七年前的这周,大卫·福斯特·华莱士提出,“学习如何思考的真正意义在于学习如何掌控自己的思考方式和思考内容。”然而,在这个充斥着耸人听闻、伪科学以及人们无休止地追求捷径、快速答案和灵丹妙药的时代,知道该思考什么似乎变得越来越难。我们发明了诸如“胡说八道检测工具包”之类的工具,并制作了精彩的动画来教孩子们批判性思维,但批判性思维的艺术是一种需要精心且持续培养的习惯。卡尔·萨根——这位一贯雄辩且充满激情的阐释者——在他那篇题为《怀疑论者的负担》的杰出文章中(该文章最初发表于1987年秋季的《怀疑论者》杂志),精辟地捕捉到了批判性思维的二元性和相互渗透的平衡:
我认为,我们需要在两种相互矛盾的需求之间找到一种精妙的平衡:既要对所有摆在我们面前的假设进行最严谨的审视,又要对新思想保持极大的开放态度。显然,这两种思维方式之间存在某种张力。但如果你只能运用其中一种,无论是哪一种,你都会遇到大麻烦。
如果你总是抱持怀疑态度,那么任何新思想都无法进入你的视野。你永远学不到任何新东西。你会变成一个脾气古怪的老头,坚信荒谬的言论主宰着世界。(当然,也有很多数据支持你的观点。)但偶尔,也许一百次里会有一次,某个新思想被证明是切中要害、行之有效且精彩绝伦的。如果你总是习惯性地对一切都持怀疑态度,你就会错过或憎恨它,无论哪种情况,你都会阻碍理解和进步。
另一方面,如果你轻信他人,缺乏一丝怀疑精神,那么你就无法区分有用和无用的信息。如果所有观点都同样有效,那你就迷失了方向,因为在我看来,那样的话,所有观点都毫无价值可言。
有些想法比其他想法更好。区分这些想法的机制是应对世界,尤其是应对未来的重要工具。而正是这两种思维模式的结合,才是科学成功的关键所在。
让我们为这些著名的科学定义增添一个精彩的补充。
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when I said 'sick' I mean a bad feeling my friends hid in G+.
I can explain another story when I had two people who worked my store they were different clans but same community. So in msn I was chatting two of online one talked bad about the other one and I agreed then the other one talked and I greed yet two of them thought I belong to one's. So if you again look the first version of the story and the last one you can know it was meant immediate actions.
Anyway, it was great you suggested in today's dailygood though I would like friends of that community to ask and see their points. When I saw some people talking Hitler I could call myself Hitler. And some people would feel hurt. I recently learnt his history. It is like that.
Though that we talked, What I don't like is what people I socialized perceived about me. I am very sure it must made them sick but I didn't know but I sensed something was incorrect when one praised a divine. So I lacked sobriety and I didn't know that the buddy knew something about woman who spoke up. But I tell you I know it could hurt innocent people's but you have to follow the facts that I explained last week. That art was though of ten minutes on desktop and what it says except the money was meant immediate actions. Yes some sort of the story was circulated but those statements were not in me. It is very hard someone not an artist can think that.
So you need to understand the theory as wise and not come as a cranky. I really couldn't know where enmity came from when you send me frightening dailygood. If you could say that something was disgusting I could have solved and cleanness would have worked. You know, I am honesty.
This beautiful article by Carl Sagan gives us a new insight into the pattern of human thinking.
Yours Sincerely
Muralikrishna.P.