Jane Doe
Professor [jf]
[philosophy]
26 November 2016
Personal Life and the Value of Critical Thinking
Human thinking is self-evidently fallible, and all of us hold beliefs that are based on personal biases, social norms and false facts that we never took the time to examine carefully. As a result of these beliefs, we may make decisions that lead to unforeseen consequences or miss opportunities that could ultimately add to our personal happiness. It’s through the spirit of critical thinking, that we can evaluate our own ideas and systematically improve our own lives. In this paper, I will define critical thinking and show how it can be practically applied to improve a person’s life.
DEFINING CRITICAL THINKING
Mark B. Woodhouse describes critical thinking as goal-directed, purposeful thinking that follows a track of reasoning. In its strongest sense, a critical thinker applies this systematic style of thinking to their own beliefs with a goal of having a belief set with less false beliefs. When this is done habitually, a person is said to have the spirit of critical thinking. (Woodhouse 41-45)
A good critical thinker thinks open-mindedly about the problem or question that they have the goal of answering. They gather relevant information, assess it for its validity, and find the logical relationships between this information to draw conclusions from it. When a conclusion is reached, they test it and then reassess their own beliefs to arrive closer to the truth. (“Defining Critical Thinking”)
THE EFFECTS OF IRRATIONAL THINKING
Our thoughts mold our perception of reality, and reality does not bend to meet our own perception. Inferences, which are conclusions based on information that you already know or think that you know, are what shapes most of our reality. Another fundamental influence on our perception is the value judgments we make about the events or things in our lives, and we make these judgments in virtue of our own standards or priorities. (Cohen 10)
To better understand how irrational inferences and value judgments can negatively affect our perception of reality, our behavior, and our overall happiness, we’ll use the example of a sexual abuse victim. I’ll outline her story, explain the inferences and value judgments that she’s made about her current relationship based on her past experiences, and show how it contributes to a negative perception of her current situation that is ultimately detrimental to her happiness.
Mary’s Childhood. When Mary was five years old, she had made a friend in the neighborhood named Michael. He was a few years older than her, but they got along well because they enjoyed the same outdoor activities. One day, Michael told Mary that he wanted to see her completely nude, threatening to no longer be her friend if she didn’t comply. As an only child, with no other friends, Mary was scared of being alone, so she gave in to his demands. Time goes on and Michael asks more and more of her, eventually leading to a fully sexual relationship between the two of them. Mary knows it’s wrong, even as it’s happening, but she was scared to tell anyone and didn’t want to lose her only friend.
Eventually Michael moves away, and they never speak to each other again. After some years pass, Mary tells her parents about her experience and they get her help for the post-traumatic stress disorder that she’s developed. She’s avoided romantic relationships throughout most of her teenage years if they included any threat of physical contact.
Present-day Mary. Mary has just reached adulthood and is in her first serious romantic relationship with a man named John. She’s told him some details of her childhood, but is functioning well in daily life, so it seems to not affect her so deeply. They have yet to be physically intimate and they’ve been together for about three months.
She has begun to make a value judgment on her relationship with John, deciding that she enjoys his company and could see them building a life together. She also believes that if she can have a successful romantic relationship, then she has truly overcome her past. At this point she is happy in the relationship, but beginning to fear if he will leave due to the lack of intimacy. Her fear is rooted in Michael’s threats when she was younger.
The building fear is causing a lot of stress for her, and she starts making false inferences about John’s behavior. John recently got promoted at work, and the two of them are not spending as much time together. She reasons that this is a result of the lack of intimacy, believing that in most relationships, she should be doing that by now. She doesn’t want to lose him, so she makes the decision to push herself to become physical with him instead of talking to John about her fears. She is inferring that since John is already pushing her away, that her explaining herself would just give him more reason to leave.
After their first time together, they begin being intimate regularly. At the same time, John is getting more accustomed to the position he has at work, so he isn’t taking as long to finish his projects. This results in him having more time to spend with Mary. Mary thinks the increase in their time together was caused by her being intimate with him, and that he’s just spending more time with her so that he can use her for sexual satisfaction. Mary is starting to feel used, and begins seeing John as selfish and cruel. Since she has told him about some of her past, she comes to the conclusion that he should just know it isn’t easy for her, and if he truly cared he wouldn’t put her in that situation.
She’s still scared of being alone, and even more scared of failing at this relationships due to her original belief that made her value judgment on the relationship so strong: if she succeeds at this, it’s proof that she overcame her past. So she stays with John, trying to treat him well, but the overall resentment she is beginning to harbor for him due to her belief that he is using her starts to show through. They eventually break up because they’re both unhappy.
This story illustrates how irrational thinking has the potential to lead to unhappiness. Now I’ll review what could have happened if Mary was critically evaluating her beliefs, and gathering the information necessary to understand her relationship with John.
Mary as a Critical Thinker. The first thing that Mary should have assessed was why she put so much value on her relationship with John. It’s evident that most people do not spend the rest of their lives with the first person they romantically encounter, and relationships fail even when neither of the partners have a history of abuse. Mary was also defining a successful relationship as one where they were together, not taking into account for the quality of the relationship and each partner’s happiness. She simply was striving to stay together. Being in a relationship doesn’t prove a successful healing from your past, because she could still be suffering (as she was) from the false beliefs and values caused by her experiences.
The second thing that Mary didn’t question was the value she put on physical intimacy or the inferences she made about John’s view on it. Physical intimacy is only one part of romantic relationship, she didn’t speak to John and seek out his views to see how important it was to him. Had they communicated about it, she would have realized that her value on it was distorted, and perhaps figured solutions on how to work through it.
Mary’s next irrationality was her ego-centric view on how John was spending his time, and this was also influenced by her value judgment on sex. Had she spoken to him about it, she would have realized that John had new responsibilities that he was unaccustomed to handling, and he’d begin spending more time with her once he became more efficient with his tasks. Instead, she distorted it to be a direct result of her actions.
The false inferences that Mary made, and never critically examined, led her to feeling used and resentful. If instead, she gained a rational perspective on her relationship, she may not have had reason to believe those things. A good critical thinker gathers all of the possible information, assesses it, put it together logically, and then draws rational conclusions. She could’ve then communicated her ideas with John and had a view that was based in truth. Instead, she never got the opportunity to learn the truth, and will feel like she had been used unless she ever goes back and searches rationally for answers.
CONCLUSION
Though this paper uses an extreme example to illustrate its point, it shows that even the most difficult circumstances can be dealt with better if critical thought is being applied. Ultimately, our perspective of reality influences our emotions, and irrational thought can blow things far out of proportion to make us feel much worse about a situation that really isn’t that bad. Critical thought leads us to rational conclusions, and from those conclusions we can find the solutions to some of the problems that we all face. In conclusion, rational thought leads to a better quality of life.
Works Cited
Cohen, Elliot D. Caution: Faulty Thinking Can Be Harmful to Your Happiness. Fort Pierce, FL: Trace-WilCo, 1992.
“Defining Critical Thinking.” The Critical Thinking Community, n.d. Web. 26 Nov. 2016.
Woodhouse, Mark B. A Preface to Philosophy. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Pub., 1984.