Critical Thinking and the West

[Mole]

Critical thinking is higher order thinking. In the West it began two and a half thousand years ago in Ancient Greece with the philosopher Socrates. And critical thinking was unpopular at the moment of its birth as the good people of Athens gave Socrates the choice of exile or death. Socrates chose death rather than give up critical thinking.

Critical thinking is a higher order thinking and requires the full development of the prefrontal cortex at about the age of twenty-two. Critical thinking also requires a complete literate education simply for something to think critically about.

Socrates had a duty to critical thinking which he faithfully carried out even unto his death. Today the West is under attack by Theocracy and the Left and so we have a duty to follow in the footsteps of Socrates and bring critical thinking to life.

And so we start from where we are and Fortune Magazine: Have we all been duped by the Myers-Briggs test? - Fortune

 

[Lark]

Critical thinking is higher order thinking. In the West it began two and a half thousand years ago in Ancient Greece with the philosopher Socrates.

How do you know that?

And critical thinking was unpopular at the moment of its birth as the good people of Athens gave Socrates the choice of exile or death. Socrates chose death rather than give up critical thinking.[/QUOTE]

I'm not sure you're right about that.

Critical thinking is a higher order thinking and requires the full development of the prefrontal cortex at about the age of twenty-two. Critical thinking also requires a complete literate education simply for something to think critically about.

Why's that? Would a liberate education not merely amount to internalising doctrine, dogma and prejudice? If not why not?

Socrates had a duty to critical thinking which he faithfully carried out even unto his death.

Would he have called it that? Why?

Today the West is under attack by Theocracy and the Left and so we have a duty to follow in the footsteps of Socrates and bring critical thinking to life.

What is the west? What is theocracy? What is "the Left"? Who are "we"? Why do "we" have any "duty"? What is duty?

And so we start from where we are and Fortune Magazine: Have we all been duped by the Myers-Briggs test? - Fortune

Why Fortune magazine? What is fortune magazine?

 

[Mole]

Critical Thinking and the Unknown

How do you know that?

And critical thinking was unpopular at the moment of its birth as the good people of Athens gave Socrates the choice of exile or death. Socrates chose death rather than give up critical thinking.

I'm not sure you're right about that.

Why's that? Would a liberate education not merely amount to internalising doctrine, dogma and prejudice? If not why not?

Would he have called it that? Why?

What is the west? What is theocracy? What is "the Left"? Who are "we"? Why do "we" have any "duty"? What is duty?

Why Fortune magazine? What is fortune magazine? ;

You ask good questions, dear Lark, and I dare say good questions are a mark of a critical thinker.

But where does critical thinking take us? It precipitates us into a crisis of meaning. And as we are meaning creating animals, the crisis of meaning touches us at our core.

And we have two responses to our Western crisis of meaning. The first is to retreat to our traditional sources of meaning, and the second is to take a deep breath and explore the unknown.

Our traditional sources of meaning are familiar and comforting but alas collapse in the face of critical thinking. And secondly, all of us fear the unknown, and so are inclined to go back to our traditional sources, but these are now discredited and so are brought face to face with our fears, and in particular our fear of the unknown.

However to help us face the unknown we have the example of Socrates and we have the lovely little medieval book by Anonymous called, The Cloud of Unknowing.

And if I may be so bold to point out to you Lark, The Cloud of Unknowing, was likely written by a Catholic monk, and indeed this anonymous monk seeks the God of Unknowing.

And today we have Natural Philosophy or Science to explore the unknown and the Unknown God.

Critical Thinking is the great gift of the West to the world, precipitating a crisis of meaning at our core and leaving us no alternative but to explore the unknown, even in the face of our fears.

 

[Lark]

You ask good questions, dear Lark, and I dare say good questions are a mark of a critical thinker.

But where does critical thinking take us? It precipitates us into a crisis of meaning. And as we are meaning creating animals, the crisis of meaning touches us at our core.

And we have two responses to our Western crisis of meaning. The first is to retreat to our traditional sources of meaning, and the second is to take a deep breath and explore the unknown.

Our traditional sources of meaning are familiar and comforting but alas collapse in the face of critical thinking. And secondly, all of us fear the unknown, and so are inclined to go back to our traditional sources, but these are now discredited and so are brought face to face with our fears, and in particular our fear of the unknown.

However to help us face the unknown we have the example of Socrates and we have the lovely little medieval book by Anonymous called, The Cloud of Unknowing.

And if I may be so bold to point out to you Lark, The Cloud of Unknowing, was likely written by a Catholic monk, and indeed this anonymous monk seeks the God of Unknowing.

And today we have Natural Philosophy or Science to explore the unknown and the Unknown God.

Critical Thinking is the great gift of the West to the world, precipitating a crisis of meaning at our core and leaving us no alternative but to explore the unknown, even in the face of our fears.

What western crisis of meaning? What great gift of the west? You've not defined what "the west" is yet, what "fears"?

 

[Mole]

Play and the Unknown

What western crisis of meaning? What great gift of the west? You've not defined what "the west" is yet, what "fears"?

The important thing is to ask the questions, and Lark, you do what is important.

But still, I can't let it rest there, and I long for the unknown. And I can just see it out of the corner of my eye and sometimes it bursts upon me, it seems almost by its own volition, certainly not by mine.

It seems as though the purpose of the questions, the purpose of critical thinking, is to put the critical mind to sleep for a while, while the unknown comes out to play.

 

[Passacaglia]

*ahem*

[Writing] will create forgetfulness in the learners’ souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves. The specific which you have discovered is an aid not to memory, but to reminiscence, and you give your disciples not truth, but only the semblance of truth; they will be hearers of many things and will have learned nothing; they will appear to be omniscient and will generally know nothing; they will be tiresome company, having the show of wisdom without the reality.

...What was that about a literate education?

 

[Mole]

*ahem*...What was that about a literate education?

This is a very interesting point you make, Passacaglia, and certainly we know that in a Spoken culture the members have prodigious memories, and in a Literate culture our memory is extended into books.

Socrates engaged his listeners face to face in the marketplace. So we can say Socrates was teaching in a Spoken culture. However in our Literate culture we keep our memory in books, so to be fully literate we need to spend many years reading books. And it is only after we are fully literate that we can engage in the highest level of thinking, namely, Critical Thought.

We all though start off in a Spoken culture by learning to speak and hear our native tongue naturally at home. It is only when we are compelled by State Law to attend school that we learn to read and write, and then have twelve years of reading at school, followed, if we are lucky by a University education that teaches us to critique our Spoken and Literate culture.

 

[Mole]

Why Fortune magazine? What is fortune magazine?

I quote from Fortune magazine, Have we all been duped by the Myers-Briggs test? - Fortune, because it is the leading business magazine in the USA, founded in 1929 and follows the biggest and best American Fortune 500 companies, and by necessity in touch with reality.

And Fortune says, Why is the MBTI so popular? Its success is primarily due to the beguiling nature of the horoscope-like summaries of personality and steady marketing.

So Fortune says that MBTI is like astrology, and just as astrology has no basis in astronomy, so MBTI has no basis in psychometrics.

So Fortune says both astrology and MBTI are untrue and owe their success to the emotional manipulation of the vulnerable.

And I am sure it is of interest to you Lark that Catholicism has an Astronomical Observatory in the Vatican and an official Catholic Astronomer. Also that Catholicism teaches the doctrine of Faith and Reason which shows quite plainly that astrology is a superstition with no basis in reason or astronomy.

 

[Lark]

I quote from Fortune magazine, Have we all been duped by the Myers-Briggs test? - Fortune, because it is the leading business magazine in the USA, founded in 1929 and follows the biggest and best American Fortune 500 companies, and by necessity in touch with reality.

And Fortune says, Why is the MBTI so popular? Its success is primarily due to the beguiling nature of the horoscope-like summaries of personality and steady marketing.

So Fortune says that MBTI is like astrology, and just as astrology has no basis in astronomy, so MBTI has no basis in psychometrics.

So Fortune says both astrology and MBTI are untrue and owe their success to the emotional manipulation of the vulnerable.

And I am sure it is of interest to you Lark that Catholicism has an Astronomical Observatory in the Vatican and an official Catholic Astronomer. Also that Catholicism teaches the doctrine of Faith and Reason which shows quite plainly that astrology is a superstition with no basis in reason or astronomy.

Because Fortune is popular it is valid? Yet the popularity of MBTI is indicative of manipulation of the vulnerable?

What has catholicism got to do with the juxtaposition of MBTI and critical thinking you've tried to set up?

 

[Jaguar]

I subscribe to Fortune magazine and I'm wondering how the hell I missed that article.

If we shouldn’t rely on personality tests, how can we find a fulfilling career? Let’s not go back to skull measuring. Instead, start with some useful advice that Aristotle offered over 2,000 years ago: “Where the needs of the world and your talents cross, there lies your vocation.”

I'm on board with those comments from the article.
Having said that, Mole, some of your comments are genuflecting in the presence of Fortune in the same manner other people's comments genuflect in the presence of the MBTI.

You might want to take a step back and think about that.

 

[Mole]

I subscribe to Fortune magazine and I'm wondering how the hell I missed that article.

I'm on board with those comments from the article.
Having said that, Mole, some of your comments are genuflecting in the presence of Fortune in the same manner other people's comments genuflect in the presence of the MBTI.

You might want to take a step back and think about that.

This is a good point, Jaguar.

 

[Coriolis]

I quote from Fortune magazine, Have we all been duped by the Myers-Briggs test? - Fortune, because it is the leading business magazine in the USA, founded in 1929 and follows the biggest and best American Fortune 500 companies, and by necessity in touch with reality.

And Fortune says, Why is the MBTI so popular? Its success is primarily due to the beguiling nature of the horoscope-like summaries of personality and steady marketing.

So Fortune says that MBTI is like astrology, and just as astrology has no basis in astronomy, so MBTI has no basis in psychometrics.

So because a tool or system is misused in some circles, it is entirely useless? That doesn't follow.

 

[Mole]

So because a tool or system is misused in some circles, it is entirely useless? That doesn't follow.

This is an interesting question, dear Coriolis. And you are right, even something untrue can be quite useful.

 

[Coriolis]

This is an interesting question, dear Coriolis. And you are right, even something untrue can be quite useful.

Like Aesop's Fables. I'm sure there never was a tortoise who could beat a hare, assuming both in good health.

 

[Mole]

Like Aesop's Fables. I'm sure there never was a tortoise who could beat a hare, assuming both in good health.

Yes, the tortoise and the hare are opposites, the hare fast and the tortoise slow, and holding opposites in our mind is untenable, so our critical mind in our prefrontal cortex turns off for a while for a rest, and our imagination comes out to play. In other words, the tale of the tortoise and the hare successfully suspends our disbelief and so is a successful work of art.

 

[Coriolis]

Yes, the tortoise and the hare are opposites, the hare fast and the tortoise slow, and holding opposites in our mind is untenable, so our critical mind in our prefrontal cortex turns off for a while for a rest, and our imagination comes out to play. In other words, the tale of the tortoise and the hare successfully suspends our disbelief and so is a successful work of art.

But is there truth in works of art?

To paraphrase the original Star Trek: is there truth in beauty?

 

[SearchingforPeace]

But is there truth in works of art?

To paraphrase the original Star Trek: is there truth in beauty?

Beauty might convey multiple truths, some seemingly contradictory even....

But beauty might be deceiving as well...

 

[miss fortune]

"Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."

-John Keats, Ode to a Grecian Urn

and sometimes you can tell the truth more easily through showing it than by just talking about it... consider some of the mid-century photography projects that captured images of the Great Depression or Segregation... One image can be just as powerful as any words at times

 

[Mole]

But is there truth in works of art?

To paraphrase the original Star Trek: is there truth in beauty?

It's interesting, the suspension of disbelief, on which all art is founded, is neither true nor false, or good or bad. The only thing that matters is that disbelief is suspended for a while, like going to the movies where we suspend our disbelief only for the length of the movie.

So the suspension of disbelief is like propaganda in that propaganda is neither true nor false, only plausible.

So the naive propagandist believes their own propaganda, and the naive artist, like Pigmalion, believes their statue, called Galatea, comes to life.

For instance, the only reason we didn't use the Concentration Camps as propaganda in WW II is that, at the time, they were unbelievable, they were not plausible enough to be used for propaganda.

So art, like propaganda, is outside morality, except for the naive.

 

[Poki]

We are more critical instead of thinker this day and age.