ON PHILOSOPHY

Etymological Definition
The term “philosophy” is derived from a combination of two Greek words, namely philia (love)
and Sophia (wisdom).You may therefore, define philosophy as “love of wisdom.” Taken
together, they mean “the love or pursuit of wisdom.” This definition has persisted for more than
two thousand years and it is a good starting point for understanding the distinctive nature of
philosophy.

It is said that the first one to call himself a philosopher was Pythagoras, a Greek who lived
somewhere between 570 and 495 B.C.E. and spent most of his life in southern Italy. He is of
course known by his famous mathematical theorem. When once asked if he was wise, he replied
that no one could be wise but a god, but that he was a lover of wisdom. To love something does
not mean to posses it but to focus our life on it. Whereas Pythagoras introduced the term
philosopher, it was Socrates who made it famous.

For Socrates (467- 399 B.C.), love of wisdom entails the pursuit of truth and nothing but
objective truth. He said that the philosopher was one who had a passion for wisdom and who
was intoxicated by this love.

For Plato (427-347, it is gaining the vision of absolute ideas, that is, one must be able to discover
what the character of universal reality is.

Aristotle (384-322), a follower of Plato reinforces the view when he stated that philosophy is the
investigation of all things, which takes into account logical rules in the determination of the true
nature of reality.

Thus philosophy means to be in the habit of seeking to be wise about the human experience. It is
human attempt to understand human situation in a fundamental way in order to gain wisdom.

Philosophy as an Evaluation of Our Concepts and Beliefs about Human Experience

Let us take an example of a common experience-happiness. Let’s say a Mr. Scott believes that
what makes people happy is the possession of money and property. To this, a person who has
learned the philosophical habit will not take this claim for granted. He will instead want to be
wise about it. He/she will for instance want to know whether anyone is wise when he or she
possesses money and property, he or she will ask and probably figure out whether happiness is
equal to property and money. He will raise not only actual questions asked, but also possible or
purely logical questions: What is money? What is property? What is happiness? Is happiness
possible through something else rather than money and property? And so on. This is the kind of
habit of mind, which is called “philosophy.” You should realize that is quite a thoughtful,
contemplative and reflective exercise.

You may, also define philosophy as evaluation of our concepts and judgments of reality,
knowledge and belief in so far as such judgments constitute human experience.

1
 Philosophy as a Body of Concepts and an Activity
Thus defined, the term “philosophy” refers to both:
A body of concepts or theories and standards
An activity

As a body of concepts, philosophy is the work of philosophers like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle
and so on. As an activity, it is work which is characterized by deliberate critical examination and
discussion of our concepts, judgments, policies, rules, theories and standards. It is a way of
thinking about reality.

Take note
You may, therefore, also define philosophy as the following contemporary prominent
philosophers have done in their attempt to enlighten us on philosophy.

Philosophy is an activity of showing the fly the way out of the fly bottle, or the battle against the
bewitchment of our minds with the use of knowledge. Wittgenstein

An activity undertaken by human beings who are deeply concerned about who they are, and what
everything means (Honer, Hunt and Okholm, Invitation to Philosophy).

The systematic, critical examination of the way in which we judge, evaluate and act, with the
aim of making ourselves wiser, more self-reflective, and better men and women (Wolf,
2000:p.4).

It is the contemplation or study of the most important questions in existence with the end of
promoting illumination and understanding a vision of the whole (Pojman, 1993:p.3).

Philosophy can also be defined as the search for fundamental beliefs that are rationally justified.

Characteristics of Philosophy
1.
2. A Fundamental Feature of Philosophy is the Attempt to Seek for Wisdom by Reasoning,
Argument or Discussion.

3. Philosophy Inquires into the Possible Consequences of Beliefs.

In ordinary conversation such as in politics, sometimes the concept philosophy is used. But often
it is used as a statement of vision or to refer to any belief held. This is a loose sense of the word
“philosophy.” In this sense, everyone is a philosopher, since nearly everyone posses an opinion
or idea about nearly anything. However, “philosophy” in the strict sense means the attempt to
examine and evaluate logical implications in human conceptions of reality, tracing what people
say, and revealing the logical implications. Not every statement is philosophical in this sense.

4. Philosophy is Critical and Evaluative

To be able to inquire into possible consequences of beliefs, a philosopher criticizes ideas,
questions them, raises arguments and counter-arguments, reflects, tests the validity of reasoning

2
 involved, contemplates and postulates possible alternative answers. It is not philosophical if a
discourse is uncritical derived.
Philosophy is both a creative and critical discipline. Creativity comes in when philosophers
generate theories as part of their efforts to respond to philosophical concepts. The critical part
comes in because philosophers have to compare competing theories. They discuss and evaluate
the theories to see which is the most likely to be true.
5.
6. Philosophy Seeks for what is most Reasonable to Believe
When society yields competing theories, a decision must be made. Only one of these theories can
be true. Philosophers are committed to examining and evaluating the theories to determine which
is the most reasonable to believe, or which is the most likely to be true.

7. Philosophy is a Second Order Activity

The philosopher David Best (1978:67) explains this character of philosophy best by using an
example. He takes an example of a moralist and contrast what he/she does with a moral
philosopher? A moralist engages in a moral discourse or practices which may include
recommending to others what their moral obligations are, what living appropriately and
inappropriately is, what are expected rewards and punishment, and criticizing others for moral
failure. On the other hand, a moral philosopher is one who is not as much concerned with
substantive questions or injunctions. By contrast, the philosopher operates at the higher (logical)
level, concerned, for example, with such issues as what people mean when they engage in moral
recommendation, moral judgments, what reasoning is engaged in support of moral judgments
and whether it is justified. In this case, then, the first order activity is engaging in moral
discourses and practice, the second order activity, which is philosophizing, is engaging in logical
evaluation. Because philosophy is second order discipline, no wonder it is sometimes defined as,
talk about talk about the world, or thought about thought about the world.

8. Philosophy Seeks to be Comprehensive and about Fundamentals

In an attempt to arrive at a decision, philosophy considers all evidence, actual and possible. It
may be evidence from common sense, science or philosophy itself. It may be common sense,
scientific or philosophical beliefs that are investigated. A philosophical inquiry is aimed at the
foundations of our thoughts and therefore concerned with the fundamental nature of that thought
and reality.

THE VALUE OF PHILOSOPHY

Bertrand Russell (1991) conceptualized the value of philosophy as follows.

The [person who has no tincture of philosophy goes through life imprisoned in life prejudices
derived from common sense, from the habitual beliefs of his age or his nation and from
convictions which have grown up in his mind without the cooperation or content of his
deliberative reason --- Bertrand Russell (1991)

Broad Values of Philosophy

a) Thinking for Yourself

3
 Over two millennia ago, the Greek philosopher, Epicurus (341-270 B.C.) wrote: Let no one when
young, delay to study neither philosophy, nor when he is old grow weary of its study. For, no one
can come early or too late to secure the health of his soul.
He wrote these words at a time of socio-economic and political turmoil in his society. And
remember the words of Socrates: the unexamined life is not worth living. These words were true
then as they are today. Although we might express Epicurus sentiments differently today, they
remain basically true especially at this time when social change is equally rapid. When in such
upheaval, at times rapid change, it is necessary for people to examine their presuppositions- to
question their beliefs- in short, to think for themselves since then traditions, customs, and habits
will not suffice when dealing with new situations. At such times if people don’t think for
themselves, someone else must think for them. You benefit from studying philosophy because
it inculcates in you the habit of thinking for yourself. The idea of thinking for yourself
occupies a central position in the entire study of any course of philosophy. For, when you are
able to think for yourself, you have become a philosopher. Some of you already possess this
ability necessary for philosophy. However, you have much to gain from a formal study of
philosophy because it helps provide the much needed techniques and experience necessary in
helping to achieve efficiency and rigor in your reasoning. By bringing you knowledge of
thoughts of past philosophers, you can measure your own views against theirs. Without this kind
of exposure, your own thinking is unlikely to take you very far. It is, therefore, important that
anyone wishing to see himself or herself truly educated should undertake a formal learning of
philosophy

b) Pursuit of Wisdom
The intrinsic value of philosophy is to seek for wisdom. A wise person, however, is not
necessarily one who believes himself or herself to know. Socrates once suggested that it is easier
for someone who is ignorant to learn more than one who claims to know. For, then the one who
claims to know, supposing himself to know, resist all attempts to know. A wise person, on the
other hand accepts that he/she does not know. Thus, probably it is true that a wise person is the
seeker of knowledge.

In the professions and professional subjects like Business, law, politics, sociology, etc., the
person who has learned the philosophical attitude means that he/she pursues a broad approach to
knowledge. Such a person is twice useful in various aspects of his organization and profession,
since he/she will not only posses professional knowledge and expertise, he or she will seek a
comprehensive approach to problems, and besides, is able to isolate multiplicities and focus on
the essentials. Since philosophical problems arise in all spheres of life, ability to identify and
deal with them is an advantage.
Why should you study philosophy then? We reiterate that if you wish to be truly educated you
should study philosophy.

c) Specific skills
The study of philosophy will enhance your ability to:
1. Think, speak and communicate clearly and critically.
2. Form original and creative solutions to problems.
3. Develop reasoned arguments for ones’ own views.
4. Appreciate views different from your own.

4
5. Analyze complex issues.
6. Investigate difficult questions in a persistent and systematic manner.
7. Appreciate the vision of the truth, and nothing but objective truth.
8. Think deeply, broadly and objectively.

Note
Troy Jollimore said: the list of things you can’t do with a background in Philosophy is
shorter than the list of things you can.

Without philosophy no one can lead a life free from fear or worry. Seneca

Life involves passions, faith, doubts, and courage, the critical inquiry into what these
things mean is Philosophy. Josiah Royce

Without philosophy, we could be little above animals. Voltaire

CRITICAL THINKING
The word ‘critical’is derived from two Greek roots: Kriticos which means discerning judgments
and ‘Kriterion’ which means standards. Etymologically therefore, critical implies the
development of discerning judgment on the basis of standards.

There are two senses in which the term ‘critical’ can be understood:

(I) Negative and fault finding: this implies a thinking that is only committed to finding
mistakes. It is the sense common to the minds of many people.

(II) Critical as exercising skilled judgment or observation: -This implies a careful and
intelligent attempt at an objective judgment in order to determine both the merits and faults. It is
critical in this sense that is of our concern in this course.

Applied to thinking then, critical thinking can be defined as:

 A thinking that aims at wellfounded judgments by employing appropriate evaluative

standards in an attempt to determine the true worth, merit or value of ‘object’ under
scrutiny’. As such, critical thinking is a mental activity deliberately directed to
contemplate/ evaluate itself (a thinking about our thinking). It is reasonable reflective
thinking that is focused on deciding what to believe or to do.

5
  More precisely Critical thinking is a general term given to a wide range of cognitive
skills and intellectual dispositions needed to effectively identify, analyze and evaluate
arguments and truth claims, to discover and overcome personal pre-conceptions and
biases, to formulate and present convincing reasons in support of conclusions, and to
make reasonable intelligent decisions about what to believe and what to do.
 It is the habit of carefully reasoned inspection of the way we evaluate, judge and act with
the aim of making ourselves wiser, more self-reflective and therefore better w/men
(Wolf,1989,6).

 Critical thinking can also be defined as an intellectually disciplined process of actively

and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing and/or evaluating
information gathered from or generated by observation, experience, reflection, reasoning
or contemplation, as a guide to belief and action.

 In summary, critical thinking is a disciplined thinking governed by clear universal

intellectual standards-at times referred to as tools of evaluation.

Often when we use the word critical we mean “negative and fault-finding.” This is the sense we
have in mind, for example, when we complain about a parent or a friend who we think is unfairly
critical of what we do or say. But critical also means “involving or exercising skilled judgment
or observation.” In this sense critical thinking means thinking clearly and intelligently. More
precisely, critical thinking is the general term given to a wide range of cognitive skills and
intellectual dispositions needed to effectively identify, analyze, and evaluate arguments and truth
claims; to discover and overcome personal preconceptions and biases; to formulate and present
convincing reasons in support of conclusions; and to make reasonable, intelligent decisions about
what to believe and what to do. Put somewhat differently, critical thinking is disciplined thinking
governed by clear intellectual standards. Among the most important of these intellectual
standards are clarity, precision, accuracy, relevance, consistency, logical correctness,
completeness, and fairness. Let’s begin our introduction to critical thinking by looking briefly
at each of these important critical thinking standards.

TYPOLOGY OF THINKING

Most people have lived their entire lives as unreflective thinkers. To develop as thinkers requires
commitment to daily practice.

Development in thinking is a gradual process requiring plateaus of learning and just plain hard
work. It is not possible to become an excellent thinker by simply taking a beginning course.
Changing one’s habits of thought is a long-range project, happening over years, not weeks or
months. The essential traits of a critical thinker, which will be examined later, require an
extended period of development.

6
Here are the stages we go through if we aspire to develop as thinkers:

Stage 1 The Unreflective Thinker (we are unaware of significant problems in our thinking)
Stage 2 The Challenged Thinker (we become aware of problems in our thinking)
Stage 3 The Beginning Thinker (we try to improve, but without regular practice)
Stage 4 The Practicing Thinker (we recognize the necessity of regular practice)
Stage 5 The Advanced Thinker (we advance in accordance with our practice)
Stage 6 The Master Thinker (skilled and insightful thinking becomes second nature)

For the sake of this course we will discuss the first four

Stage One: The Unreflective Thinker

We are all born as unreflective thinkers, fundamentally unaware of the role that thinking is
playing in our lives. Most of us also die this way. At this unreflective stage, we have no useful
conception of what thinking entails. For example, as unreflective thinkers we don’t notice that
we are continually making assumptions, forming concepts, drawing inferences, and thinking
within points of view. At this stage, we don’t know how to analyze and assess our thinking. We
don’t know how to determine whether our purposes are clearly formulated, our assumptions
justified, or our conclusions logically drawn. We are unaware of intellectual traits and so are not
striving to embody them.

At this stage poor thinking causes many problems in our lives, but we are unaware of this. We
think of our beliefs as truth. We think of our decisions as sound. We lack intellectual standards
and have no idea what such standards might be. We lack intellectual traits, but are not aware that
we lack them. We unconsciously deceive ourselves in many ways. We create and maintain
pleasant illusions. Our beliefs feel reasonable to us, and so we believe them with confidence. We
walk about the world with confidence that things really are the way they appear to us. We judge
some people to be “good” and some to be “bad.” We approve of some actions. We disapprove of
others. We make decisions, react to people, go our way in life, and do not seriously question the
thinking we do or its implications. At this stage, our egocentric tendencies play a dominant role
in our thinking, yet we do not recognize this. We lack the skills and the motivation to notice how
self-centered and prejudiced we are, how often we stereotype others, how frequently we
irrationally dismiss ideas because we don’t want to change our behavior or our comfortable way
of looking at things.

Parents and teachers can also be unreflective thinkers. This is the produces a vicious circle.
Unreflective persons raise unreflective persons. Once you recognize explicitly that you are at this
stage, however, you are ready to move to the next stage. And when you move to the next stage,
you may be close to breaking out of the vicious circle of unreflectiveness.

This requires that we become honestly reflective, that is, we begin to notice some problems in
our thinking, such that we begin to recognize that our thinking is often egocentric and irrational,
that changes in our own thinking are essential. Honest reflectiveness leads to a healthy

7
motivation to change. It is functional and productive. You must not only see problems in your
thinking but also have some sense of how those problems might be addressed. You must become
reasonably articulate about what you have to do to improve. Motivation is crucial. Without a
drive to change, nothing of much significance will happen.

Stage Two: The Challenged Thinker—

Are You Ready to Accept the Challenge?

We cannot solve a problem we do not own. We cannot deal with a condition we deny. Without
knowledge of our ignorance, we cannot seek the knowledge we lack. Without knowledge of the
skills we need to develop, we will not develop those skills. As we begin to become aware that
“normal” thinkers often think poorly, we move into the second stage of critical thinking
development.

In the second stage, we begin to notice that we often:

Make questionable assumptions;
 Use false, incomplete, or misleading information;
 Inferences that do not follow from the evidence we have;
 Fail to recognize important implications in our thought;
 Fail to recognize problems we have;
 Form faulty concepts;
 Reason within prejudiced points of view; and
 Think egocentrically and irrationally.

In the “challenged” stage, we become aware of the way our thinking is shaping our lives,
including the recognition that problems in our thinking are causing problems in our lives. We are
beginning to recognize that poor thinking can be life-threatening, that it can lead literally to death
or permanent injury, that it can hurt others as well as ourselves.

For example, we might reflect upon the thinking of:

 The person who is a perpetual procrastinator;
 The irrational manager who can’t understand why his employees “don’t get it;”
 The person who is angry at the world in general;
 The teenager who thinks that smoking is cool;
 The woman who thinks that Pap smears are not important;
 The motorcyclist who reasons that helmets obstruct vision and, therefore, it is safer to
ride without one;
 The person who thinks he can drive safely while drunk;
 The person who decides to marry a self-centered person with the thought that he or she
will “change” after marriage.

We also recognize the difficulty involved in “improving” our thinking. If you are at this stage in
your own thinking, you recognize that the problem of changing your habits of thought is an
important challenge requiring extensive and difficult changes in your normal routines.
Some signs of emerging reflectiveness are that:

8
  You find yourself striving to analyze and assess your thinking;
 You find yourself working with the structures of mind that create, or make possible,
thinking (for example: concepts, assumptions, inferences, implications, points of view);
 You find yourself thinking about the qualities that make thinking sound: clarity,
accuracy, precision, relevance, logicalness, though you may have only an initial grasp of
how these qualities can be achieved;
 You find yourself becoming interested in the role of self-deception in thinking, though
your understanding is relatively “abstract” and you may not be able to give many
examples from your own life.

At this point in your development, there is a distinct danger of self-deception. Many resist
accepting the true nature of the challenge; that their own thinking is a real and significant
problem in their life. If you do as many do, you will revert to the unreflective stage. Your
experience of thinking about your thinking will fade. Your usual habits of thought will remain as
they are. For example, you may find yourself rationalizing in the following way:

My thinking is not that bad. Actually I’ve been thinking well for quite a while. I question a lot of
things. I’m not prejudiced. Besides that, I’m very critical. And I’m not near as self-deceived as
lots of people I know.

If you reason in this way, you will not be alone. You will join the majority. The view, “if
everyone were to think like me, this would be a fine world” is the dominant view. Those who
share this view range from the poorly schooled to the highly schooled.

You have also to realize that there is no evidence to suggest that schooling correlates with human
reflectiveness. Indeed, many college graduates are intellectually arrogant as a result of their
schooling. There are unreflective thinkers who did not go beyond primary school, but there are
also ones who have done post-graduate work and now have advanced degrees; unreflective
people are found in the upper, middle, and lower class. They include psychologists, sociologists,
philosophers, mathematicians, doctors, senators, judges, governors, lawyers, and indeed people
of all professions.

Stage Three: The Beginning Thinker

Are You Willing to Begin?

When a person actively decides to take up the challenge to grow and develop as a thinker, that
person enters the stage we call “beginning thinker.” This is the stage of thinking in which one
begins to take thinking seriously. This is a preparatory stage before one gains explicit command
of thinking. It is a stage of dawning realizations. It is a stage of developing willpower. It is not a
stage of self-condemnation but, rather, of emerging consciousness. It is analogous to the stage in
which an alcoholic person recognizes and fully accepts the fact that he or she is an alcoholic.
Imagine an alcoholic saying, “I am an alcoholic, and only I can do something about it.” Now
imagine yourself saying, “I am a weak, undisciplined thinker, and only I can do something about
it.”

9
Once people recognize that they are “addicted” to poor thinking, they must begin to recognize
the depth and nature of the problem. As beginning thinkers, we should recognize that our
thinking is sometimes egocentric. For example, we may notice how little we consider the needs
of others and how much we focus on getting what we personally want. We may notice how little
we enter the point of view of others catch ourselves trying to dominate others to get what we
want, or alternatively, acting out the role of submitting to others; for the gains that submissive
behavior brings. We may begin to notice the extent to which we are conformists in our thinking.

As thinkers thinking about thinking, we are merely beginning to:

 Analyze the logic of situations and problems;

 Express clear and precise questions;
 Check information for accuracy and relevance;
 Distinguish between raw information and someone’s interpretation of it;
 Recognize assumptions guiding inferences;
 Identify prejudicial and biased beliefs, unjustifiable conclusions, misused words, and
missed implications.
 Notice when our selfish interests bias our viewpoint.

Thus, as beginning thinkers we are becoming aware of how to deal with the structures at work in
thinking (purposes, questions, information, interpretations, etc.).
We are beginning to appreciate the value of thinking about our thinking in terms of its clarity,
accuracy, relevance, precision, logicalness, justifiability, breadth, and depth. But we are still at a
low level of proficiency in these activities. They feel awkward to us. We have to force ourselves
to think in disciplined ways. We are like a beginner in football. We feel foolish adopting the
basic positions. We don’t feel graceful. We stumble and make mistakes. No one would pay
money to watch us perform. We ourselves don’t like what we see in the mirror of our minds. To
reach this beginning stage in thinking, our values must begin to shift. We must begin to explore
the foundation of our thinking and discover how we have come to think and believe as we do.

If you were to change any one of these influences, your belief system would be different.

Another way to look at the forces, rational and irrational that shaped our minds is in terms of
“modes of influence.” For example, we think within a variety of domains: sociological,
philosophical, ethical, intellectual, anthropological, ideological, political, economical, historical,
biological, theological, and psychological. We ended up with our particular beliefs because we
were influenced to do so in the following ways:

 Vocational: our minds are influenced by our work environment;

 Sociological: our minds are influenced by the social groups to which we belong;
 Philosophical: our minds are influenced by our personal philosophy;
 Ethical: our minds are influenced by the extent to which we behave in accordance with
our obligations and the way we define our obligations;

10
  Intellectual: our minds are influenced by the ideas we hold, by the manner in which we
reason and deal with abstractions and abstract systems;
 Anthropological: our minds are influenced by cultural practices, mores, and taboos;
 Ideological and political: our minds are influenced by the structure of power and its use
by interest groups around us;
 Economic: our minds are influenced by the economic conditions under which we live;
 Historical: our minds are influenced by our history and by the way we tell our history;
 Biological: our minds are influenced by our biology and neurology

Reflections such as these should awaken in us a sense of how little we really know about our
own minds. Our minds are largely unexplored worlds, inner worlds that have been taking shape
for the whole of our lives. This inner world is the most important fact about us, for it is where we
live. It determines our joy and frustration. It limits what we can see and imagine. It highlights
what we do see. It can drive us crazy. It can provide us with solace, peace, and tranquility. If we
can appreciate these facts about us, we will find the motivation to take charge of our thinking, to
be something more than clay in the hands of others, to become, in fact, the ruling force in our
own lives.

Stage Four: The Practicing Thinker—

Good Thinking Can Be Practiced Like Foot Ball Basketball, Volley Ball or Tennis

Are you committed to regular practice? When people explicitly recognize that improvement in
thinking requires regular practice, and adopts some regimen of practice, then, and only then,
have they become what we call “practicing thinkers.” There is no one way to go about this
process of designing a regimen of practice.

You need to make decisions regarding a plan you think is do-able for you. This means a plan you
can live with, one that will not burn you out or overwhelm you. Ultimately, success comes to
those who are persistent and who figure out strategies for themselves. Still, at this stage you
probably don’t know for sure what will work for you, only what seems like it might. You have to
field-test your ideas. To be realistic, you should expect to experiment with a variety of plans
before you find one that works well for you.

What you should guard against is discouragement. You can best avoid discouragement by
recognizing from the outset that you are engaged in the field-testing of plans. You should prepare
yourself for temporary failure. Success is to be understood as the willingness to work your
way through a variety of relative failures. The logic is analogous to trying on clothes. Many
that you try may not fit or look good on you, but you plod on anyway with the confidence that
eventually you will find something that fits and looks good on you.

A “Game Plan” for Improvement

11
As you begin to take your thinking seriously, you need to think about what you can do
consistently every day to improve your thinking. Because excellence in thinking requires a
variety of independent skills and traits that work together, you can choose to work on a range of
critical thinking skills at any given point in time. The key is in focusing on fundamentals and on
making sure that you don’t try to do too much. Choose your point of attack, but limit it. If you
overdo it, you will probably give up entirely. But if you don’t focus on fundamentals, you will
never have them as a foundation in your thought. Start slowly, and emphasize fundamentals. The
race is to the tortoise, not the hare. Be a good and wise tortoise. The solid, steady steps you take
every day are what determine where you ultimately end up.

A Game Plan for Devising a Game Plan

There is nothing magical about the ideas we have put together to stimulate your thought about a
game plan. No one of them is essential. Nevertheless, each represents a plausible point of attack,
one way to begin to do something plausible to improve thinking in a regular way. Though you
probably can’t do all of these at the same time, I do recommend an approach in which you
experiment with all of these.

1. Use “wasted” time.

All humans waste some time. We all fail to use all of our time productively or even
pleasurably. Sometimes we jump from one diversion to another without enjoying any of
them. Sometimes we make ourselves irritated about matters beyond our control.
Sometimes we fail to plan well, causing us negative consequences that we easily could
have avoided (for example, we spend time unnecessarily trapped in traffic; though we
could have left a half hour earlier and avoided the rush). Sometimes we worry
unproductively. Sometimes we spend time regretting what is past. Sometimes we just
stare off blankly into space.

The key is that the time is “spent,” and if we had thought about it and considered our
options, we would not have deliberately spent our time in that way. So our idea is this:
Why not take advantage of the time you normally waste, by practicing good thinking
during that time. For example, instead of sitting in front of the TV at the end of the day
flicking from channel to channel in a vain search for a program worth watching, you
could spend that time, or at least part of it, thinking back over your day and evaluating
your strengths and weaknesses.

You might ask yourself questions like these:

 When did I do my worst thinking today?
 When did I do my best thinking?
 What did I actually think about today?
 Did I figure out anything?
 Did I allow any negative thinking to frustrate me unnecessarily?
 If I had to repeat today, what would I do differently? Why?
 Did I do anything today to further my long-term goals?
 Did I do what I set out to do? Why or why not?

12
 Did I act in accordance with my own expressed values?
 If I were to spend every day this way for 10 years, would I, at the end, have accomplished
something worthy of that time?

It is important to take a little time with each question. It would also be useful; perhaps in
a daily journal to record your observations so you are forced to spell out details and be
explicit in what you recognize. As time passes, you also will be able to look back and
search for patterns in your daily thinking and in your observations and assessments of
that thinking.

2. Handle a problem a day.

At the beginning of each day, choose a problem to work on when you have free moments.
Figure out the logic of the problem by identifying its elements. Systematically think
through the questions: What exactly is the problem? How can I put it into the form of a
question?

3. Internalize intellectual standards.

Each week, develop a heightened awareness of one of the universal intellectual standards:
Focus one week on clarity, the next on accuracy, and so on. For example, if you are
focusing on clarity for the week, try to notice when you are being unclear in
communicating with others. Notice when others are unclear in what they are saying.
When you are reading, notice whether you are clear about what you are reading. When
you write a memo, ask yourself whether you are clear about what you are trying to say
and in conveying your thoughts in writing.

In doing this, you will practice four techniques of clarification: 1) stating what you are
saying with some consideration given to your choice of words; 2) elaborating on your
meaning in other words; 3) giving examples of what you mean from experiences you
have had; and 4) using analogies, metaphors, pictures, or diagrams to illustrate what you
mean. You will state, elaborate, illustrate, and exemplify your points, and you will
regularly ask others to do the same.

4. Keep an intellectual journal.

Each week, write out a certain number of journal entries. The steps are to:
 Describe only situations that are emotionally significant to you (situations you care
deeply about);
 Describe only one situation at a time;
 Describe (and keep this separate) what you did in response to that situation (being
specific and exact);
 Analyze, in the light of what you have written, what precisely was going on in the
situation; dig beneath the surface;
 Assess the implications of your analysis. (What did you learn about yourself? What
would you do differently if you could relive the situation?)

5. Reshape your character.

13
 Choose one intellectual trait to strive for each month, focusing on how you can develop
that trait in yourself. For example, concentrating on intellectual humility, begin to notice
when you admit you are wrong. Notice when you refuse to admit you are wrong, even in
the face of glaring evidence that you are in fact wrong. Notice when you become
defensive when another person tries to point out a deficiency in your work or your
thinking. Notice when your arrogance keeps you from learning, when you say to yourself,
for example, “I already know everything I need to know about this subject” or, “I know
as much as he does. Who does he think he is, forcing his opinions onto me?”

6. Deal with your ego

Daily, begin to observe your egocentric thinking in action by contemplating questions
like these: As I reflect upon my behavior today, did I ever become irritable over small
things? Did I do or say anything irrational to get my way? Did I try to impose my will
upon others? Did I ever fail to speak my mind when I felt strongly about something, and
then later feel resentment? Once you identify egocentric thinking in operation, you can
work to replace it with more rational thought through systematic self-reflection. What
would a rational person feel in this or that situation? What would a rational person do?
How does that compare with what you did?

Note: If you find that you continually conclude that a rational person would behave
just as you behaved, you are probably engaging in self-deception.

7. Redefine the way you see things.

We live in a world, both personal and social, in which every situation is defined; it is
given a fundamental meaning. How a situation is defined determines not only how we
feel about it, but also how we act in it and what implications it has for us. Virtually every
situation, however, can be defined in more than one way. This fact carries with it
tremendous opportunities for all of us to make our life more of what we want it to be. In
principle, it lies within your power to make your life much happier and more fulfilling
than it is.

Many of the negative definitions that we give to situations in our lives could in principle
be transformed into positive definitions. As a result, we can gain when otherwise we
would have lost. We can be happy when otherwise we would have been sad. We can be
fulfilled when otherwise we would have been frustrated. In this game plan, we practice
redefining the way we see things, turning negatives into positives, dead-ends into new
beginnings, and mistakes into opportunities to learn.

To make this game plan practical, we should create some specific guidelines for
ourselves. For example, we might make ourselves a list of five to ten recurrent negative
situations in which we feel frustrated, angry, unhappy, or worried. We then could identify
the definition in each case that is at the root of the negative emotion. Next, we would
choose a plausible alternative definition for each and then plan for our new responses as
well as our new emotions.

14
 8. Get in touch with your emotions.
Whenever you feel some negative emotion, systematically ask yourself: “What, exactly,
is the thinking that leads to this emotion? How might this thinking be flawed? What am I
assuming? Should I be making these assumptions? What information is my thinking
based on? Is that information reliable?” and so on.

9. Analyze group influences on your life.

Closely analyze the behavior that is encouraged and discouraged in the groups to which
you belong. For a given group, what are you required or expected to believe? What are
you “forbidden” from doing? If you conclude that your group does not require you to
believe anything, or has no taboos, you can conclude that you have not deeply analyzed
the practices and thinking of that group.

When designing strategies, the key point is that you are engaged in an experiment. You
are testing strategies in your study, professional and personal life. You are integrating
them, and building on them, in light of your actual experience. All strategies have
advantages and disadvantages. One plausible way to do this is to work with all of the
strategies we have discussed above.

SOME IMPORTANT ASPECTS OF CRITICAL THINKING

From the above definitions and exposition of critical thinking, the following important aspects of
critical thinking can be highlighted:

 It is a higher-level thinking and self-directed activity.

 It is guided by reason and seeks to justify claims.
 It is reflective and attempts to get in depth to avoid deceptive situations.
 It is purposeful and focused-not merely accidental and spontaneous.
 It facilitates good judgment.
 It is skillful since it employs specific reasoning skills such as intellectual standards, tools
of analysis and intellectual traits.
 It is responsible since it is accountable for all that it evaluates and generates.
 It is flexible because it cultivates open-mindedness.

CRITICAL THINKING STANDARDS (Tools of Evaluation)

Clarity

Critical thinkers not only strive for clarity of language but also seek maximum clarity of thought.
As self-help books constantly remind us, to achieve our personal goals in life we need a clear
conception of our goals and priorities, a realistic grasp of our abilities, and a clear understanding

15
of the problems and opportunities we face. Such self-understanding can be achieved only if we
value and pursue clarity of thought.

Precision
Detective stories contain some of the most interesting examples of critical thinking in fiction.
The most famous fictional sleuth is, of course, Sherlock Holmes, the immortal creation of British
writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In Doyle’s stories Holmes is often able to solve complex
mysteries when the bungling detectives from Scotland Yard haven’t so much as a clue. What is
the secret of his success? An extraordinary commitment to precision. First, by careful and highly
trained observation, Holmes is able to discover clues that others have overlooked. Then, by a
process of precise logical inference, he is able to reason from those clues to discover the solution
to the mystery. Everyone recognizes the importance of precision in specialized fields such as
medicine, mathematics, architecture, and engineering. Critical thinkers also understand the
importance of precise thinking in daily life. They understand that to cut through the confusions
and uncertainties that surround many everyday problems and issues, it is often necessary to insist
on precise answers to precise questions: What exactly is the problem we’re facing? What exactly
are the alternatives? What exactly are the advantages and disadvantages of each alternative?
Only when we habitually seek such precision are we truly critical thinkers.

Accuracy
There is a well-known saying about computers: “Garbage in, garbage out.” Simply put, this
means that if you put bad information into a computer, bad information is exactly what you will
get out of it. Much the same is true of human thinking. No matter how brilliant you may be,
you’re almost guaranteed to make bad decisions if your decisions are based on false information.

Critical thinkers don’t merely value the truth; they have a passion for accurate, timely
information. As consumers, citizens, workers, and parents, they strive to make decisions that are
as informed as possible. In the spirit of Socrates’ famous statement that the unexamined life is
not worth living, they never stop learning, growing, and inquiring.

Consistency
It is easy to see why consistency is essential to critical thinking. Logic tells us that if a person
holds inconsistent beliefs, at least one of those beliefs must be false. Critical thinkers prize truth
and so are constantly on the lookout for inconsistencies, both in their own thinking and in the
arguments and assertions of others. There are two kinds of inconsistency that we should avoid.
One is logical inconsistency, which involves saying or believing inconsistent things (i.e., things
that cannot both or all be true) about a particular matter. The other is practical inconsistency,
which involves saying one thing and doing another. Sometimes people are fully aware that their
words conflict with their deeds. The politician who cynically breaks her campaign promises once
she takes office, the TV evangelist caught in an extramarital affair, the drug counselor for
peddling drugs—such people are hypocrites pure and simple.
From a critical thinking point of view, such examples are not especially interesting. As a rule,
they involve failures of character to a greater degree than they do failures of critical reasoning.
More interesting from a critical thinking standpoint are cases in which people are not fully aware
that their words conflict with their deeds. Such cases highlight an important lesson of critical

16
thinking: that human beings often display a remarkable capacity for self-deception. Author
Harold Kushner cites an all-too-typical example:

Critical thinking helps us become aware of such unconscious practical inconsistencies, allowing
us to deal with them on a conscious and rational basis. It is also common, of course, for people to
unknowingly hold inconsistent beliefs about a particular subject. In fact, as Socrates pointed out
long ago, such unconscious logical inconsistency is far more common than most people suspect.
As we shall see, for example, many today claim that “morality is relative,” while holding a
variety of views that imply that it is not relative. Critical thinking helps us recognize such logical
inconsistencies or, still better, avoid them altogether.

Logical Correctness
To think logically is to reason correctly—that is, to draw well-founded conclusions from the
beliefs we hold. To think critically we need accurate and well supported beliefs. But, just as
important, we need to be able to reason from those beliefs to conclusions that logically follow
from them. Unfortunately, illogical thinking is all too common in human affairs.

Completeness
In most contexts, we rightly prefer deep and complete thinking to shallow and superficial
thinking. Thus, we justly condemn slipshod criminal investigations, hasty jury deliberations,
superficial news stories, sketchy driving directions, and snap medical diagnoses. Of course, there
are times when it is impossible or inappropriate to discuss an issue in depth; no one would
expect, for example, a thorough and wide-ranging discussion of the ethics of human genetic
research in a short newspaper editorial. Generally speaking, however, thinking is better when it
is deep rather than shallow, thorough rather than superficial.

Fairness
Finally, critical thinking demands that our thinking be fair—that is, open minded, impartial, and
free of distorting biases and preconceptions. That can be very difficult to achieve. Even the most
superficial acquaintance with history and the social sciences tells us that people are often
strongly disposed to resist unfamiliar ideas, to prejudge issues, to stereotype outsiders, and to
identify truth with their own self-interest or the interests of their nation or group. It is probably
unrealistic to suppose that our thinking could ever be completely free of biases and
preconceptions; to some extent we all perceive reality in ways that are powerfully shaped by our
individual life experiences and cultural backgrounds. But as difficult as it may be to achieve,
basic fair-mindedness is clearly an essential attribute of a critical thinker.

CRITICAL AND CREATIVE THINKING TOOLS OF TRANSFORMATION

Critical and creative thinking tools of Transformation are also referred to as Valuable intellectual
traits. These are transformational traits exhibited by those individuals that embrace criticality and

17
creativity. They are virtue traits that define maturity in reason, objectivity in thought, rationality
in deliberations and sobriety in consistency.
 Intellectual Humility: Having the knowledge of the limits of one's knowledge, including
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 the knowledge 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 the knowledge of the need to imaginatively put oneself in
the place of others in order to genuinely understand them, this 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 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 the knowledge 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.
 Faith 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,

18
 despite the deep-seated obstacles in the native character of the human mind and in society
as we know it.
 Fairmindedness: Having the knowledge 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.

Both the intellectual traits of mind and the universal standards are relevant and necessary in any
activity aimed at enhancing critical thought.

CREATIVE THINKING

19