas but *actions* and why I feel disconnected (read: often apathetic) to "normal" reality -- it's all relative to me. "Do as ye will, but harm ye none" makes a lot of sense to me. :)

I imagine that that might have been a confusing way to grow up, but it explains to me why you are less concerned with the physical world - it sounds like the reality you construct in your head is far more real for you. That's good in a way, because you developed an inner stability.

I'm interested that you suggest that your students have "submissive personalities" - are they that cowed by their peers/family/"society"/something that they just never develop their own ideas? Please elaborate!

I'm interested that you suggest that your students have "submissive personalities" - are they that cowed by their peers/family/"society"/something that they just never develop their own ideas?

Yes, I have students who are so painfully shy that they never speak all semester. Others are in such a religious environment at home that they can't write without putting in references to Jesus and God -- indeed, they don't see any point in doing research in science because "God made everything, so we don't need to ask why." Others are frightened to leave South Dakota because "out there" they know that "bad things happen." Granted, not all small town students are like that -- I have met some really stellar minds! But overall in the demographic that I'm teaching, they are socially stunted compared to a young man or woman living in the city. On the other hand, they are very kind and sweet and are the least *jaded* students I've ever met.

Shy doesn't necessarily = complacency - they could be thinking all kinds of little rebellious thoughts which will hopefully one day break out, or at least we can hope.

I't sgood I have you to report these things as a reality check - I'm facing up to the fact that where I live and the people I'm friends with lets me often forget that there really are people as sheltered as your students still out there!

I hope that you're able to broaden more of your students minds, and I certainly hope that a wider world doesn't have to lead to jadedness for them. I'm also glad to learn you have some students you're proud of - that must be very rewarding :)

Very interesting article. I don't think I was ever taught critical thinking, I'm just skeptical by nature, and age has only made me more cynical. :) I share your sister's frustration with people who just believe whatever any vaguely authoritarean figure tells them, though I don't actually think they're stupid; I save my scorn for the folks who insist the world is flat or that evolution is "just a 'theory'", based on just the sort of specious, ill-informed thinking that so many politicians depend on to keep themselves employed. Unfortunately, I don't see this improving any time soon since an education reform platform in this country usually involves making a lot of vague suggestions for new legislation with no actual plan for funding.
But you've seen my rants before :)

I share my sister's and your frustration with "mundanes" (to borrow an SCA term) as well, but I think I've learned to live with them a little better than she has - I suspect because I surround myself with clever and insightful people like yourselves :)

Thinking back on my early life I sometimes wonder how I developed critical thinking at all - I was exposed to all manner of pseudoscience and strange beliefs. Wait a sec, maybe that was it...:P

the lack of critical thinking?

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