{"ops":[{"insert":"Hello Scott,\nYou refer to a video but didn't identify any specific video. Regardless, your thoughts \"On Assumptions\" open an \"in road\" to self awareness for me and how, in a split second, I can go from information, to an assumption I'm taking for granted, to an inference/conclusion, that may or may not be, in my own best interest if I act on my inference/conclusion.\n\nI'm guessing you're referring to the video I posted but \"I wouldn't bet the house on it\" because good gamblers only bet on a sure thing. Now that I think about what makes a \"good gamblers,\" they've probably learned the hard way not to take their assumptions for granted. I wonder if FCT has a booklet on \"Critical Gambling?\" HA, HA, HA. Not so funny...\n\n\"Therefore,\" in conclusion....I'm like a novice gambler with no experience, going to Vegas every day, arrogantly deceiving myself by not recognizing and questioning my assumptions as life deals out the cards.\n\nI'll have to practice the virtue of \"intellectual humility\" by asking myself throughout the day what I know and don't know. Thank you Scott for your perceptive thoughts \"On Assumptions.\"\n"}]}

{"ops":[{"insert":"Scott, can you clarify and provide us a link to the video that you are referring to? Thank you. No need to make assumptions until we hear from you. \n"}]}

{"ops":[{"insert":"Hello,\n\nScott is referencing the following video:\n\n"},{"attributes":{"link":"https://community.criticalthinking.org/watchEmbeddedVideo.php?id=294"},"insert":"The Analysis of Reasoning: Going Deeper - Assumptions"},{"insert":"\n"}]}

{"ops":[{"insert":"Much appreciated. It is always (can I use an absolute here?) to reference your source of information. \n"}]}

{"ops":[{"insert":"Hello Scott,\nOnce again, incisive comments.\nI can say something about your 2nd and 3rd insight, about anger at bs and the need for silence and the time to process. I find that it helps a lot to dwell on point of view. The question I can ask myself is not, \"How can people come to such a stupid view????\" The more helpful questions are, \"How are these people reasoning this out? What are they seeing as the most important factors in addressing this issue? If I quiet myself down and search in good faith, can I find some truths in what they are saying?\"\n\nThat doesn't always work, of course, but many beliefs that I initially see simply as bs are actually the product of reasoning. Maybe it's flawed reasoning, but it's hard to get angry at someone for making mistakes in their "},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"reasoning"},{"insert":".\n\nYour first question:. Here's what I might do (if time permits). Ask a student an open-ended question. Listen to what they are saying. Then ask them to explain their reasoning. Again, listen (and listen especially to how they are trying to think it through). Then ask them something like \"What about if X?\" Again, listen. Then I can say, \"I see how you are reasoning this through! Nice job.\" in some cases I might add, \"I see how you are reasoning this through! I myself don't agree with everything you've said, but it's a nice example of reasons it out.\"\n\nQuestion 2: I think it goes in both directions: as you say, understanding what reasoning is helps me make progress on using the elements and standards; but using the elements and standards helps me get a deeper understanding of what reasoning is. \n\nQuestion 3: For me, it helps for me to realize that they are not me, and that it would probably be unreasonable on my part to expect everyone (regardless of the circumstances in their lives) to be willing to reason together.\n"}]}

{"ops":[{"insert":"Hello Scott,\n\nYou give a beautiful condensation of the main idea inherent in intellectual autonomy. What I especially like about it are the provisos you make to distinguish it from the ordinary sense of autonomy: "},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"non"},{"insert":"-"},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"arrogant"},{"insert":", "},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"reasonable"},{"insert":", the result of applications of "},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"reasoning skill"},{"insert":"s, and the exercise of"},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":" intellectual virtue"},{"insert":"s. (By \"beautiful\" I of course mean clear, accurate, precise, relevant, and deep.)\nI also like the self-insights you gained. (The only addition I would make to the first one is: \"to my detriment or to the detriment of others.\" I think you meant that, but it helps to make it explicit.)\nI can give some responses to the questions you raise.\n"},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"Pride and Prejudice "},{"insert":"and "},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"Sense and Sensibili"},{"insert":"ty are excellent places to start (and to stay with). Linda may recommend others."},{"attributes":{"list":"ordered"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"I think your description of intellectual autonomy applies as well to ten-year-olds as to adults. A difficulty might be How can children recognize when their ideas are reasonable? That is a difficulty, but it's a difficulty for adults also. An example is children who don't take the fads of other children very seriously. Here's a more personal example: My son wore thrift-store clothes to school, and sometimes his pants were stained. His 2nd-grade teacher said to him: \"Matt, when you wear clothes like that to school, it shows that you have no respect for education.\" My son said (without sarcasm or back-talk), \"I don't think so, Mr DeRose. It might show that I have no respect for "},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"clothes"},{"insert":".\""},{"attributes":{"list":"ordered"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"I can't think of an example of acting with too much intellectual autonomy. All the possible examples I come up with involve the person being "},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"unreasonable"},{"insert":" in some way--but that would make them not examples of intellectual autonomy. But maybe you can come up with an example of a different sort."},{"attributes":{"list":"ordered"},"insert":"\n"}]}

{"ops":[{"insert":"Hello Scott,\nI found your comments very thoughtful and incisive. Let me make a few comments of my own in response to yours.\n\nThe small dot of understanding in a big box of knowledge! That's fairly easy for me to accept as long as I think about it in the abstract. But when it comes down to concrete and specific cases, the need to acknowledge that I have only the small dot often takes me aback. For example, I can readily see how little I know when it comes to the universe, or what Putin is thinking, or the future or the past. But if I think of the people who are most important to me in my life, it's hard to recognize that there is so much about them that I don't know. I often don't know their reactions to issues (except maybe for the ones we discuss openly); I often don't know when they are not exactly saying what they think out of politeness, or a desire to avoid disagreement, or a consideration of my feelings. I often don't know what they do or think or feel in their lives when I'm not around. Of course they can tell me afterward, but that gives a different level of knowledge from actually being there.\n\nA second comment about that dot: For me, it's not just that I have a small dot of understanding in the midst of a box of knowledge. It's also that intellectual humility leads me to acknowledge that the dot itself is not all I wish it were. When I look at my past, I had a certain amount of understandings in my box that turned out actually to be "},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"mis"},{"insert":"understandings. Even within my store of knowledge, I recognize that some undetermined part of it is mistaken. There is a famous statement by the head of (I think) Harvard Medical School who was giving a commencement speech to the graduating class of new MDs. He said something like: ~Half of all our medical knowledge is wrong. Our problem is that we don't know which half.~\n\nAnother comment I have concerns your second-to-the-last paragraph. There are two different ways of interpreting your question. The issue is what do you mean by \"handling people\"? Do you mean actually changing the minds (or at least influencing) intellectually arrogant people about economic, political or social justice subjects? My response to that is that my ability to this is extremely limited. In many cases I will be utterly unable to influence other people. If that's true, a reasonable approach is to accept that as part of living in a world of people with radically different personalities, cultures and points of view. So a reasonable \"strategy\" is to accept it as a fact about how people are.\n\nThe other way of interpreting what you mean by \"handling people\" is to ask how can "},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"I myself"},{"insert":" remain calm and reasonable when others hold views that I consider entirely unreasonable? Notice that that's not a question about other people--it's a question about myself. And the answer, I would say, lies within the intellectual traits of mind, the intellectual virtues: I can cultivate my own intellectual humility, intellectual, empathy, intellectual integrity, and the others as well. If I do that, it can bring me to a place of inner contentment.\n"}]}