Unit I Discussion Board Thinking/Psychology
PHL 1010, Critical Thinking 1
Course Learning Outcomes for Unit I Upon completion of this unit, students should be able to:
1. Recognize the traits of the fair-minded thinker.
4. Apply analytical reasoning to a variety of disciplines.
5. Develop strategies for self-assessment.
Reading Assignment Introduction Chapter 1: Become a Fairminded Thinker In order for the links below to function properly, you must first log into the myCSU Student Portal and access the Academic OneFile database within the CSU Online Library. You may also access the resource by visiting the Academic OneFile database and performing a search for the title and/or author.
Burbach, M. E., Matkin, G. S., & Fritz, S. M. (2004). Teaching critical thinking in an introductory leadership course utilizing active learning strategies: A confirmatory study. College Student Journal, 38(3), 482+.
Carlson, S. C. (2013). Instructional methods influence critical thinking: Do students and instructors agree?
Academy of Educational Leadership Journal, 17(1), 27+. Mendelman, L. (2007). Critical thinking and reading. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 51(4), 300+. Rudd, R. D. (2007). Defining critical thinking. Techniques, 82(7), 46+.
Unit Lesson Critical thinking is thinking about our thinking. Human minds are amazing objects that allow you to interact with your worlds and understand those worlds. As humans enter into conscious existence, they find that their minds apply themselves naturally to the environment that surrounds the human. The mind is really good at thinking and perceiving that which is external to it. However, the mind is not so perceptive when it comes to examining itself. Critical thinking is the turning of the mind back into itself in the hope of understanding the rules of thinking that guide human rationality. This process is extremely difficult as the mind has developed in such a way that it pays attention to its external environment more than it does to itself. As you enter into the field of critical thinking, you will inevitably experience a mixture of recognition with frustration. Learning about the mind often has light bulb moments where you say, “Oh yeah…I never thought about that before.” At the same time, learning about the patterns that the mind uses when it evaluates its world can also create difficulties as we try to understand why our minds tend to be self-interested and often present information in a distorted manner. Recognizing that our most strongly-held beliefs rest on shaky ground can inspire fear and anger towards the field of critical thinking. Unfortunately, many people give up when their beliefs are questioned. However, it is important for you in this course to use the tools you learn in this course to evaluate your own beliefs about the world, politics, religion, and your social environment. It is
UNIT I STUDY GUIDE
Introduction and Fairminded Thinking
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not always wrong to believe in things that you have been taught, or that are common beliefs of the society in which you find yourself. However, we must always have logical reasons for what we believe. In contrast to the folk-wisdom of the day, not all opinions are equal. Some people do not have a logical right to hold the opinions that they hold, and critical thinkers must be ready at all times to fight against those who affirm wrongly held opinions in the attempt to create fairness and respect in society. It is important for you to realize a few things as you enter the realm of critical thinking. First, critical thinking is not something that can be learned overnight. To become a developed thinker takes years of practice, and even the most careful thinkers still fall into the traps that await those who have the goal of becoming a master thinker. Learning how to think about thinking is like learning chess, it takes years of practice and just when you think you have become a master, you realize that there is still much to learn. Do not let the difficulty of thinking about thinking dissuade you from the pursuit of becoming a critical thinker. Second, the beginning of the search for wisdom must involve intellectual humility. Being honest about your weaknesses and lack of knowledge will always ground the pursuit of high levels of thinking. You need not be ashamed to admit that you do not know certain things. This is the beginning of wisdom and so long as you try to remain humble, you will maintain the openness to truth that is necessary for critical thinking. Third, it is imperative that you maintain a healthy relationship with the subjects that you study. You must always remind yourself that a healthy psychological outlook on the subject matter will lead to deeper and easier learning. Many of you may see courses as steps that you must climb in order to obtain your goal of a degree. Sometimes, we view the courses as obstacles and often as annoyances. Needless to say, these students often fail to reach the deep level of learning that is the ultimate goal of education. Maintaining a healthy relationship to course material is the first step to learning. You should try to view course material as contributions to your overall intellectual development. Deep learning prevents you from the learning focused on memorizing facts that you then spill from your brains as soon as you finish assessments or exams. There is nothing worse than coming out of a course and not remembering much of anything about the course. That is merely a waste of your time and resources. The goal in this course should be to try to take up as much information about methods of critical thought, and then practice those methods so that students can proficiently use these techniques as they examine things in their own lives. Constant evaluation and re-evaluation of our thinking leads to a more honed understanding of our beliefs, as well as a greater appreciation for life. Prejudices slide away as you realize that stereotypical thinking is something that is merely the result of the categorization of the mind and not representative of the way things are in reality. Fallacies of reasoning become apparent to the critical thinker, and you are then able to recognize when others are trying to manipulate him or her in his or her various relationships. Fairness towards others grows as the critical thinker learns how to take up others’ positions and think from the perspective of others. Tolerance for beliefs that differ from the critical thinker’s also develops, and others who were once frightening and threatening become merely people who hold different views. Critical thinking allows humans to make better decisions about what is important to them and helps them move closer to their ultimately flourishing life. The philosopher Aristotle claimed that all humans seek happiness as their final end. However, happiness is a translation of the Greek word eudaimonia and is better thought of as human flourishing. All humans desire their ultimately flourishing life, yet so few are able to obtain it. Aristotle calls the ability to bring about the good in your own life “prudence” (phronesis). You become prudent through experience, as well as interactions with others that teach us the best possible outcomes for certain decisions that we make. Critical thinking is powerful in that, even if you have no experience of a certain event, you are able to bring a box of intellectual tools to the problem that can be used to predict outcomes and make the best decisions that are possible. The more you make prudent decisions, the more you should flourish in life. Making wise decisions about your career, family, friendships, investments (of both energy and resources), raising of children, money, and your view of the foundations of life and reality all factor into your idea of a good life. If you regularly make irrational decisions, you will suffer or not maximize the potential that exists for his or her life. Choosing to waste resources on illicit drugs harms not only the individual using the substances, but also those who care for the individual or could be helped by those lost resources. Choosing to harbor resentment and an unfair attitude towards others often leads to unhappiness and wasted mental resources as you spend much of your day thinking about and fuming over the actions of others. Not only that, these
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emotions prevent the human from moving into a new realm of self-understanding as you are trapped in this mental environment. Justifying harmful relationships and surrounding yourself with people who parasitically drain life and vitality prevents the deep and meaningful bonds of friendship and care that grow with those who virtuously promote your own good and development. Choosing to leave your talents undeveloped and settle for the everyday often leaves people wondering what could have been. All these poor decisions are aspects of life that could be changed if people made different choices and had the intellectual courage to pursue those choices. However, many humans tend to make bad decisions and they often repeat those decisions, living lives in which they do not flourish and ending life with bodies and minds in which their potential is left undeveloped. Critical thinking is the power of promoting a better life and learning how to bring about that better life. Of course there are painful things that no person can escape (death, loss, disappointment). However, perhaps the most important aspect of critical thought is its power to help us take control over those things that we can escape, or that we can do if we put our minds to the task. As you undertake this course, it is important to remember that practice, time, and effort are key components of becoming a strong critical thinker. In addition to the reading and work that the student does in the course, these lectures will supplement the material of the course and expand on that material in relation to arguments, informal logical fallacies, formal logical argument forms, analysis of credibility of sources and information, and also rhetorical techniques that are often used to emotionally manipulate audiences. Using the information from the textbook as well as the course lectures, students will learn how to analyze their own thoughts, as well as recognize weak thinking or manipulative thinking that is used against the thinker in his or her everyday life. The goal of this course it to combat weak sense learning and to develop deep learning that will extend beyond the temporality of the course and provide insight that the student will be able to use throughout the remainder of his or her life.
Learning Activities (Non-Graded) To gain further knowledge of the material, including key terms, please view this HTML presentation. This will summarize and reinforce the information from these chapters in your textbook.
Click here to access the lesson presentation for Unit I. Non-Graded Learning Activities are provided to aid students in their course of study. You do not have to submit them. If you have questions contact your instructor for further guidance and information.
