Chapter 2 What Is Critical Thinking?

这周读了5小节

Critical Thinking Defined

Characteristics of Critical Thinkers

The Role of Intuition

Basic Activities in Critical Thinking

Critical Thinking and WritingCritical Thinking Defined（批判性思维的定义）

首先对比感觉和思考的区别。两者经常混用（我觉得，我认为等字眼），但是感觉和思考严格上说是不同的。感觉是我们的情感情绪和欲望的一种自动自发的反应，不需要有意识的脑力的参与，几乎是一种本能。感觉的作用:可以引导我们思考需要思考的事物以及为艰巨的脑力任务的完成注入热情和承诺。但是感觉并不是总是可靠的。有时候感觉会引诱我们做对自己舒服但是有害的事情。

Let’s begin by making the important distinction between thinking andfeeling. I feel and I think are sometimes used interchangeably, but that practice causes confusion. Feeling is a subjective response that reflects emotion, sentiment, or desire; it generally occurs spontaneously rather than through a conscious mental act. We don’t have to employ our minds to feel angry when we are insulted, afraid when we are threatened, or compassionate when we see a picture of a starving child. The feelings arise automatically. Feeling is useful in directing our attention to matters we should think about; it also can provide the enthusiasm and commitment necessary to complete arduous mental tasks. However, feeling is never a good substitute for thinking because it is notoriously unreliable. Some feelings are beneficial, honorable, even noble; others are not, as everyday experience demonstrates. We often feel like doing things that will harm us—for example, smoking, sunbathing without sunscreen, telling off our professor or employer, or spending the rent money on lottery ticketss

而思考却是有意识为之的为了解决问题或做出决策或理解事物的一种大脑工作的过程。思考有很多错误的模式，但是依然是指导我们人类行为最可靠的方式。感觉的可信度有待思维这种最可靠的方法去检测。

In contrast to feeling, thinking is a conscious mental process performed to solve a problem, make a decision, or gain understanding.* Whereas feeling has no purpose beyond expressing itself, thinking aims beyond itself to knowledge or action. This is not to say that thinking is infallible; in fact, a good part of this book is devoted to exposing errors in thinking and showing you how to avoid them. Yet for all its shortcomings, thinking is the most reliable guide to action we humans possess. To sum up the relationship between feeling and thinking, feelings need to be tested before being trusted, and thinking is the most reasonable and reliable way to test them.

思维大致有三大类：深入（内省）思维，创新思维以及批评性思维。本书探讨的主要是批判性思维。批判性思维的精髓在于评估。因此批判性思维可以被定义为我们对论点和论据的对错与否进行检测和重新评估的过程。换言之，批判性思维是寻找答案和提出问题的过程。因此毋庸置疑批判性思维其中一个重要的技巧和特点就是提出合适的问题。批判思维者对其他人的先入为主的论述进行反驳。另外白日梦对于思维的作用比较小，不计入思维范畴。除了对观点进行反驳外，批判思维也用于用提出问题的方法来分析事物，正本清源。

There are three broad categories of thinking: reflective, creative, and critical. The focus of this book is on critical thinking. The essence of critical thinking is evaluation. Critical thinking, therefore, may be defined as the process by which we test claims and arguments and determine which have merit and which do not. In other words, critical thinking is a search for answers, a quest. Not surprisingly, one of the most important techniques used in critical thinking is asking probing questions. Where the uncritical accept their first thoughts and other people’s statements at face value, critical thinkers challenge all ideas in this manner

Critical thinking also employs questions to analyze issues.

Characteristics of Critical Thinkers（批判性思维者的特征）

判断是否是批判性思维的几条标准：

理由是否完备而充足

The test of critical thinking is whether the reasons are good and sufficient

批判性思维者强调的是做出合理的判断和结论，而不管这个结论是否已经普遍为人所知

Critical thinking means making sound decisions, regardless of how common or uncommon those decisions are

批判性思维一定是包含了寻找答案的思路过程，哪怕这个答案不是那么显而易见的。

t critical thinking involves the process of finding answers when they are not so readily available

批判性思维是一种行为习惯，是可以后天习得的，只要按照它的特点来训练。但是这并不意味着所有的人都有同样的思考潜能，而是指只要我们训练有素都可以在思维领域取得长足的进步。

critical thinking is a matter of habit. The most careless, sloppy thinker can become a critical thinker by developing the characteristics of a critical thinker. This is not to say that all people have equal thinking potential but rather that everyone can achieve dramatic improvement

批判思维者的特点除了前述已知的善于提出合理的问题以外，他们还擅长于控制自己的思考活动一直围绕着一个固有的目标进行分析论证，而不是被随意的闲聊遐想所干扰。他们非常专注自己的目标。此外批判思维者的特点包括更谦虚承认自己的认知局限，更诚实面对自己的错误，对问题的复杂性更好奇更有耐心，对对手的不同观点更包容，更开明。避免陷入极端观点，克制自己的情感尽量使用理智等。

而非批判思维者的特点恰恰与之相反。

We have already noted one characteristic of critical thinkers—skill in asking appropriate questions. Another is control of one’s mental activities.

批判思维有赖于思维的自律。批判思维者可以有效控制和主导自己的思维而不是反过来被它们控制。并且它们对任何观点包括自己的在他们检验和确认前持保留态度。

critical thinking depends on mental discipline. Effective thinkers exert control over their mental life, direct their thoughts rather than being directed by them, and withhold theirendorsement of any idea—even their own—until they have tested and confirmed it.

这种思维的自律在John Dewey看来某种程度等同于自由。因为一个人的行为不是被深思熟虑的结论所引导，就是被不成熟的冲动，不稳定的欲望，一时的心血来潮和环境场景所影响。

他认为没有批判性思维的人等同于环境和感觉欲望的奴隶，是不自由的人。

呵呵，万万没有想到大家心心念念的“自由”居然可以被这样深刻地解读吧！

If a man’s actions are not guided by thoughtful conclusions, then they are guided by inconsiderate impulse, unbalanced appetite, caprice, or the circumstances of the moment. To cultivate unhindered, unreflective external activity is to foster enslavement, for it leaves the person at themercy of appetite, sense, and circumstance.