THE WHY OF CRITICAL THINKING

Why learn how to think critically? What’s so important about that? What will I miss if I don’t learn the critical thinking skills?

At the heart of the human experience, there’s a very strange phenomenon and it is a phenomenon that is not easy to describe. In spite of that I’ll give it a try here. In a few words it is this: We humans live our lives by ideas. Okay, yes, but so what? What does that really mean? What does that really imply?

We live our lives by ideas because we do not have information-content “instincts.” We do not instinctively, innately “know” how to live or what to do. We have to learn. And because we have to learn what things are, how they work, what they are for, the factors that make them effective or ineffective, the value and/or dis-value of those things, etc., it is these ideas that then govern our lives. That is why, in human experience, what you think is so crucial. And “what you think” means lots of things: how you think, how you reason, interpret, draw conclusions, the referent experiences you use, the meanings that you receive and use, the values that you learn to care about, the goals and intentions that you set, and lots more.

It is in this that we humans live our lives by ideas. Now, given that, then if we live our lives by ideas, this makes both the ideas as the content of what we think, believe, understand, care about, etc. and how we generate ideas critically important. So we ask, What is your idea about X? What are your ideas about business, entrepreneurship, budgeting, exercising, planning, cooperating with others, competition, leadership, entering into a loving relationship, arguing, resolving conflicts, and a thousand other things. Whatever your ideas— so will be your life. The quality of your life will not be, and cannot be, better than the quality of your ideas. This is the neuro-semantic fact that we begin with: The quality of your ideas— > the quality of your life.

Okay, so it is important! But wait, there’s more! What’s more is the kind of thinking that you use to create your ideas— let’s call it your idea-generation style. This is where the ability to do critical thinking really comes in. Here you notice the kind of thinking you are doing, the kind and style of generation-of-ideas so that you can make sure it is accurate, appropriate, logical, healthy, and ecological. To what extend are you aware of how you are thinking?

The problem is that you might be using toxic and limiting ideas that you are unaware of. Low quality ideas may have crept in entirely unnoticed and now dominate your way of conceptualizing and interpreting without you have seriously examined them at all. Hayek wrote: “When we no longer share these implicit assumptions of ages long past, it is comparatively easy to recognize them. But it is different with regard to the ideas underlying the thought of more recent

times. Here we are frequently not yet aware of the common features which the opposing systems of thought share, ides which for that very reason often have crept in almost unnoticed and have achieved their dominance without serious examination.” F.A. Hayek, Studies on the Abuse & Decline of Reason (p. 285)

Here is an occupational hazard for us humans. We can be thinking with certain ideas as our frames, our interpretive lens or schemas and not know it. You and I can assume certain premises and presuppositions without realizing that we are doing so. You can think and reason and process information within the explicit assumptions that you have learned to be conscious about and never suspect that there are a whole range of implicit, covert, and therefore hidden frames actually governing our experience.

Whoooah! Now, isn’t that a great big reason for learning critical thinking skills? Wouldn’t you like to know what are the hidden and covert frames that are governing your thinking and maybe biasing your way of understanding things? Without having access to that level of your thinking, someone or some system of thought could be controlling you and dominating your responses— without you never knowing about it!

At the very center of critical thinking skills is the ability to examine your own thinking— yes, the content, but more than the content, the kind of reasoning that you are using. It is to call forth your assumptions, premises, and presuppositions. This is what we especially do in Meta-Coaching. We move so far inside the person’s matrix that we begin exploring the covert, implicit, and unconscious frames—the frames by implication (the FBI structures) that’s governing or controlling the person’s way of being in the world. And why? Because that’s where the leverage for change, for transformation, for unleashing, and for fully blossoming as a human being lies.

This isn’t easy. It is not easy to question a person to expose the hidden frames that’s governing a person’s assumptions, nor is it easy for the person being questioned. Nothing is more intimate than this. Hardly anything makes a person feel more vulnerable. And yet when you discover this about yourself, your self-understanding will increase by leaps and bounds and your ability to manage your thinking, feeling, and responding will similarly increase. Your ability to critically think about these covert assumptions will enable you to take much more control over your life. Interested?