Brave New Kitty

For some reason, I’ve been seeing a lot of articles recently about critical thinking. Or rather, about how people tend to not think critically, even when confronted with facts that contradict their beliefs. Here’s one from a Mother Jones article that names several studies showing how people resist believing new facts, no matter how overwhelming the evidence that they are true.

This does not surprise me in the least. I have thought for decades that it is a mighty struggle for most people, myself included, to be intellectually honest, most of all with themselves (myself included). Just as it is easier to be fat than fit or poor than rich, it is easier to be intellectually lazy than to think critically. Not only is it easier, it has the double whammy of being a comfort zone: people use their beliefs like cloaks against the wind of harsh reality, clutching with all the more fervor when that wind blows at them harder. Of course we do: would you want to lose your protection from the elements when that protection is so warm and cozy and has served you (and perhaps generations before you) so well?

Yet lose it we must if we truly want to be open-minded seekers of truth. This is perhaps the primary message of Brave New Kitty: that we should always be willing to let go of our beliefs when they are proven incomplete or inadequate in the face of new, more complete facts, ideas, or awarenesses. No matter what you believe, that belief should always be the raft and not the shore; that is, it should be a conveyance to greater truths and never, ever an end in itself.

But this is a hard way to live. It means that we have to embrace uncertainty as earnestly as we embrace our capacity to think and reason (and feel), and that we have to understand the significance and purpose of each. We have to come to terms with our limitations as honestly and completely as we can. And we have to do this every day, in as many walks of our lives as we can, over and over, knowing that we will never get it quite right. And as we do this, we must also, paradoxically, understand that our ability to think critically and reason things out is our greatest strength; more than anything else, it is what makes us human, and it is the backbone that supports all the rest of our humanity, including our emotions–which are equally important, but for very different reasons.

Critical thinking is not something we are really taught, specifically and for its own sake, to do. In school it’s vaguely hinted at, at least in math and hard science courses, but it is rarely given the place of acknowledgement that would help us understand its importance. Thus, most of us make it through childhood and adolescence getting by on the bare minimum of critical thinking required to get along; unless we are fortunate enough to have parents or other mentors who draw it out deliberately and show us its vast significance to our quality of life, that’s how we reach adulthood, where we tend to coast along without it as much as possible (again, because it’s just easier). We form thoughts, hold opinions, and make decisions all largely without challenging our reasoning skills any more than we absolutely have to.

That is not the amazing part; because critical thinking is not overtly taught or talked about, it makes perfect sense that this is how most of us go through life. No, the amazing part is how vehement most people’s thoughts and opinions are when they’ve put so little effort into forming them! With only the slightest knowledge of incredibly complex issues, from theology to politics and nearly everything in between, people will spout their opinions as though they’d been studying the issues for decades rather than heard them on their favorite news source that morning, a news source rarely complemented by any others (and by others, I mean those that have different basic philosophies than those we align ourselves with). The arrogance of ignorance, in many ways, is what makes the world go ‘round. Where would we be without our opinions? We would literally not be human, as the ability to grasp abstract concepts and formulate thoughts about them–a sub-category of critical thinking– is largely what makes us so.

This leaves us in a bit of a bind. We are inescapably required, by our highly developed cerebral cortex, to form thoughts and opinions, yet we often lack the skills to do so well–that is, analytically, objectively, and circumspectly. Where reasoning falls short, emotion steps in to fill the void, and because it feels right–that is, how we want it to feel–we stop there. (And whether those feelings are useful or not, and why, is important, but it is another topic.) Furthermore, because we lack the self-awareness to know that our reasoning skills are weak, we don’t recognize the problem. It’s a kind of intellectual chicken-and-egg dilemma that has resulted in some tragically serious problems in the world.

While there’s not a lot you can do to solve the world’s problems, there is one very important thing you can do: you can work to develop your own critical thinking skills. I have been working on mine for a long time now and have given this topic a lot of consideration. Here are some ideas that have helped me become a less emotional, more critical thinker:

• First of all, and as with anything, study the topic. Read books about critical thinking–here’s a list. Or probably even better, read books written by great thinkers to get an understanding of their reasoning processes. The book How to Read a Book (which is itself a good example of critical thinking) contains a list at the end of what the authors consider essential reading of the Western world, and is a great place to start.
• Just read, period. Read non-fiction books. Read books you believe to be over your head. Read philosophy and science and classic literature. Your critical thinking skills can’t help but improve.
• Know that you have biases, and try to account for them. As you look around and see the problems that lack of critical thinking has caused, always remember that you need look no further than yourself to see stellar examples. We are all full of biases, blind spots, and shoddily formed opinions, and we all always will be. The best we can do is be aware of them to the best of our ability, to understand them, and to work around them as much as possible. For example, I am very cynical about politicians, so I have a tendency to jump to negative conclusions about whatever they say. But because I know this about myself, I am able, much of the time, to make myself listen objectively and try to be fair in forming an opinion. Whatever you know you’re biased about, make an effort to not to be. You will be surprised at what you learn, not only about the external world, but about yourself.
• Read opposing points of view. Rather than reading only what you agree with, read opposing points of view as objectively and open-mindedly as you can. By reading opposing views, you’ll learn how other people are thinking about an issue, which will either alter your own thinking or strengthen and refine your arguments. Either way, it’s a win-win.
• Rather than trying to figure out if you agree with what a person is saying, focus on understanding what they’re saying. We all have a tendency to feed everything we hear, see, and read through our “meshing” filter: Does what I’m hearing mesh with what I believe? The meshing filter is how we make connections and identify threats, which we are biologically wired to do, so this is all very normal–but that doesn’t mean we can’t rise above it. Differing opinions, unless backed by physical force, aren’t actually threatening, and you can learn to overcome the fear-based impulse to categorize them and instead, simply try to understand them. Ask yourself questions like What is this person saying? Why is he saying it? Where did he come up with these ideas? Is there any merit to them and if so, what might it be? Much of the heartache in the world is caused from the inability to empathize, from the reactive judgment and lack of tolerance this inability breeds. Learning to understand and empathize may not change your mind (nor should it, necessarily), but it will certainly create more tolerance for people who are also not changing theirs.
• Finally, commit Wilber’s Law to memory and apply it to every situation, idea, thought, philosophy, ideology, opinion, theory, and snippet of information that crosses your path. Wilber’s Law is simply this: No idea is completely right or completely wrong, and every idea is at least somewhat incomplete. In other words, nobody has the corner on truth, nobody. There is no single theory or idea that is perfect and complete. Certainly some ideas are better than others, more comprehensive, detailed, morally just, or intellectually honest, but all lack something. Being human means being flawed and fallible, and since humans create ideas, all ideas are likewise flawed and fallible. This is the only way it can be, and knowing this going in can be tremendously helpful in keeping an open, curious, critically-thinking mind.

Critical thinking takes effort. It is not an innate skill but rather, something you have to work at if you want to become good at it. Emotion is our most base reaction to the world, and as such it serves a purpose, but the degree to which it is tempered by a rational thought process will generally be the degree to which a person overcomes anxiety, learns to function in the world, and achieves the greatest degree of success, however he happens to define it.