Imagining New Ways to Live.ppt

7/23/2019 Imagining New Ways to Live.ppt

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Imagining New Ways to Live:

The Art of Thinking Critically



The quality of your lifeis determined

by the qualityof your thinking

Discuss: To what extent do you think this is

true? Explain.



The quality of my personal and professional

life is determined by the thinking I do in

my ersonal and rofessional life!

The quality of """""""" is determined by the

thinking I do about """""""""""!



To significantly imrove the way we live#

both ersonally and rofessionally requires

that we take our thinking seriously!

The greater command we have of our thinking

the greater command we have of our lives!



What do you know about thinking$

What do you know about the connection

between thinking and living a rationallife$



What have you learned about how youthink$

%id you ever study your thinking$

What information do you have# for

e&amle# about the intellectual

rocesses that occur as your mind

thinks$



What do you know about how to analy'e#evaluate# or reconstruct your thinking$

Where does your thinking come from$

(ow much of it is of )good* quality$

(ow much of it is of )oor* quality$



To what e&tent are you in control of your

thinking$

(ow do you control your thinking$%o you know how to test it$

%o you have any conscious standards for

determining when you are thinking welland when you are thinking oorly$



(ave you ever discovered a significant roblem in your thinking and then changed

it by a conscious act of will$

If anyone asked you to teach them what you

have learned thus far in your life# aboutthinking# how e&licit would your answer be$



To truly take command of the

thinking that controls the qualityof our lives requires that we

understand thinking at a dee



This can be done only through

many years of committed ractice!



We should lace the develoment

of our thinking at the verycenter of our lives.



When you understand criticalthinking#

you can take any art of the theory ofcritical thinking and# following out the

imlications of that theory# aly it to

your ersonal or rofessional life inorder to live more roductively or

effectively!



In this session# we will focus onsome arts of the theory of

critical thinking# and test thisidea!



Webster’s Dictionary of synonyms !"#!The term +critical,

)when alied to ersons who -udge and to their

-udgments# not only may# but in very reciseuse does# imly an effort to see a thing

clearly and truly so that not only the good in

it may be distinguished from the bad and the erfect from the imerfect# but also that it as

a whole may be fairly -udged and valued!*



In airs . using $# Days /ook

0ilently read ! &viii!

Then discuss as many of these roblems in

thinking that you can 1 in the time allotted

for this activity!

%iscuss e&amles of roblems in life that

result from these roblems in thinking!

%iscuss e&amles of roblems in your own

life that result from these roblems in

thinking!



critical thinking: disciplined,

self-guided thinking

aimed at living a rational life.

Thinking that

analy'es thinking

Thinking that

assesses thinking

Thinking that

develos within itself

intellectual habits

thinking that

combats

its native

egocentricity



standardselementstraits



2ocus on intellectual standards as theoryalicable to ersonal and rofessional life

Working in pairs. Read together pp. 22-23 in the

Questions Guide.

After reading each section, discusshow you can begin actively bringing

these standards into your personal and

professional life.



%eely robing thinking using the

intellectual standards Working in airs

3erson A and 3erson /

3erson / is the questioner

(ow and where do you tend to use the most critical

thinking in your life$

2ocus rimarily on clarifying thinking and robing for deth!

0witch roles



4sing the 5lements of 6easoning Working in airs

%nalytic Thinking 7uide

Work through ! 8918# two ages at a time!

6ead silently each age and then discuss how you

can actively bring the questions on each age# or

questions like these questions# into your ersonaland rofessional life!



%eveloing Intellectual Traits# %isositions or

;irtues

Work in airs

4sing the &ow to 'tudy and (earn 7uide 0ilently read each section# then briefly

discuss

8! your understanding of that trait# and! your answers to the questions in that section!

< minutes er trait



4nderstanding Innate (uman 3athologies that

Imede Intellectual %eveloment



(umans often engage in irrational behavior! We

fight! We start wars! We kill! We are self1

destructive! We are etty and vindictive! We act

out when we don,t get our way! We abuse our

souses! We neglect our children! We

rationali'e# ro-ect# and stereotye!



We act inconsistently# ignore relevant

evidence# -um to conclusions# and

say and believe things that don,t make

good sense! We deceive ourselves in

many ways!We are our own worst enemy!



And yet we are caable of

develoing as rational ersons#of living an ethical life#

of contributing to the creation of a



There are two overlaing and interrelated

motivating imulses behind

human irrationality!



(uman egocentrism:the natural human tendency )to view

everything within the world in

relationshi to oneself# to be self1

centered* =Webster’s )ew World

Dictionary>



Human sociocentrism:

most simly concetuali'ed as group

egocentricity! To define sociocentricity# wemight take Webster,s definition of

egocentricity# substituting group for self !

Consider: 'ociocentric thinking is the naturalhuman tendency to *iew e*erything within the

world in relationship to one’s group to be

group+centered.



Irrational?6ational selves within each of us



%iscuss with a artner

Can you think of any instances ofegocentricity in human life$

%iscuss e&amles of selfishness and

narrow1mindedness!



(uman egocentricity is best understood ashaving two basic tendencies!

ne is to see the world in self-serving terms#to constantly seek that which makes one

feel good# that which one selfishly wants#

at the e&ense of the rights and needs ofothers!



The second rimary tendency of egocentricity is

the desire to maintain its beliefs# to see its views

as the correct views!

It is manifest in rigidity of thought !

And it views its irrational beliefs as rational!



Think for yourself:

Beginning to understand egocentrism

Think of the most self1centered erson you know! This

may be someone who is fundamentally selfish orarrogant! %escribe the erson,s behavior in detail!/ased on the erson,s behavior# how would youdescribe her?his thinking$ What tyes of feelings doess?he dislay$ What is the erson motivated to do$ Towhat e&tent does the erson use other eole to getwhat s?he wants$ To what e&tent does the ersone&hibit sincere concern for the thoughts and feelings ofothers$



Discovering Prejudices in Your Beliefs

As egocentric thinkers we see ourselves as in ossession of the

truth! At the same time# we form many beliefs without the

evidence to -ustify them! In other words# we form many

re-udices =-udgments before the evidence>! If this is true#

using our rational caacities we should be able to begin to

unearth some of our re-udices! In an attemt to begin this

rocess# comlete the following statements:



8! ne of the re-udices I have is B=think of generali'ations

you tend to make even though you don,t have the evidenceto -ustify them! It can be about anything you lease: abouta religion# about atheists# about men# women# homose&uals#heterose&uals# etcB3ut your re-udice in this form: All &are y# as in all women are $$# or all men are $$!>

! A more rational belief with which I should relace thisfaulty belief isB

! If I use this new belief in my thinking# my behavior wouldchange in the following waysB



6ecogni'ing When ther,s 5gocentrism

Calls ut Dour 5gocentrismThink of a situation you were recently in where you felt

yourself becoming irrational in reaction to someone,s

else,s irrationality! Comlete these statements:

The situation was B

I reacted in the situation by B In thinking through the situation# I reali'e that a more

rational way to resond to the other erson would

have been B



Cartoon . agree with me or be wrong



The Truth



(eadache



A 7uide for Imroving 5very Asectof Dour Life

6eview the Table of Contents:

$# Days ,ook



Working in airs

Take turns reading and arahrasing the

quotes on ! &i . < %ays /ook! =0tate>To me this meansB

=5laborate> In other wordsB

=7ive e&amle from real life>

To e&emlifyB



A (ow1To List for %ysfunctional Living

$# Days /ook

Working in airs# take turns reading the list on

! &&ii! After reading each one:

8! %iscuss the e&tent to which this is a roblem for you#and

! Articulate the oosite of each dysfunctional

behavior!! Then# for each )oosite* behavior# discuss how a

erson would live differently when engaged in this

oosite behavior versus the behavior on the list!



2ocus on two intellectual standards:

Clarity

6elevance

$# Days /ook

! 8E18F /e Clear

! 8G18 /e 6elevant

6ead and teach to one another in airs



/e 2air $# Days /ook ! 8H18

/egin to think about the e&tent to which you

are fair!

0ilently read and then discuss these two

ages! (ow can you use this )idea* in

your life and your work$



Taking Initial wnershi of theIdeas Working in airs#

3erson A takes ! 9919E . Don’t ,e a Top Dog

3erson / takes ! 91<H . Don’t ,e an

-nderdog 0tudy for five minutes# taking notes!



Add a 3owerful Idea Working alone# design your own owerful

idea# using the format in the $# Days /ook!

Include all of the main arts in the formula:

)/e on the lookout for*B

0ummary of the concet?roblem

0trategies for internali'ing and using thisstrategy!



In airs discuss: (ow can you use this book in develoing

as a thinker . how do you lan to use it$

(ow might you use it with students to

foster transformation of their thinking$



Coming 4 With Dour wn 3lanWrite out a lan for develoing yourself as a

thinker! Include:

A one1year rocess for develoment

Jonthly 0trategies

%aily 0trategies



Work through the logic of aquestion

Take an imortant question you would liketo address# or have been trying to address

in your ersonal or rofessional life!

Write out the logic of the question usingthe temlate on ! in the analytic

thinking guide!

Imagining New Ways to Live.ppt

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