Critical Thinking’s Common Mistakes
- 批判思维的普遍误区
Human Weaknesses
人的缺点
As human beings, most of us tend to have many weaknesses in our beliefs, there are:
人有多种缺点:
New: uncritically believing what others, e.g. inter-net, newspaper, television, internet, tell us.
新: 相信新的说法
Group: uncritically believing what others in our group, like community, family, etc. tell us.
团:
: 相信团部里的人说的
Majority:uncritically believing what majorities tell us
多数:相信多数说的
Authority: uncritically believing what an ‘authority’, like teacher, textbook, government tells us.
权威: 相信权威说的
Emotional: uncritically believing what we like to believe or wish to believe.
情绪: 相信喜欢的
New theory: uncritically believing what new theories tell us
新理论: 相信新的理论
Knowledge, Learning, Teaching
知识
Use critical thinking to learn true knowledge and to teach true knowledge
, 学习, 教育
只有用批判思维, 才能学好真知识, 才能教好真知识.
About knowledge
About learning
About teaching
:
Example: long ago, people believed earth was not round, however, people had proven that earth is round.
有些知识看来是真的
, 但到后来却变假的. 所以, 要思考什么知识是真的, 才去接受.
:学习
老师或课本写的或说的, 可能是真的, 到后来却变假的, 所以要问原因, 追根究底.
Teachers and textbook writers are human, and therefore what they present as knowledge may turn out to be false or not justified.
It is therefore important for me as a student to check what they present as knowledge, and accept them only if I am satisfied that it is justified by experience and reasoning.
To do this, I need to ask for their justification for the conclusions they present as knowledge.
:教育
As a teacher, I will not tell you what to believe and what to do. I leave it to you to decide for yourself.
But teacher can help student to decide for himself what to believe and what to do.
Teacher can also help student understand the ‘good or true knowledge’ or ‘questionable knowledge’
A good teacher is to help student become independent, to help student become independent learners and independent inquirers.
Most humans are fallible. What we currently take to be knowledge may turn out to be false.
It is therefore important to check what we believe to be true, and keep modifying our beliefs as required by experience and reasoning.
好老师要教
“真“知识, 好老师要教学生独立学习, 独立思考.
Exercise A:
- (I would appreciate if you could email your answer to mindtraining@yahoo.cn for discussion, thank you)
- As a self-test, try the following:
-
-
- Do you know that long ago, people believed that the earth was (a) round (b) not round?
2. (a) Who had discovered the gravity of the earth? (b) How much is the gravity of the moon? (c) What about gravity of other stars?
3. Name one main difference between mathematics and science? Use one sentence to complete your answer.
4.Do you know how babies learn to walk?
5. What animal had stimulated human invented the radar?
5.What animal had human studied to invent the aeroplane?
7.(a) Why is one plus one equal to two? (b) Can one plus one equal to other number?
8. Is there any theory that was not proven right and is right?
-
- What is the major action taken by people to discover new things? Name one only.
- (I would appreciate if you could email your answer to mindtraining@yahoo.cn for sharing and discussion, thank you)
- Exercise B:
- (I would appreciate if you could email your answer to mindtraining@yahoo.cn for
- discussion, thank you)
- 1. List two or three people or their ideas or theories that have had a significant influence in forming your current thinking.
-
- Identify at least two important elements in each of the above that you reject as false. (b) State your reasons for rejection
3.Identify at least two important beliefs, ideas or claims that you accepted as true or justified in the past, but now reject as false (b) State your reasons for your rejecti
4.If you are able to come up with answer to 2-3, you are qualified as a critical thinker. If not, try again to become a critical thinker.
