RB 1: Barriers to Critical Thinking (CT)

Chapter 1

WHAT CT IS NOT:

1. Disagreement
2. To embarrass, humiliate, or dominate
3. Nitpicking
4. Lacking imagination or creativity
5. Applicable only to others’ beliefs

BARRIERS TO CT (think of other barriers to CT not discussed in textbook)

df = definition

Barrier 1: Frame of Reference (necessary, but can be a barrier)

Frame of Reference df1 (in textbook)

The organized body of accumulated beliefs that we rely on to interpret new experience and
guide our behavior.

Frame of Reference df2 (not in textbook)

A person’s modifiable knowledge-base and set of assumptions, including values, applied for
understanding and participating in experiences.

THOUGHT EXPERIMENT (in textbook)

Imagine doing an inventory of all your beliefs:
How would you start?
What kind of procedure would you use?
How long would it take?

“Meta-beliefs”: Beliefs about believing, knowing, truth

Assumptions: ‘Sub-terranean’ or under the surface, un-examined beliefs

THOUGHT EXPERIMENT (not in textbook)

Identify one or more main beliefs in your frame-of reference.
What is a central belief that guides your life?
What belief (s) do you feel certain (or secure) about?

Barrier 2: Ego-Centricity & Resistance to Change

We favor our own positions, values, traditions, and groups.

Gallileo’s Dialogue of the Two Chief Systems of the World (1632) replaces the geo-centric view of
the universe with a helio-centric model.

Implications:

Consequence: The views and self-concepts of authorities were challenged.

Gallileo was threatened with torture, placed under house arrest, and his book was forbidden til
1835.
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Barrier 3: Wishful Thinking & Self-Deception

We are rational beings, but not entirely. Emotions and wishes can over-ride reason.

Example: denial, re: e.g.,

• Corruption in government
• Racism
• Abuse in a relationship

Barrier 4: Ethno-Centricity & Cultural Conditioning

In human social life, survival depends largely on:

• How well we do within our group(s)
• How well our group (s) do.

We tend to incorporate into our belief structure the ideas, attitudes, and values of our group.

Barrier 5: Hasty Moral Judgments

We are quick to denounce persons and acts as immoral, and to approve and admire those we
consider ‘good’ and ‘right’.

We judge people by their appearance, background, or associations, often over-looking the facts,
but based on:

• Emotion
• Prejudice
• Pre-conceptions
• Intolerance
• Self-righteousness

Barrier 6: Reliance on Authority

Authority df A source of expert information outside oneself.

1. Individual
2. Group
3. Institution

Milgram’s Experiment on Authority

Experiments: 1960’s
Book: 1974 Obedience to Authority

Subjects were told that the experiment was to determine the effects of punishment on memory.
Really, it was to investigate the extent will people obey an authority, even to the point of hurting
others.

Subjects were asks to administer increasingly strong ‘electrical shocks’ to people they couldn’t
see. (There was no actual shock). They were told that the shocks would be painful, but would
cause no permanent injury (‘slight shock’: 15 volts to ‘severe shock’: 450 volts).
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Experimenter’s prediction: No more than 10% would adminster the maxsimum 450 volt ‘shock’.

Result: When the ‘authority’ said to apply more voltage, even after confederate ‘victims’ pounded
on walls,

_____ % of the subjects applied more ‘voltage’ , and

_____ % applied the full ‘450 volts’.

Barrier 7: Labels

Labels are useful, but potentially distorting. Examples:

• Reductionism: Gloria Steinem: ‘feminist”

• Prejudice: Blind person considered unqualified for a job

• False dichotomy: Us vs. Them

Overlooking alternatives
Overlooking compromises