A Matter of Mind

Hi All,

Just catching up with my reading while in between client appointments.  It's blistering here in PA with no rain in sight.  Where to start?  I'd like to share a bit from a small book by The Foundation for Critical Thinking.  It describes the importance of allowing reason to guide emotions when making judgments or engaging in important decisions.  Please give a fair hearing to Dr.'s Elder and Paul as you go about making those important health care decisions.

"Humans are not by nature rational or ethical," write Dr. Linda Elder and Dr. Richard Paul in Taking Charge of the Human Mind, a miniature guide to Thinking, Feeling, and Wanting.  The authors list the following  to broaden readers' understanding of differences between the intellect and the emotions.

Emotion - A state of consciousness having to do with the arousal of feelings.  Refers to any of the personal reactions, pleasant or unpleasant, that one may have in a situation.

Intelligence - The ability to learn or understand from experience or to respond successfully to new experiences, the ability to acquire and retain knowledge.  Implies the use of reason in solving problems and directing conduct effectively.

Elder and Paul state that for humans to develop as fair-minded skilled thinkers they must:

1. Understand how the mind works.
2. Use this understanding to develop skills and insights.

"Powerful emotions or desires influence our thinking, helping or hindering how well we think in a situation," write the authors, "The key to understanding human thought then, is, to understand its essential duality: its capacity for egocentrism (being trapped in self-delusion, myth, and illusion) and its capacity for reasonability (freeing itself from self-delusion, myth, and illusion)". 

Critical thinking consists of using both the intellect and the emotions.  Bringing our intelligence into play helps us think more reasonably and make better long-term decisions.  Give it a try!

More later,
Sharon Full

About the Authors:

Dr. Linda Elder is an educational psychologist

who has taught both psychology

and critical thinking at the college level. 

She is the President of the

Foundation for Critical Thinking

and the Executive Director of the Center For Critical Thinking...

Dr. Richard Paul is a major leader

in the international critical thinking movement,

Director of Research at the Center for Critical Thinking,

and the Chair of the National Council for Excellence in Critical Thinking...