It's a Judgment Call

Philosophy Forums Philosophy
1

It’s a Judgment Call

Most decisions we have to make are judgment calls. A judgment call is made when we must make a decision when there is no “true” or “false” answers. When we make a judgment call our decision is bad, good, or better.

Many factors are involved: there are the available facts, assumptions, skills, knowledge, and especially personal experience and attitude. I think that the two most important elements in the mix are personal experience and attitude.

When we study math we learn how to use various algorithms to facilitate our skill in dealing with quantities. If we never studied math we could deal with quantity on a primary level but our quantifying ability would be minimal. Likewise with making judgments; if we study the art and science of good judgment we can make better decisions and if we never study the art and science of judgment our decision ability will remain minimal.

I am convinced that a fundamental problem we have in this country (USA) is that our citizens have never learned the art and science of good judgment. Before the recent introduction of CT into our schools and colleges our young people have been taught primarily what to think and not how to think. All of us graduated with insufficient comprehension of the knowledge, skills, and attitude necessary for the formulation of good judgment. The result of this inability to make good judgment is evident and is dangerous.

I am primarily interested in the judgment that adults exercise in regard to public issues. Of course, any improvement in judgment generally will affect both personal and community matters.

To put the matter into a nut shell:

  1. Normal men and women can significantly improve their ability to make judgments.
  2. CT is the domain of knowledge that delineates the knowledge, skills, and intellectual character demanded for good judgment.
  3. CT has been introduced into our schools and colleges slowly in the last two or three decades.
  4. Few of today’s adults were ever taught CT.
  5. I suspect that at least another two generations will pass before our society reaps significant rewards resulting from teaching CT to our children.
  6. Can our democracy survive that long?
  7. I think that every effort must be made to convince today’s adults that they need to study and learn CT on their own. I am not suggesting that adults find a teacher but I am suggesting that adults become self-actualizing learners.
  8. I am convinced that learning the art and science of Critical Thinking is an important step toward becoming a better citizen in today’s democratic society.

Perhaps you are not familiar with CT. I first encountered the concept about five years ago. The following are a few Internet sites that will familiarize you with the matter.

freeinquiry.com/critical-notes.html

Critical Thinking

chss.montclair.edu/inquiry/f … inste.html

criticalthinking.org/resourc … sary.shtml

doit.gmu.edu/inventio/past/d … sID=eslava

2

This thread just seems to be a soap box for CT.

3

Or for a Dewey fan club…

4

Thank you for focusing your attention on my post. Seldom do I get a response that indicates the reader has wrestled with what I have written.

The problem is that everyone considers themselves to be a critical thinker. Only when I write about Critical Thinking will they focus upon what I write. A standard reply I get when writing about critical thinking is “everyone here is a critical thinker—you are preaching to the choir and thus wasting your time and ours”. This attitude is difficult to overcome. It is the attitude of the neophyte Chess player; after learning the moves of the individual pieces and playing a couple of games walks away bewildered as to why anyone thinks that chess is a ‘big deal’.

The standard mode of education might be described in this way. A teacher with a pitcher of knowledge walks from desk to desk in the classroom pouring from her pitcher into a cup held by each student a portion of the knowledge in the teacher’s pitcher. Each student receives a small amount of knowledge at each class session. At the end of the day the student has a cup of knowledge and the student is expected to remember this knowledge or store it in some container at home for further consumption. The student is expected to consume this knowledge so that, at a later date, the teacher can test the student to determine if, in fact, the student has absorbed the information dispensed by the teacher.

From this scenario we see that the student is synonymous to an empty vessel that is filled with content by the teacher. The teacher has something valuable that is transmitted to the student. The student is a passive taker of knowledge dispensed by the teacher.

The standard mode of education throughout K-12 and throughout college is similar to that which I have portrayed in the above example.

This form of education is didactic in nature. It is a rote form of education. The student is a passive receptacle absorbing the knowledge the teacher has. There is little if any active participation by the student. The student sleeps in class with her eyes open and is a sleep reader when doing the assignments. The student never learns how to be an independent learner.

The standard mode of education is teaching by telling. The basic assumption in such a method is that knowledge can be absorbed and restated and that this restatement is indication that there exists understanding.

There is another way to teach and that is to teach the youngster how to think rather than what to think. CT tries to teach the youngster how to think and this is new way of teaching, at least in the US.

It is so new that one major problem is teaching teachers how to think and to manage to gain support from parents for this new way. I am fearful that this new way of teaching may not be continued because of lack of support from the community because the community was never taught in this way and cannot understand its importance.

This form of teaching is concentrating on understanding rather than knowing. It takes a great deal of time to teach understanding and thus detracts from time to focus on knowing.

I first encountered CT about five years ago and it seemed to encompass many of my thoughts about learning but had never put it into a coherent format.

I think that this is a trial period and the focus on science and math may very well remove this form of teaching from our schools and colleges.

Everyone is a critical thinker but hardly anyone has been taught CT or has made the effort to learn CT on their own. CT, in my understanding, is ‘philosophy light’. It is a means to place the ordinary citizen within the mental attitude associated with the study of philosophy.

5

'Burst,

The Canadian High School I went to taught a critical thinking course. It literally was the catalyst which got me into the college I went to and into philosophy itself.

Looking back the teacher wasn’t all that philosophically minded… but the course did approach thinking in a new light and that seemed to be a good thing for me at the time.

I would definately recommend it as, now more the ever, the adults of this age are looking almost embarassing compared to the techno-net-intelligence fueling the young kids of today.

6

Gobbo

Good testemonial! Too few people are conscious of CT and every effort to enlighten all adults is worth while I think.