People And Planet
November 13, 2010
[Critical thinking is a] desire to seek, patience to doubt, fondness to meditate, slowness to assert, readiness to consider, carefulness to dispose and set in order; and hatred for every kind of imposture. ~Francis Bacon (1605) Courtesy http://www.criticalthinking.org/ . This Internet address will lead you to a wealth of material.
Are we some of those people who will take “swift, radical and creative action”?
People And Planet
November 13, 2010
or google Marie Schickel Rottschaefer
Resume Blog 5
[Critical thinking is a] desire to seek, patience to doubt, fondness to meditate, slowness to assert, readiness to consider, carefulness to dispose and set in order; and hatred for every kind of imposture. ~Francis Bacon (1605) Courtesy http://www.criticalthinking.org/ . This Internet address will lead you to a wealth of material.
From Resume Blog 4 “There is a handy resource that can teach us more about critical thinking skills. After two millennia of indoctrination and questionable thinking regarding many assumptions in Catholicism, and Christianity in general, we could use some fresh ways of reasoning and discovering reality.” This little booklet put out by these critical thinking people will be a start for us.
I also said that there are people to assist, knowledge resources available, a world of opportunities to re-enrich the planet and its inhabitants and hopefully mitigate the tipping point, the sixth mass extinction, climate change, and promote the reestablishment of the earth’s homeostasis and the mechanisms that sustain it.
We as a species created this deficit. It is up to us to bring it back into balance as best we can. But we need skills and virtue to do it. Notice all the virtues described in that one sentence of Francis Bacon. The multi-faceted global crisis is so severe that we must train ourselves to mitigate it, ‘to get it right’, even though we will make mistakes. Patience and perseverance are essential.
According to my philosopher husband the definition of virtue is: a learned capacity to do the right thing in every circumstance. Aristotle, Plato, certain English philosophers, and others are examples of ‘virtue ethicists.’ Being a virtuous person is of course an ideal to strive for, but even very young children can be empathetic and have a sense of fairness. We learn from day one. I believe that I had mentioned earlier that epistemology and logic are branches of philosophy; so too, ethics.
Moving from talk about virtue to reminding ourselves that we need skills, I want to state once again a post that I put on PCV recently.
Marie Schickel Rottschaefer said...
9-15-10 Progressive Catholic Voice people I wish you well with your Synod of the Baptized but how about adding this agenda at the end?
May 2010 (CNN) -- The world's eco-systems are at risk of "rapid degradation and collapse" according to a new United Nations report.
The third Global Biodiversity Outlook (GBO-3) published by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) warns that unless "swift, radical and creative action" is taken "massive further loss is increasingly likely." Reading the entire online report is vital.
Are we some of those people who will take “swift, radical and creative action”?
There are a zillion potential and actual green jobs out there in the world. But unemployment, well, -- See The New York Times: Off The Charts In Global Unemployment, a Sea of Young Faces By Floyd Norris Published: April 16, 2010. The question is how to get jobs and the unemployed together? Doing the right thing well means we must train ourselves in virtue and skill. We train ourselves in marketable skills or by creating our own jobs. There is merit in either path and each path has its challenges as well. We have the perfect set-up: vast global needs to be met, people anxiously job searching, and a cautious consideration of training to be trained. What I am suggesting is outside the academic circle but using academic resources – a personal development program of learning skills in thinking and enhancing one’s basic virtue or good qualities to prepare for further academic education or new job possibilities i.e. training to be trained. To change the planet in a high-tech society will take a high degree of personal, technical, and professional education. But those who train to be trained will not have a free education; they earned it. No, they can consider themselves as having already paid their tuition given the circumstances of their lives.
Let’s begin with our tiny booklet to learn more about training ourselves to get it right. The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking by Dr. Richard Paul and Dr. Linda Elder The Foundation for Critical Thinking 2003.
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