Critical Wisdom
CRITICAL WISDOM:
Hints to Help Live a Successful and Worthwhile Life
1. Introduction -- Navigating Life’s Problems …
This is a book about problems and some basic hints on how best to cope with them. But let’s make it clear from the outset: there are no guarantees. There is no recipe or algorithm that we can give such that, if you follow it, it will make it a “sure thing” that you will solve all your problems and live an earthly life that is happy and worthwhile. Even the best attempts at problem solving can be undermined by “bad luck.” Bad luck aside, however, we think that if you follow the hints we give here, you will have a “better shot” at solving problems and living a life that you yourself consider to be happy and worthwhile. We’ll say more about this below, but, for now, back to “problems.”
We all have problems. Some are faced by every living thing: getting enough nourishment, adjusting to surroundings, keeping physically intact … Such problems are problems of living. They are universal in that they are faced by all earthly organisms. Moreover, coping with such problems is of utmost importance. Indeed, if organisms are unable to cope with problems of living, they go out of existence.
But problems of living bring others in their wake -- at least they do for higher organisms such as ourselves, who can think, feel and desire. We humans (and likely other “higher” animals as well) have both cognitive & feeling capacities that allow us to:
(i) desire such things as food and shelter;
(ii) reason and make judgments about the actions we perform aimed at fulfilling those desires;
(iii) feel content (happy, sad …) when those desires are (or are not) fulfilled.
In turn, these cognitive & feeling capacities allow us to experience “new problems.” We desire food, but must discover what things are good to eat. We want shelter and safe haven but must learn how to find it. Thus, humans (and higher animals) face problems of action, problems of figuring out how to act in a manner that will allow them to fulfill their respective desires. More generally, we might say that coping with problems of action entails coping with the problems of discerning what there is and figuring out how to use what we discover to fulfill our desires.
But, for humans at least, things are even more complex. I not only desire that hot, new Harley, but I reflect on why I desire it and whether I should spend money to buy it or save to pay my rent. I don’t want to be bothered recycling my cans and bottles but when I think about it I see that I should desire it since I also desire that my descendants will be able to enjoy a bountiful Earth. I not only think about what I see on the TV screen but also I think about whether my desire to watch was a free choice or whether the advertisers had produced programming that tapped into my feelings/emotions in a way that I found too difficult to ignore.
We complicated humans deal not only with problems of living and action but also we face problems of reflection – the problems generated when humans employ their capacity to reflect back on various aspects of themselves including their desires, their applications of reasoning, their judgments, the actions they perform and feelings they experience. Nor is it the case that, for humans, it is clear in all cases where the line is to be drawn between problems of action and problems of reflection. Perhaps human action is so bound up with reflection that we cannot separate the two. That is, perhaps for humans we should speak of problems of action-reflection and, for our purposes, this does in fact seem best,
So here is a brief cataloging of the hierarchy of kinds of problems faced by earthly organisms in general and humans in particular. In what follows, however, since we are mainly concerned with human problem solving, we will look most closely at our human responses to these problem kinds. How do we humans cope? What are the principles of successful coping?
Again, unfortunately there is no “magic formula.” Successful (and unsuccessful) ways of coping with problems of living/ action-reflection are as many and various as the people who employ them. Moreover, the question of what counts as “successful coping” is a difficult one for which there is no agreed upon response. Nor will our own answer, though we think it illuminating, prove thoroughly satisfactory.
What is our answer? We think that, in general, successful coping with life’s problems is coping that is most likely to promote the living of a worthwhile life. But of course this begs the question, “What counts as the living of a worthwhile life?” To shed light on this, however, requires that we more fully explain what we call Critical Wisdom – a combination of thinking, desiring, feeling and judging that is both logically coherent and wise. Our contention is that if “the living of a worthwhile life” is one’s goal, then practicing critical wisdom gives one the best chance of achieving that goal. That is, a “rule of thumb” that one should follow if one hopes to live a worthwhile life is, “live in accord with the principles of critical wisdom.”
In what follows then, we lay out these principles of critical wisdom. In Part I we look at the “critical thinking” aspect of critical wisdom and briefly outline some principles that are traditionally associated with “good thinking” along with some common mistakes that lead to “bad thinking.” We move in Part II to a discussion of features of what we take to be wise reasoning/judging/action /feeling that we believe are bound up with problem solving that is “good in the fullest sense.” We conclude in Part III with a return to the discussion of the nature of a worthwhile life and how such a life is most likely attained by one who lives in accord with the principles of critical wisdom.
2. Critical Thinking -- What Is It?
2.1 Introduction -- Critical Thinking
Thinking critically about what to believe or what action to take simply amounts to trying to make sure that this belief or action is a good belief or action. Of course, we can have long debates about what exactly constitutes a ‘good’ belief or action, but at this point we’ll just use our common sense: the belief that I can run a mile in 2 minutes is not a good belief, and jumping off a cliff without a parachute is not a good action.
2.2 The Process of Critical Thinking – Generation and Evaluation
Critical thinking generally involves two complementary processes. On the one hand, critical thinking involves trying to come up with as many potential beliefs or actions as possible. On the other hand, critical thinking involves rigorous evaluation of these potential ideas and actions and, where appropriate, elimination of the bad ones.
A good critical thinker will go back and forth between these two processes. For example, after evaluation of a first batch of suggestions, the critical thinker may find that none of the suggested alternatives work, and will have to go back to the drawing board. Other times a suggestion looks promising, but it is found that certain refinements or small alterations are in order. But even if it looks like the best answer or course of action is found, a good critical thinker will still try and make sure that this answer is really the best answer by continued exploration and evaluation of other ideas. Thus, through a back and forth process of generation and evaluation, hopefully our beliefs and actions will improve.
2.3 Critical Thinking – Striking the Right Balance
So far, the process of critical thinking sounds pretty straightforward. However, many people have difficulty in striking the right balance between the two fundamental processes of generation and evaluation. On the one hand, the process of generating alternative choices in beliefs or actions requires one to have an open mind, but many people have a hard time in doing so. Indeed, given the fact that in many cases we already have prior beliefs regarding some issue, or are engaged in set courses of action, it can be hard to come up with alternatives, let alone consider that some of these alternatives may actually be better than what’s in place now. On the other hand, there are also people who have trouble rejecting alternatives: to them, any alternatives is as good as any other, and they have difficulties in figuring out that certain options may really be better than others. A good critical thinker will have an open mind, but, as someone once said, not such an open mind that their brain is going to fall out!
2.4 Critical Thinking – Some Common Myths
There are two common and related myths about the notions of ‘having an open mind’ and ‘being a critical thinker’. Some people declare to have an open mind simply due to the very fact that their beliefs or courses of action deviate from the norm. However, that fact by itself has nothing to do with having an open mind. If such people would have a hard time considering the possibility that their own beliefs are false, then they are in fact not open-minded at all. Open-mindedness is therefore not at all about what you belief or do, but rather about your attitudes regarding those beliefs and actions.
In a similar vein, to some people, being ‘critical’ entails rejection. Indeed, we often call a person a critical person to express the fact that they are negative, cynical, and nay-sayers. However, in our context, being ‘critical’ simply means taking a close look at certain beliefs or actions and seeing if they make any sense. As such, the end result may well be that we decide that the belief or action under consideration was indeed a good one. Being critical off beliefs or actions therefore does not mean automatic rejection.
A helpful analogy here is to think of a car inspection. When you bring your car in for the annual inspection, the car inspector will take a critical look at your car and see if there is anything wrong with it. But, clearly, this does not mean that there is anything wrong with your car. Indeed, at the end of the day, the car inspector may well declare your car to be in tip-top shape. Similarly, critical thinkers are belief and action inspectors, and at the end of the day, they may declare one of three things: the belief or action is good, the belief or action is bad, or it is at this point too hard to tell whether the belief or action is good. This third outcome is actually an important outcome to remember. To many people, beliefs or actions should either be accepted or rejected. However, good critical thinkers know that sometimes the appropriate judgment is to suspend judgment until additional reasons or information become available. To continue the car inspection analogy though, let us also point out that everyone is annoyed when the car inspector finds a problem with the car. However, we should realize that this is a good thing: if the problem would have remained undetected, bad things could have happened. So yes, having the fix the problem is uncomfortable in the short run, but in the long run we should be happy that the problem was found. Similarly, if the process of critical thinking points out a problem with our beliefs or courses of action, we will be temporarily annoyed with having to deal with this (which may be one reason why being ‘critical’ gets such bad connotations), but ultimately we should be pleased with the outcome so that things can be improved. And finally, sometimes people do not see the point of critical thinking when one’s beliefs or actions are not effected by it. But again the car inspection analogy is helpful. Yes, if the car inspector declares your car to be in tip-top shape, then effectively nothing has changed. However, you should feel more comfortable with and confident about your car now. And so it is with your beliefs and actions: it is much better to have beliefs and actions supported by a critical investigation, then to just be lucky and stumble on those very answers.
2.5 Critical Thinking – Why is it so hard?
Critical thinking is a powerful tool that can help improve your beliefs and courses of action and, consequently, your life in general. So, why is it that so many people don’t engage in critical thinking? Why is it that many colleges and universities put ‘critical thinking’ on top of their list of ‘study objectives’, acknowledging that critical thinking is both important and not practices enough? This section will try and provide some reasons why people do not engage in critical thinking to the extent that they probably should.
First, there is simply the psychological difficulty of thinking critically: As the people around us (family, church, government, culture, etc) keep saying the same things, we become almost ‘brain-washed’ to think those very thoughts, and it’s hard to break such a psychological/neurological/habitual hold. Psychologists call this ‘institutionalized thinking’, and it is indeed a big obstacle to critical thinking.
Second, we often have little or no incentive to think critically: We don’t see the use in thinking critically about something, because we (consciously or unconsciously) gauge the potential pay-off of doing so as being small or, more importantly, smaller than doing something else instead. There can be many possible reasons for this:
- We’re just too tired or too lazy to think critically and see more use in taking a nap or playing a video game.
- We simply don’t have the time to think critically about everything and anything, and even if we would devote what time we have for critical thinking, nothing would get done in terms of getting some bread on the table.
- We feel that our critical thinking efforts are likely not going to be very successful, either because
- we find (or at least perceive) critical thinking hard, or
- we feel that we lack the necessary background information to make an informed analysis and evaluation.
- We feel that the issue at hand is an issue that has little to no practical bearing on our lives, e.g the issue is perceived as
- trivial (shall I wear my blue or red socks today?),
- too metaphysical/philosophical (are blue socks better than red socks?)
- completely unrelated to our lives (should Bram wear blue or red socks?).
- We feel that it is unlikely that we are going to change our beliefs we already have on the issue at hand, mainly because we feel our beliefs are perfectly fine, and that’s mainly because we feel they have worked perfectly fine for us so far.
Third, we have many incentives not to think critically: Again, there are many (conscious and unconscious) ways in which this fleshes out: