Caring About What We Think About Critically

As I mention throughout this blog, time and time again, one should only apply critical thinking (CT) to issues they care about or that are important to them (Dwyer, 2017). Why? Well, as I noted here a few months ago in 7 Reasons Why We Fall for Fake News, if we thought critically about everything we do from the moment we wake, it’s likely that by mid-morning, we would fall victim to cognitive load (Sweller, 2010) and/or decision fatigue (Baumeister, 2003). If a topic, issue, or decision to be made isn’t particularly important to you or your life—if it doesn’t warrant the time and energy necessary to appropriately consider—then you don’t care enough about it to apply CT, and that’s fine. I don’t think critically about what kind of coffee I’m going to order in the café, what I’m going to eat for dinner, or what film I’m going to watch on television—these decisions are not likely to have large impacts on my life. So, why waste the energy?

Of course, everyone is different in terms of what they care about and why. If you’re struggling with finances and your dishwasher breaks, you will probably care more about what to do about it than if money wasn’t a concern. For example, would you go for a cheaper dishwasher—knowing that it may well break down faster than a more expensive, better-rated dishwasher? Would you splash out and buy a more expensive option and look at it as a worthwhile investment, even though it would further deplete your already suffering bank account? You might even consider not buying a dishwasher at all and that you and your spouse can do the dishes by hand, even though both of you hate this chore and the added work might place extra stress on both of you in what is already a stressful time because of your struggling finances. On the other hand, if money isn’t a concern, one might simply go for the most reputable dishwasher on the market. Likewise, as I exemplified in the past, if politics or children’s health care policy are topics with which you aren’t particularly interested, then it’s probably not really important for you to dedicate time and effort to evaluating arguments regarding these topics. Some of you may be reading this with amazement that I’m advocating apathy towards what you might consider important topics—but, that’s just it. Your amazement (maybe even anger) results from your care about these topics. Remember, everyone is different; and so, there is subjectivity here with respect to importance and care.

Though I’ve advocated the perspective that people should only apply CT to issues they care about for quite a while, I have noticed it’s contradiction of another important message that I often disseminate: ‘leave emotion at the door’—it is an enemy of CT. That is, if we want to be able to think critically, we must remove our emotions from our thinking; a perspective consistent with a large body of research on the negative impact of emotion on decision-making (e.g., Kahneman and Frederick, 2002; Slovic et al., 2002; Strack, Martin, and Schwarz, 1988). Surely, though, if we care about a topic and choose to apply CT, doesn’t the emotional bias we have—the foundation of our care—likewise bias our critical analyses, evaluations, and inferences?

The short answer is ‘yes.' But, if we truly care about a topic, we will conduct CT to the best of our ability, making sure to: apply the CT skills of analysis, evaluation and inference; ensure a positive disposition towards the fundaments of critical thought; play devil’s advocate; judge the information reflectively; and, as best we can, leave the aforementioned emotion at the door. This is not easy; but, if we truly care about our decision, applying CT in this manner will facilitate better solutions to problems and valid conclusions to arguments.

Furthermore, if we consider what is actually meant by the term ‘care,’ we can come to better assimilate what is meant by the term in context. Apart from its other meanings, care has been described as a feeling of concern or interest; the attachment of importance to a person, place, object or concept; and serious attention or consideration applied to doing something correctly or to avoid damage or risk. Though these descriptions imply that there is an element of emotion involved in care (i.e., a feeling), this emotion is not pointed in a particular direction in terms of bias; rather the feeling is one of concern, interest and importance regarding a topic, followed by attention and consideration—both of which lend themselves to the fundaments of CT. In light of these descriptions, it could be argued that what can be perceived as emotional (i.e., a feeling), could otherwise be perceived as a dispositional factor, the latter which we know to be as important to applying CT as actual CT skills.

With that, we cannot simply ignore the perception of care as a function of emotion. However, what might help overcome this issue is to distinguish the concept of care, as an almost dispositional aspect of CT, from the emotive conceptualisation at the core of this problem. Thus, let’s consider this emotive element as better described as passion.

Like ‘care,’ let’s have a look at some descriptions of passion I found after a quick search online - intense, driving, or overmastering feeling or conviction; emotions as distinguished from reason; a strong liking or desire for or devotion to some activity, object or concept. The concept of feeling again rears its head. Emotional concepts of desire and devotion are also identified. However, what may be most important to consider is the description of ‘emotion distinguished from reason’; that is, acknowledging the reliance on emotion over and above reason—the latter which often goes hand-in-hand in describing what is meant by CT. Perhaps, passion is a better fit for what we mean when we think of the emotional side of care, albeit, perhaps, a more extreme version. As always, I’m open to suggestions from you, the reader.

Now, I’m not saying passion is necessarily a bad thing. It can be a positive driving force—a motivator in our lives; perhaps, even something that gives one’s life meaning; but, for the purposes of critical thought, it’s best to remove 'passion' from the process and focus on the less biased features of 'care.' So, in conclusion, when we apply CT, it should be applied to a topic we care about; but, it is important to distinguish the emotional features of care (such as passion) from our perspective when engaging the otherwise useful features of identifying concern, interest and importance for subsequent attention and consideration.