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Letter from the President, November 9, 2017

November 9, 2017
 
Dear Critical Thinking Colleagues:
 
The best thinkers reach back in time to learn from the best ideas that have been developed throughout history; they study, as a matter of course, classic works, gleaning insights from those scholars and artists whose ideas have proven themselves to be sound and deep over decades, centuries, or millennia of
Dr. Paul presenting, ca. 1990.
analysis and evaluation. People are frequently biased in favor of the new; yet, once the novelty fades, how many of today's popular books and articles will withstand the tests of rational scrutiny in just a few short years (or even months)?
 
In this vein, I invite you to enjoy the classic videos of Dr. Richard Paul available on our YouTube channel for complimentary viewing. These videos represent a very small sampling of the thousands of lectures Richard delivered over more than half a century as a leading scholar of critical thinking.
 
We were thrilled at your response to our recent offer of complimentary posters; we want to thank the Academic Resource Center (ARC) at Connecticut College, which shared with us their displays of foundational concepts and principles in critical thinking through these posters.
 
Connecticut College's ARC with critical thinking posters on full display.

Please email us your pictures and stories illuminating how you are advancing these essential ideas across your communities - to students, to faculty, in your businesses, for your clients, and even in your homes. Let us all work together to learn, and help others learn, the lingua franca of critical thinking. Through this language, we together build higher levels of learning and living.
 
Drawing attention to the posters sparked a great deal of interest in our other learning materials. Therefore, with every order you place worth $50 or more (before shipping fees or taxes) between now and November 17, we will send you a gift of our Set of Six Laminated Cards. Similar to our posters, these cards contain the essential basic theory and principles in the Paul-Elder Approach to Critical Thinking™. Moreover, they delve into more detail, and have the benefit of being easily portable so you can keep these powerful ideas with you wherever you go. Share them with friends and family, study them when you have a minute, and then enjoy as these foundational concepts begin affecting profound changes in the many decisions you make each day - and hence in the quality of your life overall.
 
 
In connection with the Richard Paul lectures I recommend that you view and study this week, I leave you with an excerpt from Paul's 1987 paper, 'Critical Thinking and General Semantics: On the Primacy of Natural Languages':
 
We must play down the significance of disagreements concerning the substance of thought and look to find others within a diversity of perspectives who critically, rather than simplistically or sophistically, believe what they believe. . . . We must beware of allegiances based on labels like "American", "Russian", "Communist", "Capitalist", "Christian", "Atheist", "Liberal", "Conservative", "Radical".
 
This passage addresses an enduring fundamental problem found throughout human thought, and therefore human societies: irrational obsession with conclusions - both one's own and others' - to the detriment of understanding the reasoning that leads to them. Unfortunately, many people never learn that a given view can be held critically or uncritically. Hence, they adopt views that
 
'feel right' given what they already believe, while rejecting others that 'feel wrong" given their current assumptions and worldview. Rarely do such persons explore multiple sides of the issue in a reasonable manner. They then file into various 'tribes,' such as those listed by Paul above, and in essence pledge blind allegiance to their groups. This is one of the sad manifestations of sociocentric thought. To read more about sociocentrism and egocentrism in human life, see The Thinker's Guide to the Human Mind.
 
To treat all reasoning alike - that is, to hold all reasoning to the same intellectual standards, regardless of the discomfort that may result - is but one challenge we face as aspiring rational persons. And this illuminates one more insight: that it is easier, and therefore often more enticing, not to develop as a critical thinker. To give free play to undisciplined, prejudiced thought is a route well paved and teeming today with the majority.
 
To all of you who have chosen the harder path, less traveled but ever more rewarding, we share your feelings of aloneness at times; but as I mentioned last week, do remember that though alone, we are not lonely as we connect with the greatest and best thinking ever developed in human societies.
 
And we all help keep these ideas alive through our own living example. This is our gift.
 
We look forward to your comments on the Paul video, and to receiving more of your pictures and stories...
 
Sincerely,
Dr. Linda Elder
Educational Psychologist
President and Senior Fellow


Please do not pass this message by.

CRITICAL THINKING IS AT RISK.

Here are some of the big reasons why:

  1. Many people believe that critical thinking should be free and that scholars qualified to teach critical thinking should do so for free. Accordingly, they do not think they should have to pay for critical thinking textbooks, courses, or other resources when there is "so much free material online" - despite how erroneous that material may be.
  2. There are many misguided academicians, and some outright charlatans, pushing forth and capitalizing on a pseudo-, partial, or otherwise impoverished concept of critical thinking.
  3. Little to no funding is designated for critical thinking professional development in schools, colleges, or universities, despite the lip service widely given to critical thinking (as is frequently found in mission statements).
  4. Most people, including faculty, think they already know what critical thinking is, despite how few have studied it to any significant degree, and despite how few can articulate a coherent, accurate, and sufficiently deep explanation of it.
  5. People rarely exhibit the necessary level of discipline to study and use critical thinking for reaching higher levels of self-actualization. In part, this is due to wasting intellectual and emotional energy on fruitless electronic entertainment designed to be addictive and profitable rather than educational and uplifting.
  6. On the whole, fairminded critical thinking is neither understood, fostered, nor valued in educational institutions or societies.
  7. People are increasingly able to cluster themselves with others of like mind through alluring internet platforms that enable them to validate one another's thinking - even when their reasoning is nonsensical, lopsided, prejudiced, or even dangerous.
  8. Critical thinking does not yet hold an independent place in academia. Instead, "critical thinking" is continually being "defined" and redefined according to any academic area or instructor that, claiming (frequently unsupported) expertise, steps forward to teach it.

As you see, increasingly powerful trends against the teaching, learning, and practice of critical thinking entail extraordinary challenges to our mission. To continue our work, we must now rely upon your financial support. If critical thinking matters to you, please click here to contribute what you can today.

WE NEED YOUR HELP TO CONTINUE OUR WORK.

Thank you for your support of ethical critical thinking.