Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
Jazmin Kakish
Professor Ogbara
English 1A
21 September 2015
Critical Thinking: How its Molded.
There are many components to what increases and decreases our opportunities to
critically think and experience the world from a natural perception, rather than one that
has been subtly, yet obviously, ingrained into us. Our major institutions and societal
functions cause us to see a world in a certain way. This appears to be subtle because we
fail to realize all the ways in which we are conditioned to view the world, but is obvious
to those who question different aspects of life. Francis Bacons Four Idols and John
Deweys Thinking in education exemplifies how societal notions and pressures influence
our own perception and strengthen our will to conform to what inevitably becomes
familiar to us through our peers and larger institutions.
The Idol of the Theater dissects the respective institutions of religion and
philosophy (Jacobus, 2013). What one religiously follows and believes in often promotes
them to have a particular way of thinking. The philosophical dogma and religious texts
have no certain foundation or evidence, yet society accepts it as if it were concrete. As
Bacon puts it, the philosophy followed is shallow and lacks depth and a wide range of
evidence.
John Dewey, a philosopher who was well known for his impacting voice in
American learning, discusses in his essay Thinking in Education how critical
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thinking has evolved due to the lack of freedom students are given to explore their
personal interests and are being conditioned to receive verbal information
regarding several subjects. He believed that children should be allowed to explore
their options by experience. Thus, classrooms can exemplify this idea by doing
group projects, presentations, and hands on activities. Students will actually
gather new information by taking action, rather than listening to facts. (Jacobus
p.555) This can influence critical thinking because experience can allow for more
diverse contemplation.
Bacons idol the cave also conveys the erosion of critical thinking skills.
This idol suggests that we all have our own basis of understanding information.
This can be deceivingly perceived as a good thing, but is actually problematic
because we consistently look for supportive information to confirm past
knowledge (Jacobus, 2013). If we as individuals always look for facts to ensure
what we know to be true, how are we thinking critically? Our own
conceptualization can be limiting to new knowledge or new questions.
Furthermore, the cave also includes that we as people do have personal interests
and as Dewey suggested, we will gravitate towards that of our choosing. Once
again, we still arent exploring other options and using new skills because feed
into our personal needs as far as interests are concerned.
Another idol posed by Bacon called The Tribe can also serve as a reason
why critical thinking is eroded in academia and other aspects of life (Jacobus,
2013). For instance, the tribe is how we basically learn what is deemed acceptable
and what is not. This idol revolves around the idea of culture and ethnic
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