On 16 July, ARLO said to Ian:
...Except, what I wrote is not "criticism" by any stretch of that word. It's a
simple presentation of a process. Could I have been more elaborate? Perhaps.
But I guess I am used to working with people who wouldn't need this process
elaborated upon. Apparently, I was wrong. (Yes, you can count THAT as
"criticism".) I am tempted to point out that your reply to this, however, was
all criticism. And you didn't follow your Dennett-steps yourself. Do as I say,
not as I do, eh? (Count that as a bonus "criticism".)
dmb says:
Yea, it's frustrating that "criticism" is taken as a dirty word by some members
of this philosophy discussion group. I totally disagree with Ian's attitude
that criticism should be used very rarely, for example, and I think Ian and
John's persistent refusal to answer the standing criticisms is completely
inappropriate to the situation. Philosophy is essentially a critical engagement
with reasons and arguments. Philosophy could very well be defined as critical
thinking. I mean, the ad hominem argument is not considered a fallacy simply
because it's rude or insulting. It's not just bad table manners. It's
considered an invalid because it rejects arguments or criticisms for reasons
that are irrelevant to the arguments or criticisms. It's prohibited because the
thinking is flawed, not because philosophers are supposed to be sweet and kind.
It's rejected for intellectual reasons, not in deference to social niceties.
Here's another message for John Carl, Ian, and anyone else who resents the
demands of critical thought. It's from the Wiki page on "Critical Thinking":
Etymology
One sense of the term critical means "crucial" or "highly important"; a second
sense derives from κριτικός (kritikos), which means "able to discern".
Critical thinking has been defined as:
"the process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing,
synthesizing, and evaluating information to reach an answer or conclusion"
"disciplined thinking that is clear, rational, open-minded, and informed by
evidence"
"reasonable reflective thinking focused on deciding what to believe or do"
"purposeful, self-regulatory judgment which results in interpretation,
analysis, evaluation, and inference, as well as explanation of the evidential,
conceptual, methodological, criteriological, or contextual considerations upon
which that judgement is based"
"includes a commitment to using reason in the formulation of our beliefs"
disciplined, self-directed thinking which exemplifies the perfection of
thinking appropriate to a particular mode of domain of thinking thinking about
one's thinking in a manner designed to organize and clarify, raise the
efficiency of, and recognize errors and biases in one's own thinking. Critical
thinking is not 'hard' thinking nor is it directed at solving problems (other
than 'improving' one's own thinking). Critical thinking is inward-directed with
the intent of maximizing the rationality of the thinker. One does not use
critical thinking to solve problems - one uses critical thinking to improve
one's process of thinking.
Skills
The list of core critical thinking skills includes observation, interpretation,
analysis, inference, evaluation, explanation, and metacognition. According to
Reynolds (2011), an individual or group engaged in a strong way of critical
thinking gives due consideration to establish for instance:
Evidence through observation
Context skills to isolate the problem from context
Relevant criteria for making the judgment well
Applicable methods or techniques for forming the judgment
Applicable theoretical constructs for understanding the problem and the
question at hand
In addition to possessing strong critical-thinking skills, one must be disposed
to engage problems and decisions using those skills. Critical thinking employs
not only logic but broad intellectual criteria such as clarity, credibility,
accuracy, precision, relevance, depth, breadth, significance, and fairness
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