Thinking Critically 批判性思考

愛、生活、人生系列

Thinking Critically 批判性思考
Thinking critically describes the process by which we become more skillful in constructing and deconstructing arguments. It’s good for us to be able to give reasons for any opinions, conclusions, or statements we make, whether these things relate to social studies, science, or even why we like a movie we saw.
Facts are things which have actually happened or which are undeniably true. Opinions, however, may be true or false, and therefore may provoke much disagreement. For example, “Eric works at OAC. All employees who work on the sixth floor of the OAC building are bilingual (they speak two languages). Therefore, Eric is bilingual.” What’s wrong with this statement? We don’t know if Eric works on the sixth floor of the OAC building or some other floor. We cannot say with certainty whether Eric is bilingual or not. In our reading and thinking, we also have to distinguish between bias and fact, opinion and evidence, judgment and valid inference, and this is not always easy to do; sometimes it takes study and research to find out whether statements are true or false. Actually, if we can understand how bias and prejudice disguise themselves as empirical fact or objective interpretation, we are better able to know what to believe and what to do. Again, it’s not very easy to tell them apart.
Stereotyping is one way we fool ourselves into believing that we are seeing things as they really are. For example, if we believe that black people are not very intelligent, what can we say when we meet an intelligent black man—maybe even one more intelligent than we are? Then, in order not to admit to ourselves that we are wrong, we have to argue: 1) he’s not really black, 2) he’s not really so intelligent, 3) he’s an exception that proves the rule: that is, “Okay, a few black people may be intelligent, but what I have always believed is still true: black people are not very intelligent, generally speaking.” In the case of black people again, some white person in authority might say: “They’re not very smart, so it’s a waste of money trying to educate them.” As a result, because black people don’t receive a good education, they don’t seem very smart—which leads that white leader to say: “You see? They’re just as I said, so forget about spending much public money on their education.” Of course, if he had given them the opportunity to get a good education, a good number of them would no doubt have proven him wrong. There’s also something called self-fulfilling prophecies. For example, “I know that I’ll never be successful so I’m not going to even try.” As a result, that person never succeeds, not because what he said was true, but because he never even tried. If he had really tried, he may very well have been successful. Here is more false logic in the form of a false and ridiculous analogy: If you are trying to convince a group of mothers to vote for you, you may say, “I love children and have three of my own. As for my opponent, his wife had an abortion last year, so you can imagine what he thinks of children” (implying that just because his wife had an abortion, he doesn’t love children).
Similarly, Nietzsche’s famous saying, “A very popular error: having the courage of one’s convictions—? Rather it is a matter of having the courage for an attack on one’s convictions. (一個非常普遍的錯誤：一個人有堅定信念的勇氣—嗎？相反地，這是一個有勇氣，來攻擊個人的信念的問題。)” If we, carefully, examine our own beliefs and sincerely try to prove (證明) them true, and then they should probably be deemed to be true.
有了批判性思考，我們要從內心去感覺，然後，如果認為是對的事，我們就要有勇氣地去付諸行動，才能利人利己，服務大眾。「批判性思考」就是強調分辨是非對錯的一種思維。良好的批判性思考，是對於建立和評估理據，掌握觀念和命題之間的邏輯關係，以及有效和有系統地解決問題，不可或缺的元素。另外，基於思考和語言之間的密切關系，批判性思考，亦有助於我們增強語言表達和理解的能力。思考大致來說，可分成初階、中階和高階三種層次。初階思考是當我們聽到問題、面對一件事情發生時，直覺地做出反應。而這個反應，往往來自於我們內在的文化、政治傾向、宗教信仰與價值觀，但它不見得是最正確的。中階的思考則是我們學會一些理論、想法，把他們運用在不同的處境中。舉例來說，我們學到正義就是公平，於是，當我們在分配資源時，總希望要能夠符合正義，讓每個人都可以獲得公平的分配。高階思考即是批判性思考(Critical thinking)，其指在檢查我們在判斷事物的過程中，證據站不站得住腳、理由充不充足、預設的立場有沒有錯誤、推衍合不合邏輯等。當我們注意到不合理的地方時，我們能夠進一步調整思考問題的方向，找出解決的方案。批判性思考，要求我們跳脫原來的框架(out of box)看事情。換個位置，換個角度，所看到的事情就會不一樣。人常常因為習慣既有的看事情角度，而難以從其他視角來思考。因著批判性思考，我們要找到新的框架，發掘沒注意到的想法，透過角度放大、時間拉遠，觀察近像與遠景，才能發想未來的趨勢。
接著，我們要學會跳越自己對自己所抱持的信念，而直接地感受自己的內在情緒。靜心坐好，閉上眼睛，試著去感覺自己內在的那個深藏的感受，才能讓我們去體驗，放下一切的觀念，感覺自己的存在，感受生命力的活動。感覺沒有任何標準，我們自己的感受就是標準，沒有任何時間的限制，那是一種很享受的經驗。有了真實的感受，我們會發現，自己安居於自己存在的核心、理念、思考、角度與位置，無憂無懼。
最後，勇氣就是一種認為「自己有能力、有價值」的感覺。換言之，就是一種「自己可以解決課題，對他人有貢獻（有能力），而且感覺自己身處在周遭都是夥伴的情況（有價值）。」我們會萌生出「（既然別人做得到）我也做得到」的信念，得到面對困難的力量。有勇氣的人，不但可以解決自己的課題，還能對他人有所貢獻，而且不會依賴、支配他人。有勇氣的人，是「普通人」、「正常人」、「凡人」，而不是超人。我們每個人，都是正常人，都能擁有十足的能量與勇氣，應付人生的課題與困難，所以，我們每個人都可以靠自己，解決人生課題。有勇氣的人，總是自然從容，因為他們相信自己的批判性思考，信任自己的感受，即便遭遇困難，也能從容以對。有勇氣的人，思考細膩，對於面對困難，有所「覺悟」，具有強韌的意志力。有勇氣之人的另一個特徵是很自然，不但表達方式很自然，態度與走路方式，也不會刻意矯作。唯有有勇氣、有批判性思考、有自信、懂得放鬆的人，才能正面積極地面對困難，不會恐慌。我們都要訓練批判性思考，都要靜心冥想，覺知內在的感受，都需要有勇氣，心情輕鬆地享受人生，才是王道。

Powered by Firstory Hosting