This is the day to…
Discover your ignorance
To discover your ignorance…
Be on the lookout for
intellectual
arrogance
Practice intellectual
humility
• Discover limitations
and biases of your
sources of
information, and
question those who
speak with
authority; question
the information they
ignore or distort;
question the truth of
your own confident
assertions
Practice intellectual humility
“Most of us assume that what we
believe must be right; even
though we were taught much
of what we believe before we
could critically analyze our
beliefs, we nevertheless defend
our beliefs as the truth.”
(Drs. Elder and Paul)
Good thinkers know that this
is absurd…
• “When you actively focus on
uncovering your ignorance, you
realize that you are often wrong.
• You recognize that much of what
people believe is based on prejudice,
bias, half-truths, and sometimes
even superstition.”
(Ibid)
Intellectual humility is
“The disposition to distinguish,
at any given moment, in any
given situation, between what
you know and what you
don’t.” (Elder and Paul, ibid.)
Be aware of the natural tendency of the mind
to think it knows more than it does, to see
itself as right when evidence proves
otherwise.
People with intellectual
humility…
(And these people are
rare.)
• Routinely think
within
alternative
viewpoints
• Enter other
viewpoints in
order to
understand
them
An example…Socrates
• “Socrates philosophized by joining in a
discussion with another person who
thought he knew what justice, courage, or
the like was. Under Socrates’ questioning, it
became clear that neither [of the two] knew,
and they cooperated in a new effort,
Socrates making interrogatory suggestions
that were accepted or rejected by his friend.
They failed to solve the problem, but, now
conscious of their lack of knowledge,
agreed to continue the search whenever
possible.” (Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 1972, cited in 25
Days to Better Thinking & …, Ibid)
People with intellectual
humility
…understand that there is
far more that they will
never know than they will
ever know.
(Elder and Paul, Center for Critical Thinking)
Strategies: begin by saying…
1. “I may be wrong, but what I
think is…”
2. “Up to this point, I have
believed…”
3. “Based on my limited
knowledge in this area, I
would say…”
Other strategies from our
authors…
• Notice when you argue for beliefs
without evidence, and recognize
why you are doing this
• Actively question beliefs that seem
obviously true to you
• Find alternative sources of
information that represent
viewpoints you have never
considered
Question, question…
Don’t be afraid to explore new
beliefs, and hence to be open to
new insights
• What do I really know? To
what extent do my biases
influence my thinking?
• Do I ever think outside the box
(of my culture, my nation…?)
…and furthermore,
• How do the beliefs I have accepted
uncritically keep me from seeing
things as they are?
• How have my beliefs been shaped
by the time period in which I was
born, by the place in which I was
raised, by other’s beliefs, and so on?
(Drs. Elder & Paul, Ibid)
This is the day to…
Discover your ignorance
All materials are from 25 Days to
Better Thinking & Better Living,
by Drs. Linda Elder & Richard
Paul, Center and Foundation
for Critical Thinking, CA.
Daily Reflection Notes
• Print the following slide, one
copy for each day of this week,
(remember to use “print current slide”).
• Reflecting and making some
notes on your thoughts and
experiences of the day help to
internalize this “challenge”, as
you know.
DAILY REFLECTION NOTES
•
Today I was successful in using the following ideas/strategies:
•
The key insights that emerged for me today were:
•
One problem in my thinking that I now realize is:
•
I plan to continue working on this problem using the following
strategy: