Skeptic Project

Yeah that article went just barely over my head.

I come from a university that prides itself on "critical thinking" but, as the author is correct in pointing out, there is much more than just being critical to tear an idea apart. That simply creates a negativist mideset with no consequence for a positivist construction. What I was referring to was the fact that we either only teach people one half of critical thought without remembering to incorporate empathetic thought or we dont teach critical thought at all. And I believe that is a fundamental mistake on both ends. Critical thought is of remarkably little use if all you set out to do is destroy every idea that you come across or disagree with. In order to know the world, you must empathize with conflict viewpoints. Afterall, some of the very wrong view points are the ones currently at work.

What the author argues is that teachers should not impart only a "critical negativist" mentality where everything must be judged, but that one must be taught both to judge and empathize. This is a very old tradition extending back to Greek philosophs who divided arguments and thought into two similar categories.

Its basically like this:

A pseudo-Marxist just comes at the problem of Cpaitalism set to deconstruct all the various flaws and issues in the system and claims to have their own system that's better. Problem is, this person saw the flaws in the other argument well, but doesn't really understand the argument empathetically nor that they understand their own argument very well. being a critical thinker isn't just about valuing other arguments as good or bad- though that is a part of it- but also mastering the other arguments logic and structure and then positively asserting your own point. And I think the problem is that we are too often educated with a reflex to sit pretty in our engrained mindsets without adequately considering others. That said, you can try to empathize with RBE (for example) but that doesn't mean its a good system at all. Its not even remotely a good argument.

Welcome back Aaron, I was beginning to think you'd be gone forever.