Communities of Critical Thinking

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In all of my classes, we discuss the importance of critical thinking to the good life and the good society.

Most of the courses I teach are in the field of ethics. We discuss human nature, human flourishing, the nature of right and wrong, and the connections and tensions between individual freedom and the common good.

We also explore several controversial topics, including abortion, the death penalty, what justice requires, and many more. Some of the insights I bring into the classroom related to good critical thinking from bell hooks would also be very helpful in our social discourse. Her advice, if followed, would help us make progress together.

First, hooks pointed out that critical thinking is an action. It is not a passive experience. We don't simply receive knowledge like passive receptacles. We don't engage in critical thinking merely to acquire knowledge. Rather, we also want to discover what really matters in human life and then live according to what we discover.

We cultivate our critical thinking skills best when it is done in the community. This is another way that it is an action. We interact with others about the ideas and issues we explore together. In this, we seek to remain open. We must be open to what others think, the possibility that we are wrong, and the evidence wherever it leads.

Second, the desire to know lies at the heart of critical thinking. As hooks pointed out, children have a passion for knowledge. They constantly ask questions, often including a rapid succession of "Why?" But something happens to many of them by the time they become adults and enter college or their career. They dread thinking.

According to hooks, there are many possible reasons for this, but there is also hope. We can rediscover our passion for thinking and become critical thinkers who not only long to know but are able to do it well.

How can we do this?

1. Embrace the power and joy of thinking. This is the first step. We must return to the fact that we can experience joy in thinking well. And we must once again experience the power of thought to change what we believe and how we live.

2. Practice freedom. While hooks is focused on the classroom, her advice here is useful for any group of people pursuing knowledge together. There is freedom in trying to think well and making an effort to do so. We need to overcome the intellectual inertia that may be holding us back. We must also accept and practice the freedom to be right or wrong.

No one is right all of the time, even though many appear to believe that they are. In humility, we must accept that there is a lot we don't know, and that there is freedom in being right or wrong, freedom in avoiding pride in our knowledge, and shame in our ignorance.

Practice the freedom of creating a community of learners. We don't need a classroom to experience such a community. We can create or join one ourselves. This takes us to some practical tips for cultivating the skills of critical thought.

3. Some practical tips. Read a book on your own, slowly and reflectively. Ask it questions, interact and converse with the words of the author. Or read a challenging book with other people, and discuss it together. Come up with a question or two and send them to the author via social media.

If there is an issue you want to know more about, take some time to research it. Is there an expert consensus on this issue? If so, what is the rationale for it? If not, what are the main areas of agreement and disagreement? When doing this, don't rely on some online search engine algorithm.

Cognition Essential Reads

How We Make Quick Decisions About the Number of Objects We See

The Psychology of Seeing Faces in the Clouds

Talk to a local librarian–they are experts at finding quality sources of information, much better than that guy on Facebook who read a few memes, watched some YouTube videos, and now "understands" the issues. Come back together as a community and share what you learned.

Lastly, consider the words of hooks, and find or create a learning community like this:

The most exciting aspect of critical thinking....is that it calls for initiative from everyone, actively inviting all....to think passionately and to share ideas in a passionate, open manner.

When everyone....recognizes that they are responsible for creating a learning community together, learning is at its most meaningful and useful. In such a community of learning there is no failure.

Everyone is participating and sharing whatever resource is needed at a given moment in time to ensure that we leave....knowing that critical thinking empowers us.