Blog - by Linda Elder with Richard Paul Archives

{"ops":[{"insert":"There are so many resources and opportunities in our community that it may be difficult to know where to begin or how to proceed with your learning. I hope you will take advantage of our ongoing webinars and that you join us for our upcoming conference which you can learn about "},{"attributes":{"underline":true,"bold":true,"link":"https://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/44th-critical-thinking-conference-main/1631"},"insert":"here"},{"insert":". Register now for the 44"},{"attributes":{"script":"super"},"insert":"th"},{"insert":" Annual International Conference on Critical Thinking, and take advantage of our early early bird discount of 10% off registration fees. \n\nIn this blog, and others to follow, I will offer assignments from the community for you to work through, with the goal of helping you continually cultivate your own critical thinking abilities and dispositions. "},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"Remember that we learn critical thinking by actively incorporating it into our thinking routinely, systematically, and on a daily basis. "},{"insert":"Nothing short of active commitment to the cultivation of your own mind will lead you through the higher stages of critical thinking development and into the self-actualizing process.\n\nPeople frequently miss the barriers to criticality, so this first set of assignments focuses on this irrational aspect of human reasoning. Specifically, you will be focused on the problem of egocentricity in human life and identifying it in your own thoughts and actions.\n\nHere are your assignments, should you choose to take this journey:\n\n1. View "},{"attributes":{"underline":true,"bold":true,"link":"https://community.criticalthinking.org/watchEmbeddedVideo.php?id=341"},"insert":"this dialogue"},{"insert":" on the problem of egocentricity."},{"attributes":{"indent":1},"insert":"\n\n"},{"insert":"2. Read the "},{"attributes":{"underline":true,"bold":true,"link":"https://community.criticalthinking.org/viewDocument.php?doc=../content/library_for_everyone/47/HumanMindCOcopy.pdf&page=1"},"insert":"excerpts found here"},{"insert":" from "},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"The Thinker’s Guide to the Human Mind."},{"attributes":{"indent":1},"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"color":"#2c3b86"},"insert":"3. "},{"insert":"Complete these activities:"},{"attributes":{"indent":1},"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"color":"#2c3b86"},"insert":" "},{"attributes":{"indent":1},"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"color":"#2c3b86"},"insert":"a. "},{"attributes":{"underline":true,"bold":true,"color":"#2c3b86","link":"https://community.criticalthinking.org/wallOfBarriersActivityAnalyzeSelfCenteredPerson?activity=none"},"insert":"Analyze a Self-Centered Person You Know Well"},{"attributes":{"indent":2},"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"color":"#2c3b86"},"insert":"b. "},{"attributes":{"underline":true,"bold":true,"color":"#2c3b86","link":"https://community.criticalthinking.org/wallOfBarriersActivityIrrationalPurposes?activity=none"},"insert":"Identify Your Irrational Purposes"},{"attributes":{"indent":2},"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"indent":1},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"4. Please share in our "},{"attributes":{"underline":true,"bold":true,"link":"https://community.criticalthinking.org/connect.php"},"insert":"ConneCT section"},{"insert":" any of your thoughts on these activities."},{"attributes":{"indent":1},"insert":"\n"}]}

{"ops":[{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"[Missed Part 4?"},{"insert":" "},{"attributes":{"underline":true,"bold":true,"link":"https://community.criticalthinking.org/blogPost.php?param=226"},"insert":"Read It Here"},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"]"},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"italic":true,"bold":true},"insert":" "},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"italic":true,"bold":true},"insert":"What Is Irrational Production? "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"[2 of 2]"},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":" "},{"insert":"\nAs Adam Smith recognized, private vested interests naturally try to increase their wealth regardless of the public good. Hence, ironically, no private interest is in favor of more, but rather in favor of less competition in its own industry (unless an increase in competition would increase its own profits). When it is possible to take advantage of the public, private interests will almost inevitably do so. Thus, during OPEC’s oil embargo, U.S. oil companies raised their own prices at home as well as abroad even though internal consumption of Arab oil was no more than 10% of our market. The OPEC action, in other words, provided a convenient excuse to join in a monopolistic practice of a special interest cartel. The result was windfall profits extracted from the U.S. public under artificially created, non-competitive conditions. The public, on the other hand, was continually led to believe that “Arabs” were exclusively to blame, as though U.S. companies hadn’t taken advantage of the situation to advance their own interests, irrespective of the public good.\n \nI am arguing that the nature and conditions of production and productivity are never things-in-themselves, forces independent of political and social decisions, but rather intimately bound to such decisions. These decisions may be rational (in the public interest) or irrational (against the public interest). Whether they are the one or the other, can only be determined by full and fair public argument. If a nation is to function as a democracy, then its citizens must be armed with the critical thinking skills which enable them to penetrate the propagandistic arguments which are creatively and adroitly developed by private interests to keep violations of the public good from public recognition. The history of the country is shot through with cases in which the public was deceived into supporting policies in which public interest was sacrificed to private greed. A tremendous price in lives and resources has been paid as a result of the public’s inability to think critically to a sufficient degree to protect itself from irrational modes of production. We are, in my opinion, very far from the sort of educational system which nurtures the economic survival skills the public needs to protect itself against highly sophisticated propaganda which routinely advances private greed against public good.\n \nIt is crucial that we grasp the inevitable struggle that will continue to be played out between the ideal of democracy and protection of the public good, on the one hand, and the predictable drive on the part of vested interests to multiply their wealth and power irrespective of public need or good, on the other. In a society based not only on the ideal of democracy but also on a market economy that produces large concentrations of capital and vested interest, the power of the voting public is only as great as the information upon which the public can base its votes. To the extent that it is possible for concentrations of wealth to saturate the media with images and messages that manipulate the public against its own interests, the forms of democracy become mere window dressing, mere appearance with no substantial reality. As John Dewey remarked in "},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"Individualism, Old and New"},{"insert":", “financial and industrial power, corporately organized, can deflect economic consequences away from the advantage of the many to serve the privilege of the few”. Unfortunately, but predictably, the political parties, heavily dependent for their success upon the raising of large amounts of capital, “have been eager accomplices in maintaining the confusion and unreality”. (p. 114) Dewey saw the issue as fundamental to whether the democratic ideal would be achieved, and as being determined by whether "},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"force"},{"insert":" or "},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"intelligence"},{"insert":" would prevail:\n \nThe question is whether force or intelligence is to be the method upon which we consistently rely and to whose promotion we devote our energies. Insistence that the use of force is inevitable limits the use of available intelligence . . . There is an undoubted objective clash of interests between finance-capitalism that controls the means of production and whose profit is served by maintaining relative scarcity, and idle workers and hungry consumers. But what generates violent strife is failure to bring the conflict into the light of intelligence where the conflicting interests can be adjudicated in behalf of the interests of the great majority. (p. 79f)"},{"attributes":{"indent":1},"insert":"\n"}]}

{"ops":[{"insert":"Though explicit fairminded critical thinking is still rarely fostered in any country in a broad way, we applaud the good efforts of Maciej Winiarek and Katarzyna Winiarek who are working to bring initial understandings of critical thinking to their home country of Poland. Mr. Winiarek recently invited me to be interviewed for their podcast, which will be translated into Polish and is soon to be released through their youtube channel. In this interview, Mr. Winiarek brought us into the current history of critical thinking and some of the academic and intrinsic human barriers to critical thinking. He also asked me to illuminate additional core concepts in critical thinking.\n\nYou can view the full video interview in the community here:\n"},{"attributes":{"color":"blue","link":"https://community.criticalthinking.org/watchEmbeddedVideo.php?id=347"},"insert":"https://community.criticalthinking.org/watchEmbeddedVideo.php?id=347"},{"insert":"\n\nWe look forward to our continued work with Maciej and Katarzyna in helping them lay the groundwork for cultivating critical thinking throughout Poland. Let us know what you are doing to advance critical thinking in your country, school, college, university or organization.\n"}]}

{"ops":[{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"[Missed Part 3? "},{"attributes":{"bold":true,"link":"https://community.criticalthinking.org/blogPost.php?param=224"},"insert":"Read It Here"},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"]"},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"italic":true,"bold":true},"insert":" "},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"italic":true,"bold":true},"insert":"What Is Irrational Production? "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"[1 of 2]"},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"italic":true,"bold":true},"insert":" "},{"insert":"\nIt is a platitude, but an important platitude to keep in mind, that the productive resources of society should be marshaled to serve public need and public good, as against the vested interests of a relative few at the expense of the public good. "},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"Production is irrational to the extent that it fails to serve the public good, insofar as it is production wasteful of non-renewable resources, destructive of public health, or at the expense of basic human needs"},{"insert":". One valuable rule of thumb is this: any economic practice is of questionable rationality if it can be maintained only by keeping the public in ignorance as to specific nature and modes of operation. The public cannot be understood to sanction that which it does not comprehend. \n \nProduction and productivity are to be viewed as collective as well as individual decisions in a functioning democracy. For these decisions to be made in a rational fashion, the public must have been educated to think critically, for when some narrow interest group seeks to maintain some form of irrational production (either as a whole or in part), it is inevitable that public relations and lobbying efforts will be launched which function, at least in part, to obfuscate public recognition of its own interests. For instance, it was in the narrow egocentric interest of asbestos manufacturers to minimize public disclosure of the health hazards of working and building with asbestos. The asbestos industry obscured the public interest to serve its own. As a result of the industry successfully protecting its vested interest, a mode of production was maintained for decades at great expense and loss in public health.\n \nSince it is unrealistic to expect industries with narrow vested interests to abandon those interests for the public good, it becomes necessary that the public be armed with the critical, analytic, fact-finding, and reasoning abilities that critical thinking provides, that they may judge where, when, and to what degree the pursuit of a vested interest is consistent with public good.\n \nIt is easy to find innumerable historical examples in which the public good was sacrificed precisely because the public was kept in the dark about the manner in which and the extent to which private interest was secured. Adam Smith himself was well aware of the tendency of private interest to seek its own advancement at the expense of public good:\n \nPeople of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices. ("},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"Wealth of Nations"},{"insert":", Book 1, Ch 10.)"},{"attributes":{"indent":1},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":" \nIt is extremely difficult to maintain genuine competition that serves the public good in the face of ever-changing market structures and ever-growing concentrations of economic wealth and power. Multi-national corporations, for example, are increasingly able to function as quasi-monopolies, or, in their capacity to move their productive facilities and great concentrations of wealth from one country to another, as to function as quasi-oligopolies. For example, when a foreign dictator prevents the development of free labor unions and preserves both “political stability” and “low wages” by effective and organized instruments of social and political repression, then the “free” labor force economically competing in “democratic” countries loses effective bargaining power at home. Free labor cannot effectively compete against unorganized repressed labor. A market economy cannot function in the public good when increasing concentrations of wealth produce conditions of radically inequitable bargaining power.\n \nAgain and again, questions intrinsic to the nature and mode of production and productivity turn upon decisions and policies that can be argued from divergent points of view and in which the relation of private and public interest are in need of critical explication. The individual citizen’s capacity to penetrate the rationalizing smoke screens that can be generated to undermine the public good in service of private gain is a profound on-going problem of public life.\n \nConsider, for example, an argument in the London "},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"Economist"},{"insert":" of July 13, 1850, criticizing the “sanitary movement” which was urging that government support the development of a pure water supply and proper sewage disposal. The "},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"Economist "},{"insert":"argued that poor housing and high urban death rates,\n \nSprung from two causes, both of which will be aggravated by these new laws. The first is the poverty of the masses, which if possible, will be increased by the taxation inflicted by the new laws. The second is that the people have never been allowed to take care of themselves. They have always been treated as serfs or children and they have to a great extent become in respect to those objects which the government has undertaken to perform for them, imbeciles . . . There is a worse evil than typhus or cholera or impure water, and that is mental imbecility."},{"attributes":{"indent":1},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":" \nHere the public good is defined as allowing poor water treatment and supply to continue. To correct them, say these editors, would "},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"harm"},{"insert":" the poor.\n"}]}

{"ops":[{"insert":"We have recently been reviewing, editing, and beginning to release some of our older archive video and audio, including this audio from the "},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"8"},{"attributes":{"italic":true,"script":"super"},"insert":"th"},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":" International Conference on Critical Thinking and Educational Reform"},{"insert":" sponsored by the "},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"Center for Critical Thinking and Moral Critique"},{"insert":", our sister institution:\n\n"},{"attributes":{"color":"blue","link":"https://community.criticalthinking.org/watchEmbeddedVideo.php?id=343"},"insert":"https://community.criticalthinking.org/watchEmbeddedVideo.php?id=343"},{"insert":"\n\nIn this video, you can hear an early introduction by Gerald Nosich, along with some of Richard Paul’s 1988 comments on the state of critical thinking in education, as well as some lively personal anecdotes from his own higher education experiences.\n\nSadly, much of what Richard discusses in this keynote address in terms of problems in schooling are still prevalent today, 44 years after he established the "},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"Center for Critical Thinking"},{"insert":". During the 1980’s, when these comments were made, Richard envisioned critical thinking being gradually but steadily incorporated and integrated across schooling at all levels. He imagined centers for critical thinking being established, first across the country and then internationally. This has not happened.\n\nIn some ways, the problem of the lack of critical thinking in K-12 schooling and higher education has worsened since before we had a rich conception of critical thinking from which to draw. This is true for several reasons. One primary reason is that the field of "},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"Informal Logic"},{"insert":" in philosophy early on grabbed the title "},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"Critical Thinking"},{"insert":", so that critical thinking in academia continues to be dogged by argumentation and fallacy theory, both of which are secondary or peripheral, not primary, concepts in critical thinking (and both of which were prevalent before the concept of critical thinking was developed far beyond the narrow vision of philosophers).\n\nFurther, academicians from fields outside philosophy and outside critical thinking increasingly claim expertise in critical thinking when these academicians have little to no knowledge of explicit critical thinking concepts and principles, nor how to broadly foster critical thinking skills, abilities, and character traits in student thinking. These academicians treat the field of critical thinking as if they themselves are (without studying critical thinking) naturally versed in critical thinking. For instance, we now commonly see such course titles in higher education as Sociology and Critical Thinking, Psychology and Critical Thinking, Literature and Critical Thinking. This attitude and behavior toward critical thinking these same academicians would never countenance from others outside their fields laying claim to expertise within it.\n\nBecause critical thinking has not managed to establish itself as a field of study distinct from other academic fields, we increasingly hear that there is no established conception of critical thinking – when there "},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"is"},{"insert":" a shared conception based in first principles in critical thinking. And to make matters worse, because the term "},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"critical thinking"},{"insert":" appeals to the public as something naturally desirable (however vague their conceptions of it may be), we increasingly see charlatans hanging out their signs, digital or otherwise, in which they claim expertise in critical thinking. Business and academic leaders are led astray by the spurious or partial conceptions now parading as critical thinking.\n\nFor more on the history, concept and problems facing the advancement of critical thinking, read these articles from "},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines"},{"insert":":\n\n"},{"attributes":{"color":"blue","link":"https://community.criticalthinking.org/viewDocument.php?doc=../content/library_for_everyone/135/Elder_Paul__sContributionstotheFieldofCriticalThinkingStudies.pdf&page=1"},"insert":"https://community.criticalthinking.org/viewDocument.php?doc=../content/library_for_everyone/135/Elder_Paul__sContributionstotheFieldofCriticalThinkingStudies.pdf&page=1"},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"color":"blue","link":"https://community.criticalthinking.org/viewDocument.php?doc=../content/library_for_everyone/145/ReflectionsontheNatureofCriticalThinking_ItsHistory_Politics_andBarriers_andonItsStatusacrosstheCollege_UniversityCurriculumPartI.pdf&page=1"},"insert":"https://community.criticalthinking.org/viewDocument.php?doc=../content/library_for_everyone/145/ReflectionsontheNatureofCriticalThinking_ItsHistory_Politics_andBarriers_andonItsStatusacrosstheCollege_UniversityCurriculumPartI.pdf&page=1"},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"color":"blue","link":"https://community.criticalthinking.org/viewDocument.php?doc=../content/library_for_everyone/146/ReflectionsontheNatureofCriticalThinking_ItsHistory_Politics_andBarriers_andonItsStatusacrosstheCollege_UniversityCurriculumPartII.pdf&page=1"},"insert":"https://community.criticalthinking.org/viewDocument.php?doc=../content/library_for_everyone/146/ReflectionsontheNatureofCriticalThinking_ItsHistory_Politics_andBarriers_andonItsStatusacrosstheCollege_UniversityCurriculumPartII.pdf&page=1"},{"insert":"\n"}]}

{"ops":[{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"[Missed Part 2? "},{"attributes":{"bold":true,"link":"https://community.criticalthinking.org/blogPost.php?param=222"},"insert":"Read It Here"},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"]"},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"italic":true,"bold":true},"insert":" "},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"italic":true,"bold":true},"insert":"What Is the Nature of Human Productivity?"},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"italic":true,"bold":true},"insert":" "},{"insert":"\nProduction is, quite simply, the creation of some "},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"utility"},{"insert":". The first question to ask, then, in probing the roots of productivity is, "},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"whose utility?"},{"insert":" Beyond production for sheer survival, utility must be judged from a human point of view; and all of the diversity and opposition that exists between conflicting points of view is reflected in judgments of the relative utility of diverse forms and modes of production and productivity.\n \nProduction and productivity can be looked at both quantitatively and qualitatively. Of greatest significance are the standards we use to assess production qualitatively. I suggest that "},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"the most pressing problem the world faces today"},{"insert":" is the problem of irrational production, of that production which wastefully expends human labor and precious resources for ends that would not be valued by rational persons nor be given priority in a rational society.\n \nThe modes and nature of production within any given society reflect the nature, development, and values of that society. Insofar as a society is democratic, the modes and nature of production will reflect democratic decision making regarding production. This reflects not only individual decisions that one might make as an autonomous “consumer” and vocational decision-maker but also collective decisions as a citizen who supports some given social and economic philosophy or other. For example, the decision to provide many hundreds of millions of dollars to subsidize the development of nuclear energy rather than solar energy was a “collective” decision, heavily dependent on public funds and resources. So, too, were the development of railroad systems, the airline industries, the public highways, and sewer systems. These general decisions and the precise ways in which they were implemented can be analyzed for their implications for the use of public resources and the meeting of public interest and need. Indeed, there are very few “political” or “social” decisions which do not have economic and moral implications. Every expenditure of public or private resources represents both an economic trade-off (in that other possible uses cannot, then, be furthered) and some implementation of a judgment of value for public or private good. A society is not democratic if its citizens are not disposed to participate in this economic and social decision making in such a way as to knowingly and effectively protect the public good and interest.\n"}]}

{"ops":[{"insert":"Dr. Nosich and I continue to discuss and explore the more complex theory and application of critical thinking through our podcast series: "},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"Critical Thinking: Going Deeper"},{"insert":". I invite you to view our two latest podcasts focused on the twin barriers to critical thinking – Egocentric and sociocentric thinking:\n\n\n"},{"attributes":{"color":"#0078d7","link":"https://community.criticalthinking.org/watchEmbeddedVideo.php?id=339"},"insert":"The Human Mind: Going Deeper - Barriers to Critical Thinking, Part 1: Sociocentricity"},{"attributes":{"list":"ordered"},"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"color":"#0078d7","link":"https://community.criticalthinking.org/watchEmbeddedVideo.php?id=341"},"insert":"The Human Mind: Going Deeper - Barriers to Critical Thinking, Part 1: Egocentricity"},{"attributes":{"list":"ordered"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\n"}]}

{"ops":[{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"[Missed Part 1? "},{"attributes":{"bold":true,"link":"https://community.criticalthinking.org/blogPost.php?param=220"},"insert":"Read It Here"},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"]"},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"italic":true,"bold":true},"insert":" "},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"italic":true,"bold":true},"insert":"What is the Nature of Irrational Human Learning?"},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"italic":true,"bold":true},"insert":" "},{"insert":"\nAll learning has social and psychological as well as epistemological roots. Whatever we learn, we learn in some social setting and in the light of the inborn constitution of the human mind. There is a natural reciprocity between the nature of the human mind as we know it and society as we know it. The human mind – and we must understand it as it is, not as we may judge it ought to be – has a profound and natural tendency toward ethnocentrism. Both egocentrism and ethnocentrism are powerful impediments to rational learning and rational production. An irrational society tends to spawn irrational learning and inevitably generates irrational productivity. Both socially and individually, irrationality is the normal state of affairs in human life. It represents our primary nature, the side of us that needs no cultivation, that emerges willy-nilly in our earliest behaviors.\n \nNo one needs to teach young children to focus on their own interests and desires (to the relative exclusion of the rights, interests, and desires of others), to experience their desires as self-evidently “justified”, and to structure experience with their own egos at the center. They do this quite naturally and spontaneously. They and we are spontaneously motivated to learn what gets us what we want. They and we are instinctively motivated to believe whatever justifies our getting what we want. It is not "},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"natural"},{"insert":" for us to step outside our egocentric point of view. It is not natural for us to take into account the interests, needs, or points of view of others. We do so only insofar as we are compelled as we experience the force and power of others who require us to respond to their interests and desires and to take into account their point of view. We do so, then, often grudgingly and with limited understanding. We acquire and extinguish beliefs, knowledge, habits, and behaviors insofar as they seem to us to further our, typically unexamined, desires. We begin with visceral learning that is functional in the most immediate and spontaneous way. We learn without knowing we are learning, without making any conscious choice about the conditions of our learning, without recognizing the pitfalls of our learning, without recognizing its selective, its epistemologically naïve, its narrow foundations. And, as long as what we learn “works”, as long as we can get by with it, we tend not to discover the longer range value of self-critique.\n \nSocialization, which comes close on the heels of egocentric experience, builds upon, rather than significantly modifies, egocentrism. Our egocentrism is partially transformed into ethnocentrism. We spontaneously and subconsciously internalize the world view that is dominant in our society. And just as we don’t as individuals recognize the egocentrism of our personal point of view, we don’t as members of social groups recognize the ethnocentrism of our collective world view. We take that world view to be as objective, as completely a mirror-image of the world, as we take our personal point of view to be. Indeed, it is a rare individual who can tell where the one ends and the other begins.\n \nThe capacity to think critically – to penetrate our egocentrism and ethnocentrism, to give credence to points of view other than our own, to recognize ourselves as "},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"having "},{"insert":"a point of view (rather than simply grasping the nature of the world directly and objectively), to seek evidence for our beliefs, to monitor and assess the component elements in our reasoning – is not spontaneous as is our primary egocentrism, but must be laboriously cultivated through education. When we develop abilities to think critically we develop our capacity to function as free agents. As they develop, we come to analyze, assess, and take command of our learning and so of the actions that issue from that learning, including our own productions and productivity. As rational agents, we bring a new dimension to learning and production. We open the way for our own rational production and the collective development of a rational society. We can understand this better by considering the nature of human productivity.\n"}]}

{"ops":[{"attributes":{"color":"#4c5653"},"insert":"If you want to see your life change for the better, and if you find yourself frequently depressed, anxious or experiencing other pervasive negative emotional states that result from stress, you will need to change the way you think and react to ordinary, everyday events in your life that you perceive as stressful. You may need to change something about how you are living to remove this stress, or you may need to change the way you are perceiving the situation. Realize that dealing with complexities is simply part of living a human life. To eliminate them is impossible. The question is, how can you deal with the issues you face and the people around you without becoming unnecessarily stressed, worried, anxious, drained, or fatigued?"},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"color":"#4c5653"},"insert":" "},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"color":"#4c5653"},"insert":"Some people more easily deflect unpleasant experiences and realities than others. They handle these circumstances as “water off a duck’s back,” which means not upsetting themselves about circumstances and people over which they have no control. Others must struggle to achieve this perspective on life; many never do. But all of us are capable of moving towards it by retraining our minds. This requires intellectual autonomy, or in other words, the willingness to stand alone in your beliefs while adhering to the principles of ethical critical thinking. It means keeping things in perspective and commanding your reactions and responses. Of course, in dire circumstances, it may or will be impossible not to be affected by life’s dark side; even then, and in every context, we want to be as little stressed over external circumstances as possible. Through this perspective, you are better able to use your energy to solve the problems that you face, both"},{"attributes":{"color":"#233f8f","bold":true},"insert":" "},{"attributes":{"color":"#4c5653"},"insert":"personally and in terms of contributing to a more civilized society."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"color":"#4c5653","bold":true},"insert":"Would you say you frequently feel stressed and tense? "},{"attributes":{"color":"#4c5653"},"insert":"If so, write out in detail why this is so:"},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"color":"#4c5653"},"insert":"1. I feel stressed _____% of the time."},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"color":"#4c5653"},"insert":"2. The primary conditions in my life that lead to this stress are . . ."},{"insert":"\na.\nb.\nc.\nd.\n"},{"attributes":{"color":"#4c5653"},"insert":"3. The specific things I am doing to cause me to feel stressed are . . ."},{"insert":"\na.\nb.\nc.\nd.\n"},{"attributes":{"color":"#4c5653"},"insert":"4. I need to change the following things in my thinking and my life to reduce my stress level . . ."},{"insert":"\na.\nb.\nc.\nd.\n"},{"attributes":{"color":"#4c5653"},"insert":"5. Based on this analysis, I plan to make the following changes right away . . ."},{"insert":"\na.\nb.\nc.\nd.\n"},{"attributes":{"color":"#4c5653"},"insert":"Be keenly aware of what situations lead you to high levels of stress. To help target specific causes of stress in these situations, "},{"attributes":{"color":"#4c5653","bold":true},"insert":"work through the following activity each time you feel excessive stress:"},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"color":"#4c5653"},"insert":"1. Today the following situation happened in which I felt stressed . . ."},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"color":"#4c5653"},"insert":"2. I reacted as follows . . ."},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"color":"#4c5653"},"insert":"3. I realize now I could instead have reacted in the following way . . ."},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"color":"#4c5653"},"insert":"4. If I had reacted in this more reasonable way, I would have been happier because . . ."},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"color":"#4c5653"},"insert":"Come up with a long-term plan to keep from becoming overly stressed. Do you need new amusements or outlets for your stress? If so, detail what these might be and then act upon them in positive ways."},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"color":"#4c5653"},"insert":" "},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"color":"#4c5653"},"insert":"---"},{"insert":"\nThis material in this blog has been slightly modified from the upcoming book: "},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"Critical Thinking Therapy for Mental Health and Self-Actualization: Workbook"},{"insert":", by Linda Elder, in press.\n"}]}

{"ops":[{"attributes":{"italic":true,"bold":true},"insert":"Abstract"},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"italic":true,"bold":true},"insert":" "},{"insert":"\nIn this paper, originally presented at the "},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"Annual Rupert N. Evans Symposium "},{"insert":"at the University of Illinois in 1985, Paul argues that productivity, development, and thinking are deeply interrelated. Consequently, societies concerned with their development and productivity must concern themselves with the nature of their educational systems, especially with whether or not the mass of citizens learn to think critically. Paul distinguishes rational from irrational productivity and argues that critical thinking is essential to rational productivity in a democratic world.\n \nIrrational production, in Paul’s view, is productivity which “fails to serve the public good, insofar as it is production wasteful of non-renewable resources, destructive of public health, or at the expense of basic human needs”. As both capitalism and democracy develop as world forces, it is important that we recognize the struggle “between the ideal of democracy and protection of the public good, on the one hand, and the predictable drive on the part of vested interests to multiply their wealth and power irrespective of the public need or good, on the other . . . To the extent that it is possible for concentrations of wealth to saturate the media with images and messages that manipulate the public against its own interest, the forms of democracy become mere window dressing, mere appearance with no substantial reality.”\n \nPaul believes that the human world we have created has been created with a minimum of critical thought, a minimum of public rationality. He is convinced, however, that we can no longer afford mass irrationality. For Paul, the tensions between democracy, unbridled capitalism, and the public good must be increasingly resolved by a genuinely educated, rational, citizenry.\n \n"},{"attributes":{"italic":true,"bold":true},"insert":"Introduction"},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":" "},{"insert":"\nWhen we look upon learning in itself or productivity in itself or any other dimension of human life in itself, we look upon it with a partial view, as an abstraction from the real world in which all things exist in relationship. We then fail to see how it derives from relationship its true qualities. We view our object uncritically and narrowly. We fail to achieve the comprehensiveness genuine and deep understanding presupposes. In this paper, I emphasize the intimate reciprocal relation between learning and productivity, arguing that what we learn about the nature and problems of learning sheds light on the nature and problems of productivity. Hence, just as learning can be rational or irrational, so, too, can productivity. Just as learning can be assessed not only in terms of quantity but quality as well, so, too, can productivity. Finally, I will argue that the nature and quality of life in society is intimately dependent on the nature and quality of human learning which in turn determines the nature and quality of productivity.\n \nA free and rational society requires free and rational learning and thus generates free and rational production. Education, rightly conceived, has as its fundamental end the nurturing of free and rational learning and hence aims to contribute and will contribute to free and rational production. Vocational education should not, then, be seen as independent of the fundamental aims and ends of all education. It should proceed with the same liberating comprehensiveness, the same excellence, and the same command of mind and behavior that we typically think of as the desired hallmarks of a liberal education. My fundamental questions are these:\n \nWhat is the nature of irrational human learning?\n \nWhat is the nature of irrational human productivity?\n \nWhat is the significance for education of irrational learning and irrational productivity as social phenomena?\n"}]}