Lone Ranger~

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

The 30 day tumblr challenge has failed miserably. Nevertheless with my internet being down and all I doubt I would be bothered to carry on with it even if I wanted to- ~~wait that was contradictory wasn't it?~~ Ignore that.

I was reading one of my few but terribly complicated and convoluted readings and it chanced upon me to find out what exactly the University education is meant to impart unto us students. Surely 4 years isn't just to teach us how to craft reasonably waterproof arguments, navigate our way around campus, listen to drawling lectures, rush reports while sleep deprived (alright I admit that may be a useful thing to learn in itself) or even to acquire knowledge and skill in a specific specialty. One term often pops up which calls itself "critical thinking".

What is Critical Thinking? Go google it, or wiki it- which is where by the way I came across this one groundbreaking idea (to me at least).

Quote:

[The second requires ie. Intellectual Humility] extensive experience in identifying the extent of one's own ignorance in a wide variety of subjects (ignorance whose admission leads one to say, "I thought I knew, but I merely believed").

I thought I knew, but I merely believed.

Wow. Suspending judgment and making sure you keep perspective and not slip into judging based on what you believe or are entrenched in but instead really knowing and being objective. The realization that you need to know more about your "opponent" to break out of the trap of what (little) you already know. I shall work hard at developing this aspect of critical thinking, not just judging but knowing, really knowing.

Which brings me to the moral relativity of society but that jumps into philosophy and sociology. Good and evil, if the lowest level of evil is to willfully do evil for the sake of evil then what of indifference? Indifference through the acceptance of everything by justifying even that which is unjustifiable by relativism- in which each has its own reasons, motivations and merits(?). Why bring this up? To defeat indifference the weapon is critical thinking- not just believing like the masses or even thinking you stand on one side or the other without being clearly objective. Some things are not objective, and some blacks are black no matter how gray they sound.

Education has taken an dark turn, it is now a weapon placed in the hands of the young who are to fight for the future of tomorrow. Perhaps I've been reading a little too many fantasy novels of kings, knights and magic but I find this metaphor naturally fitting. These are dark times we live in and a sharp blade of clarity is what we need to cleave through the obscuring veil of relativity.

Loh Chang Xiang blogged at 9:37 AM

Lone Ranger...
...alone in the dark...