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Summary
Summary
From work and money to your most intimate relationships, this book presents a 25-day plan for thinking more clearly and effectively and improving every aspect of your life.
Author Notes
Dr. Linda Elder is President of the Foundation for Critical Thinking and Executive Director of the Center for Critical Thinking, a leading international institute that promotes critical thinking in every domain of human life. An educational psychologist, she has developed an original stage theory of critical thinking development and coauthors a column on critical thinking for The Journal of Developmental Education . She is highly published and has done original research into the relation of thought and emotion and into the stages of critical thinking development. She is a regular keynoter at the International Conference on Critical Thinking, is highly sought after as a presenter, and is a recognized leader in critical thinking.
Dr. Richard Paul is Director of Research and Professional Development at the Center for Critical Thinking and Chair of the National Council for Excellence in Critical Thinking. He is an internationally recognized authority on critical thinking, with nine books and more than 200 articles on the subject. His views on critical thinking have been canvassed in the New York Times , Education Week , The Chronicle of Higher Education , American Teacher , Reader's Digest , Educational Leadership , Newsweek , and U.S. News and World Report .
The works of Linda Elder and Richard Paul have been translated into Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Chinese. Translations are underway in Russian, Malay, and Korean. The growing demand for translations into increasing numbers of languages testifies to the emerging international recognition of the importance of critical thinking in human life and work and of the authoritative nature of the contribution of Paul and Elder in the field.
The Foundation for Critical Thinking seeks to promote essential change in society through the cultivation of fair-minded critical thinking, thinking predisposed toward intellectual empathy, humility, perseverance, integrity, and responsibility. In a world of accelerating change, intensifying complexity, and increasing interdependence, critical thinking is now a requirement for economic and social survival. Contact the Foundation for Critical Thinking at www.criticalthinking.org.
Reviews (1)
Library Journal Review
Elder and Paul, both specialists in the area of critical thinking, present a 25-step plan for overcoming bad thinking habits and, in turn, improving one's quality of life. Starting with the premise that faulty reasoning is at the heart of most problems, the authors provide daily exercises that focus on a particular habit. For instance, on day three (integrity), readers are asked to notice contradictions in their behavior and reduce hypocrisy. Strategies for achieving results are given every step of the way; readers are encouraged to keep a journal of daily progress. In its brevity and usefulness to all sectors of the population, this book is recommended for all public libraries. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Excerpts
Excerpts
Preface "Thinking leads man to knowledge. He may see and hear, and read and learn whatever he pleases, and as much as he pleases; he will never know anything of it, except that which he has thought over, that which by thinking he has made the property of his own mind." --Pestalozzi There is nothing we do as humans that does not involve thinking. Our thinking tells us what to believe, what to reject, what is important, what is unimportant, what is true, what is false, who are our friends, who are our enemies, how we should spend our time, what jobs we should pursue, where we should live, who we should marry, how we should parent. Everything we know, believe, want, fear, and hope for, our thinking tells us. It follows, then, that the quality of our thinking is the primary determinant of the quality of our lives. It has implications for how we go about doing literally everything we do. The quality of your work is determined by the quality of your thinking as you reason through the problems you face as you work. The quality of your relationships is determined by the thinking you do about and in those relationships. Right now, as you read this book, the very sense you make of it is a product of your thinking. Your ability to understand and internalize the ideas it contains will be determined by the quality of your thinking as you read it. Therefore, learning to think at the highest level of quality, or to think critically, is too important to leave to chance. Critical thinking is the disciplined art of ensuring that you use the best thinking you are capable of in any set of circumstances. Through developed critical capacities, you can take command of the thinking that commands you. No matter what your circumstance or goals, no matter where you are or what problems you face, you are better off if you are in control of your thinking. As a professional, parent, citizen, lover, friend, shopper--in every realm and situation of your life--skilled thinking pays off. Poor thinking, in contrast, inevitably causes problems, wastes time and energy, and engenders frustration and pain. Becoming a critical thinker requires that you learn to observe, monitor, analyze, assess, and reconstruct thinking of many sorts in many dimensions of human life. It requires building important habits of mind. It has implications for every act that takes place in your mind. It requires a special form of dedication and perseverance, honesty and integrity. It can be done only if taken seriously and pursued throughout a lifetime. This book shows you how to use your mind to improve your mind. Each of the ideas in this book can help you take command of the mind that is controlling your thoughts, emotions, desires, and behavior. Our hope is not in a miracle transformation, but in laying a foundation for your future intellectual and emotional growth. We are merely scratching the surface of deep and complex topics. We do not provide a quick fix, but rather places to begin. When you begin to take your intellectual growth seriously, you begin to see payoffs in every part of your life. But first, you must wake up your mind. You must begin to understand your mind. You must begin to see when it is causing you problems. You must begin to see when it is causing others problems. You must learn how to trap it when it tries to hide from itself (using one of the many forms of self-deception at which it is naturally skilled). You must discover some of the trash and nonsense you have unknowingly taken in during years of passive absorption--to which all of us are subject. This book shows you how to begin. The quality of your life is determined by the quality of your thinking. Thinking gets us into trouble because we often are unclear, muddled, or confused jump to conclusions fail to think-through implications lose track of our goals are unrealistic focus on the trivial do not notice contradictions accept inaccurate information ask vague questions give vague answers ask loaded questions ask irrelevant questions confuse questions of different types answer questions we are not competent to answer come to conclusions based on inaccurate or irrelevant information ignore information that does not support our view make inferences not justified by our experience distort data and state it inaccurately fail to notice the inferences we make come to unreasonable conclusions fail to notice our assumptions often make unjustified assumptions miss key ideas use irrelevant ideas form confused ideas form superficial concepts misuse words ignore relevant viewpoints cannot see issues from points of view other than our own confuse issues of different types are unaware of our prejudices think narrowly think imprecisely think illogically think one-sidedly think simplistically think hypocritically think superficially think ethnocentrically think egocentrically think irrationally fail to reason well through problems make poor decisions are poor communicators have little insight into our ignorance Improve Your Thinking, Improve Your Life This book is about how to improve your thinking to improve your life. Why thinking? Why is thinking significant? Why try to improve your thinking? The answer is simple: only through thinking can you change whatever it is about your life that needs changing (even the parts you don't know need changing). Only through thinking can you take command of your future. Sound too simple? Read on. Humans constantly think. Indeed, thinking is the main thing we do. From the minute we wake up in the morning, we begin thinking. During all of our waking hours, we are thinking. We cannot escape our thinking, even if we want to. Right now you are thinking about whether to take seriously what we are saying. In other words, thinking is happening in your mind every moment of your waking life, structuring your feelings, shaping your desires, and guiding your actions. 1 The way you think about parenting determines how you parent. The way you think about your financial situation determines the financial decisions you make. The way you think when you are at work determines how you function on the job. The problem is that human thinking is often flawed. Many of our regrettable actions emerge from faulty reasoning. In fact, problems in thinking lead to more problems in life than perhaps any other single variable. They lead to conflict and war, pain and frustration, cruelty and suffering. Yet, most people are content with their thinking. Because the development of thinking typically is not valued in human societies, people don't tend to trace the problems in their lives to problems in their thinking. Instead, they often live the whole of their lives without recognizing the leading role that thinking plays in it. To improve your quality of life significantly, you must begin to take thinking seriously--to become a student, if you will, of thinking. You must begin to observe thinking, examine it, witness its power in action. You must begin to discipline your thinking through knowledge of thinking, and you should practice using that knowledge (of thinking) daily. You must begin to analyze your thinking, assess your thinking, improve your thinking. You must engage in critical thinking. This book explores some of the basic facts about thinking. Although the study of thinking and its relationship to emotions and desires are complex, its foundations are quite simple. The trick is to use basic principles systematically to change your life for the better. In other words, the trick is to put critical thinking into action in your life. You can learn it. You can use it. This book provides some of the building blocks. Could Your Thinking Be Your Problem? To begin to take thinking seriously, you must first recognize the inherently flawed nature of human thought in its "normal" state. Put another way, without active intervention, human thinking naturally develops problems. For example, humans are prejudiced. We stereotype one another. We are often hypocritical. We sometimes justify in our own minds policies and practices that result in stealing, killing, and torture. We often ignore important problems that we could, with determination and good thinking, solve--problems such as world hunger, poverty, and homelessness. What is more, when we behave irrationally, our behavior usually seems reasonable to us. When challenged, the mind says (to itself), "Why are these people giving me a hard time? I'm just doing what makes sense. Any reasonable person would see that!" In short, we naturally think that our thinking is fully justified. As far as we can tell, we are only doing what is right and proper and reasonable. Any fleeting thoughts suggesting that we might be at fault typically are overcome by more powerful self-justifying thoughts: "I don't mean any harm. I'm just! I'm fair! It's the others who are wrong!" It is important to recognize this self-justifying nature of the human mind as its natural state . In other words, humans don't have to learn self-justifying, self-serving, self-deceptive thinking and behavior. These patterns are innate in every one of us. How does self-deception work in the mind? In other words, how can it be that we can see ourselves as right even when readily available evidence proves us wrong? One powerful reason is the mind's native ability to represent unreasonable thoughts as perfectly reasonable. Indeed, this is perhaps the most significant reasonthat humans fail to recognize their own irrationality. For example, consider the female supervisor who, after interviewing both male and female applicants, always hires women 2 . This supervisor considers herself unbiased and objective. When asked why she hires only female employees, she most likely would give reasons to support her decisions--facts, for example, about the applicants' work experiences, skills, and so forth. In supporting her hiring decisions, she would see herself as even-handed, as simply trying to hire the best employees for the job. Indeed, the only way she can feel justified in her own mind is to see herself as behaving objectively. In other words, biased thinking appears to the mind as dispassionate, unprejudiced, impartial thinking. We don't see ourselves as wrong. Rather, we see ourselves as right, as doing what is most reasonable in the situation, even when we are dead wrong. Consider the police officer who often uses excessive force during arrests. This officer likely sees himself as giving criminals what they deserve, getting them off the streets so they can't harm innocent people. He couldn't act in this way if he recognized the role that prejudice and the desire for power were playing in his thinking, if he could see that he was irrationally using unnecessary power and force over others who were unable to defend themselves. In his own mind he is professional and just. However cruel he may be, he doesn't see himself as such. Welcome to human nature. We are all, to varying degrees, prejudiced. We all stereotype and deceive ourselves. We see ourselves as possessing the truth . Yet we all fall prey to human egocentricity--although not to the same degree. None of us will ever be a perfect thinker, but we can all be better thinkers. To develop as a thinker, you need to work daily to bring what is unconscious in your thinking to the level of consciousness. You need to discover the problems that exist in your thinking and face them. Only then can you make significant improvements in your thinking and your life. Inherent in human nature is the capacity to rise above your native egocentric patterns of thought. You can use your mind to educate your mind. You can use your thinking to change your thinking. You can "remake" or "transform" yourself. It is this side of your nature that we hope to stimulate as you work through and internalize the ideas in this book. A How-to List for Dysfunctional Living One of the ways you can enhance the power of your mind is by learning to create contrasts and oppositions that make clear precisely what you need to avoid. In other words, by making poor habits of thought more and more explicit, you get better and better at avoiding them. We will now illustrate this strategy by constructing a set of rules that no reasonable person would knowingly follow. By illuminating dysfunctional, even pathological, ways of thinking, it becomes obvious how easy it is to fall prey to them without recognizing yourself doing so. Consider the following, and ask yourself how many of these dysfunctional ways of thinking you engage in: Surround yourself with people who think like you. Then no one will criticize you. Don't question your relationships. You then can avoid dealing with problems within them. If critiqued by a friend or lover, look sad and dejected and say, "I thought you were my friend!" or "I thought you loved me!" When you do something unreasonable, always be ready with an excuse. Then you won't have to take responsibility. If you can't think of an excuse, look sorry and say, "I can't help how I am!" Focus on the negative side of life. Then you can make yourself miserable and blame it on others. Blame others for your mistakes. Then you won't have to feel responsible for your mistakes. Nor will you have to do anything about them. Verbally attack those who criticize you. Then you don't have to bother listening to what they say. Go along with the groups you are in. Then you won't have to figure out anything for yourself. Act out when you don't get what you want. If questioned, look indignant and say, "I'm just an emotional person. At least I don't keep my feelings bottled up!" Focus on getting what you want. If questioned, say, "If I don't look out for number one, who will?" As you can see, this list would be almost laughable if these irrational ways of thinking didn't lead to problems in life. But they do. And often. Only when you are faced with the absurdity of dysfunctional or even pathological thinking and can see it at work in your life do you have a chance to alter it. The strategies outlined in this book presuppose your willingness to do so. Taking Your Thinking Seriously Our goal is to help you begin to think critically about your thinking--to think about the ways in which your thinking might be causing problems for you or others. As you work through the ideas in this book, simple ideas intelligently applied, you will begin to improve the habits of your mind. You will become aware of your thinking. When you do, you will assess it. When you assess it, you will improve it. Think of yourself as your own private investigator, probing the workings of your mind to figure out what is going on inside its mental walls. Once you sort out some of the patterns that dominate your thinking, you can take your thinking to the next level: you can target those patterns for improvement. You can build on your strengths. You can determine what to retain in your thinking and what to throw out, which of your beliefs are sensible and which are senseless, which are causing problems, which are bringing richness to your life, which are entrapping or limiting you, which are freeing. No Intellectual Pain, No Intellectual Gain Although most people readily agree that a no pain, no gain attitude is necessary to attain physical fitness, those same people often give up at the first sign of mental discomfort when working on their minds. But if you are unwilling to persevere through intellectual pain, you simply will not develop as a thinker. Without some stress, the condition of the mind, like the body, will not improve. Like it or not, one undeniable fact is no intellectual pain, no intellectual gain . So expect some mental stress, discomfort, and pain as you proceed through this book. When it comes, face it and work through it. Realize that the most important ideas that humans need to learn are often among the most difficult for the mind to understand and accept (like the fact that we are all naturally egocentric). Recognize that the mind, by nature, resists change--especially change that would force it to see itself in an unfavorable light. So, as you begin to internalize the ideas in this book and feel frustrated, uncomfortable, or discouraged, keep pushing forward. Celebrate the fact that you are growing, rather than standing still, like most people. Realize that the reward is in the improved quality of your life that will occur in the long run. You must stretch and work the mind if you want it to become flexible and powerful and if you want it to do the work you need it to do in the many dimensions of your life. The Twenty-Five-Day Plan This book introduces twenty-five fundamental ideas about thinking that form the basis of your twenty-five-day plan. We include some of the important ideas we believe people need to grasp if they are to take command of their thinking and their lives. There is nothing magical about the number 25 rather than, say, 30, 24, or 21. And there are always new and important ideas to be learned--ideas that, when internalized and applied, help us think and live better. The development of thinking, you will discover, is an ongoing dynamic process. We provide the ideas in a twenty-five-day format so that you can get an initial feel for the whole. You also can get an overview and begin to experience the power of ideas aimed at the improvement of thought. As you move through the 25 days, you will realize that you cannot internalize any of these ideas in one day. Nevertheless, you can begin to bring important and powerful ideas into your thinking and begin to practice using them as agents for mental (intellectual) change. On the first day, you focus on just one idea. On the second day, you focus on a second idea in light of the first. On the third day, you focus on the third idea in light of the second and the first. Each day the tapestry becomes richer. Each day you add a new and powerful idea to your thinking. As you proceed, you will always have a central focus, but your central focus is enriched through the background logic of, and interaction with, other powerful ideas. As you move from day to day, you should try to integrate previously learned ideas with new ones. Having powerful ideas interact with other powerful ideas is a key to success. Long-term success largely depends on how you proceed after you complete the twenty-five days. Do you keep and use the ideas? Do you forget them? Do you pursue additional important ideas that connect with these ideas? Do you go back to the way you were before you read this book? Do you move forward? These are the kinds of questions you must ask, and revisit again and again, if you want to continue developing as a free and independent thinker. Use the daily action plans and progress notes in the back of this book to plan and assess your progress as you move through each day. Expanding to a Twenty-Five-Week Plan One way to proceed after you work through the twenty-five-day plan is to advance to a twenty-five-week plan , focusing on one idea per week, rather than one idea per day. In this advanced phase, as you move forward from week to week, you will find the power of each idea being intensified by new interactions with previous ideas. You will begin to see the interrelationships between and among the ideas. Whenever you take important ideas seriously and begin working them into your thinking, you will begin to see that every important idea has many connections to other important ideas. Powerful ideas are powerful in light of their important connections. So we suggest a twenty-five-day sprint to get the ideas flowing. Then a follow-up, longer-term, second run to deepen and further interconnect the ideas and begin to permanently internalize them . The twenty-five-week plan helps you build good habits of thought as each new idea adds to and connects with ideas learned in previous weeks. For example, following the twenty-five-week plan: In the first week you focus on empathizing with others whenever and however you can. In the second week you concentrate on uncovering the extent of your ignorance . (As a matter of second emphasis, though, you should still look for opportunities to empathize with others .) In the third week you are on the lookout for hypocrisy --in yourself and others (while also empathizing with others and uncovering ignorance in your thinking). When you have internalized the first three ideas in this book, you will realize that endless problems in thinking occur precisely because people often lack the propensity to empathize, to critique their thinking to differentiate what they know from what they do not know (but assume they know), and to seek out hypocrisy (in themselves and others). Moreover, you should recognize that our propensity to empathize with others increases as we become less intellectually arrogant, less sure that what we think is true must always be true, and, as we become more aware of hypocrisy in our own thinking, more aware of how often we expect more from others than we expect from ourselves. And so it goes from week to week. Every week you focus on a new and important idea. As you add a new idea, you connect it with ideas already learned. Periodically you should review all the ideas you have covered and determine whether you need to refresh in your mind one or more of the ideas previously covered. The more often you crisscross the terrain of important and powerful ideas, the more deeply they become embedded in your thinking, and the more likely you are to use them in your life. In planning and assessing your progress, use the action plans and progress notes at the end of this book. What is most important, as you expand to a weekly plan, is that at any given time you have a specific focus and that this focus is of sufficient duration. Feel free to move around within the ideas--there is no magic to their order. When You Reach the Payoff Point When you have worked through the twenty-five ideas as recommended in this book, applying them on a daily or weekly basis, you should begin to experience payoffs in the quality of your life. The following list outlines some of the payoffs you can expect. You should find that you are better at communicating your ideas and understanding others. you are better at sticking to issues and solving problems. you pursue more rational goals and can better reach them. you are better at asking productive questions. you are less selfish. you have more control over your emotions. you have more control over your desires and behavior. you can better understand the viewpoints of others. you are more reasonable. you are less controlling. you are less submissive, less easily intimidated. you no longer worry about things you can't do anything about. you let go of your emotional baggage from childhood. you think through implications before acting. you are more comfortable admitting when you are wrong, and you seek to correct your faulty beliefs. you work to become a person of integrity, living up to a consistent, rational self-image, and you surround yourself with people of integrity. you begin to question social conventions and taboos. you begin to question what you read, hear, and see in the news media. you are less easily manipulated by smooth--talking, self-interested politicians. you are more concerned with the rights and needs of all people in the world, rather than the narrow vested interests of your country. you are less easily influenced by TV shows, movies, and ads, viewing them with a more critical eye. you are contributing to a more just world. you are becoming better educated, reading more widely to broaden your historical sense and your worldview. you understand intellectual growth as a long-term process and have designed a plan for continued development. Tips for Internalizing Each Idea As you develop your daily or weekly plans for action, consider using one or more of the following strategies: Each evening, read the pages you are focused on for that day. Work the ideas into your thinking (give voice to them) so that you begin to internalize them. Reread the pages until you can engage in a silent dialogue with yourself about the ideas and strategies on those pages. Explain the ideas you are attempting to internalize to someone else. The more you articulate ideas, the better you understand and can use them. (Ideally you would identify someone to work through these ideas with you--a significant other, perhaps). Figure out the best settings for practicing the recommended strategies. Where can you best use them? At work? With your partner? With your children? Think through possible dialogues prior to actual situations. For example, if you are internalizing the idea of clarification (the idea for Day Six), and you plan to be in a meeting on the following day, think through possible clarifying questions. For example, you might prepare to ask "Could you state that point in another way for me?", "Could you give me an example of that?", and "Would you illustrate that point for me by drawing a diagram?" Find ways to keep the key idea of the day in the front of your mind. You might tape a key word (such as "clarity") to the refrigerator, to your desk, or to anything else you frequently see. This will help focus your thinking on the key idea for the day. Planning and Logging Your Progress In the back of the book, you will find daily and weekly action plan and progress pages. Copy one set for each day or week, or write in your own notebook or journal (using the action plan and progress formats). The more time you spend giving voice to the ideas (explaining them to others, summarizing them in written form, using them explicitly in your conversations and interactions with others), the better you will internalize them, the more readily and effectively you will be able to use them, and the more spontaneous they will become. A Caveat As you work through this book, realize that each day's idea is a complex concept presented in a simplified form. Remember that our goal is to get you started on a path toward critical thinking. We therefore have often omitted qualifications and further commentary we would have liked to include. Furthermore, in compressing our ideas, and in seeking examples from everyday life, we may have unwittingly oversimplified some of them. What is more, you may occasionally disagree with one of our examples. If so, try not to be distracted from the larger end: your development as a thinker. Use what you can. Put aside the rest. If one of our twenty-five ideas does not make sense to you, by all means pass it by and perhaps come back to it later. Give yourself time to grow, and use only those ideas you can put into action. For further explanations of the ideas, you will find recommended readings at the end of the book. We hope these ideas stimulate you to seek more and that they prompt you to make critical thinking a hallmark of your life. Before You Begin Before you begin to actively work through the ideas in this book, consider this idea. Then periodically revisit it: Always assume that you are like other humans. Therefore, expect to find all human failings in yourself. If humans typically form prejudices, begin with the premise that you have prejudices. If humans frequently engage in self-deception, assume that you do as well. It is impossible to make significant progress as a thinker if you maintain the myth that you are exceptional. The fact is that feeling exceptional is not at all exceptional. It is common. What is exceptional is the recognition that you are not exceptional--that you, like everyone else, are a self-deceived, self-centered person. Footnotes For an introduction to the relationships between thinking, feeling, and wanting, see The Thinker's Guide to the Human Mind, by Elder, L. and R. Paul, The Foundation for Critical Thinking (2002), http://www.criticalthinking.org . Consider also the male supervisor who hires only men. (c) Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved. Excerpted from 25 Days to Better Thinking and Better Living: A Guide for Improving Every Aspect of Your Life by Linda Elder, Richard Paul All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.