Negative persona (mask) inhibits learning

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Negative persona (mask) inhibits learning

‘To be negative’ is not the same as ‘to be critical’.

The dictionary has many definitions for this word, “critical”, but I would choose the critical (decisive) meaning, as regarding learning, to be—[b]exercising or involving careful judgment or judicious evaluation.

A negative persona is an attitude of non-acceptance.[/b]

I think that part of the problem is that too many of us have only an accept button and a reject button.

Accept or reject are not the only options one has. The most important and generally overlooked, especially by the young, is the option to ‘hold’.

It appears to me that many young people consider that ‘to be negative is to be cool’. This leads them into responding that ‘X’ is false when responding to an OP that states that ‘X’ is true.

When a person takes a public position affirming or denying the truth of ‘Y’ they are often locking themselves into a difficult position. If their original position was based on opinion rather than judgment their ego will not easily allow them to change position once they have studied and analyzed ‘Y’.

The moral of this story is that holding a default position of ‘reject or accept’, when we are ignorant, is not smart because our ego will fight any attempt to modify the opinion with a later judgment. Silence, or questions directed at comprehending the matter under consideration, is the smart decision for everyone’s default position.

Our options are reject, accept, and hold. I claim that ‘hold’ is the most important and should be the most often used because everyone is ignorant of almost everything.

Do you accept, reject, or hold judgment regarding my claim?

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Hey. I like masturbating.

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^^ Me too :sunglasses:

I was going to type this: I accept your claim, but remain open to the possiblity that we’re wrong.

But then I realized that’s another option. So unfortunately I have to reject your claim :laughing: Then again, maybe that’s what you meant by hold.

Hmm, anyway, I agree with the general spirit of what you’re saying. Cheers :slight_smile:

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Not necessarily.

I would call it practice for the inexperienced. you can’t exactly get good at anything if you don’t repeatedly do it.

You have to debate others with sharp minds and learn how to think, real philosophers debated one another endlessly about everything, that’s how they learned… lots of philosophy is silly when you are in the process of learning how to think, so it’s hardly something to worry about.

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If I accept your claim that ‘hold’ is the best option, then I am not choosing ‘hold’ or thinking over your suggestion. We are ignorant in a lot of areas , so that must mean we use faith in others claims that some things are so. I personally haven’t viewed the makeup of an atom, yet I have faith that other’s expertise in the scientific community (even though they hypothesize through calculations) to be knowledgeable of such. There are just some things we have to accept since it is impossible for us to know all. Using your line of reasoning, choosing ‘hold’ to evaluate my statements would be the best course of action. Philosophy by some people’s views is question everything. At what point do we accept or reject anything?

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Judge a person by the questions they ask rather than by their answers. I give you an A+. You are well on the way toward answering your own question. I do not mean that you will have an answer tomorrow or in the next ten years but you have taken the first and most important step.

Just to give you my answer I would say that learning CT(Critical Thinking) is a good start provided you already have not done so. I would also suggest the book “Philosophy in the Flesh”. Also the author Ernest Becker.

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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

64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:mk … clnk&cd=11

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

criticalthinking.org/resourc … sary.shtml

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