Open-minded, Skeptical, and Tentative
A critical thinker is neither dogmatic nor gullible. The most distinctive features of the critical thinker’s attitude are
open-mindedness and skepticism. These characteristics may seem contradictory rather than complementary. On the
one hand, a critical thinker is expected to consider viewpoints different from his or her own. On the other hand, a
critical thinker is expected to recognize which claims do not merit investigation. Also, sometimes what looks like
open-mindedness is simply gullibility and what looks like
skepticism is really closed-mindedness. To you, you are being
open-minded when you take at face value the psychic’s tip
about a bomb on the plane. To your boss, you are being
gullible. On the other hand, if you had dismissed the psychic’s
claim out-of-hand and written her off as deluded despite her offering to prove her psychic ability by reading your
mind, then you would have crossed over from a healthy skepticism to closed-mindedness.
To be skillful and fair in evaluating beliefs and actions, we need to seek out various views and positions on the
issues we intend to judge. Being open-minded means being willing to examine issues from as many sides as
possible, looking for the good and bad points of the various sides examined.1
One’s goal in examining the positions and reasoning of others must be to get at the truth rather than to find
fault. To be open-minded doesn’t mean simply listening to or reading viewpoints that differ from one’s own. It
means accepting that someone else might have thought of something we’ve overlooked or that we could be in error
ourselves. It may be painful, but you must admit that your boss has brought up a good point when she reminded
you that there is no evidence for psychics using paranormal powers to discover bombs planes. You must admit that
you were wrong in not considering this fact.
Most of us have little difficulty in being open-minded about matters that are unimportant to us. In such cases,
the possibility that we may be wrong is not very threatening. If we’re wrong, we can change our minds without
feeling embarrassed or humiliated. But if the issue is ingrained in us or is one we feel strongly about, it becomes
more difficult to be open-minded. It becomes harder to accept the fact that we might be wrong or that other views
might be more reasonable than our own.
How can we overcome the tendency to be closed-minded on important issues? First, we must overcome the
feeling of being threatened when a cherished belief is opposed. One way to overcome this feeling is to commit
oneself to search for the most reasonable
beliefs and the most reasonable ways to act.
Approaching all-important issues with a view
to improving your beliefs does not mean that
you must think that your views are wrong. It
does imply that you must be able to step back
from your beliefs to evaluate them along with other views. Certainly, everyone needs a basic set of
*“A broad mind is no substitute for hard work.”
--Nelson Goodman
*“Both teachers and learners go to sleep at their post as soon as there
is no enemy in the field.” --John Stuart Mill, On Liberty
beliefs in order to live a meaningful life. Yet, if those beliefs are inflexible and unchangeable, their very rigidity
may work against you when you need them most, namely, in times of personal crisis. Becoming a critical thinker,
in other words, requires more than mastering a set of skills; it requires a certain spirit or attitude. Sometimes this
spirit is mistakenly thought to be negative only. Indeed, the primary use of the word ‘critical’ is to note an inclination
to find fault or to judge severely. But uncovering faults and errors in one’s own and other’s reasoning is only a
part of critical thinking. One must cultivate a healthy skepticism along with an ability to be open-minded,
especially when considering viewpoints contrary to one’s own. Too much skepticism leads to doubting everything
and committing oneself to nothing; too little skepticism leads to gullibility. We need not be so demanding that we
will commit ourselves to a belief or action only if we can be absolutely certain we are right. On the other hand, we
should not accept claims simply because the person making the claim seems “normal” or because the majority or
the experts or some witty talk-show host makes them.
On the other hand, being open-minded does not mean that one has an obligation to examine every crackpot
idea or claim made. For example, I have studied occult and supernatural claims for many years. When someone
says aliens have abducted him, but he has no physical evidence of his abduction, I feel no need to investigate the
issue further. If someone claims to have alien body parts or vehicle parts, by all means let’s examine the stuff. But
if the only proof for the abduction is that the alleged abductee can’t remember what happened to him for a few
hours or days and he has some marks on his body he can’t account for--common claims by alleged abductees--then
my hunch is that there is a natural explanation for the memory loss and the marks. He may be lying because he
doesn’t want anyone to know where he really was; or he passed out from natural or self-induced causes and then
dreamt or hallucinated. Many of us have scrapes and bruises we can’t account for. Am I closed-minded? I don’t
think so. However, many years ago, when I heard about UFOs and alien abductions for the first time, I would have
been closed-minded had I not investigated. Once a person has studied an issue in depth, to be open-minded does
not mean you must leave the door open and let in any idea that blows your way. Your only obligation is not to lock
the door behind you.
An open-minded person who is
inexperienced and uninformed will need to
be willing to investigate issues that an
experienced and informed person need not
pursue. A critical thinker must find things
out for herself, but once she has found them
out she does not become closed-minded simply because her opinion is now informed! So, the next time you hear
some defender of astral projection, past-life regression, or alien abductions accuse a skeptic of being “closedminded,”
give thought to the possibility that the skeptic isn’t closed-minded. Perhaps she has arrived at an
informed belief. It is also possible that the accuser is a clever arguer who knows that charging an opponent with
being closed-minded is often a successful tactic in the art of persuasion.
There are some issues about which it is not possible for a given person to be open-minded. I am thinking of
issues that are not, in the words of William James, living options.2 It is not possible for me to seriously consider
that Muhhamad was a prophet of God, any more than it is possible for a devout Muslim to consider that Siddhartha
Gautama was a divine incarnation. Before anyone can be open-minded in the sense we are talking about here, an
issue must be alive for that person. It must be within the realm of possible belief for that person. Nevertheless, even
if a belief is not a living option for you, it should be possible to be open-minded enough to try to understand what it
is for someone to have that belief. It may not be possible for me to believe that Muhhamad was a prophet of God,
but it is possible for me to understand what such a belief consists of. I can study Islam, listen to Muslims, and try to
understand their beliefs.
I’ll try to clarify this complex relationship between open-mindedness and skepticism with one more example,
taken from a teacher of critical thinking, Connie
Misimer. She told this story at a critical thinking
conference. A student believed that chanting a
*“...if opponents of all-important truths do not exist, it is
indispensable to imagine them and supply them with the strongest
arguments which the most skillful devil’s advocate can conjure up.” -
-John Stuart Mill, On Liberty
*“Be open-minded, but not so open-minded that your
brains fall out.” --Jacob Needleman
mantra (repeating some phrase, e.g., “Gopaugovinda, Gopaugovinda....”) as she drove around looking for a parking
space always resulted in her finding a parking space. Most teachers of critical thinking would be skeptical of the
claim that a chant would have any effect on traffic or parking spaces. We would not investigate such a claim
because we would consider it absurd or trivial on its face: absurd if the claim is that chanting causes parking spaces
to open up; trivial if it means that she always finds a place to park her car. Some teachers might ridicule the student
for being so gullible. Ms. Misimer, however, took another approach. She advised the student to set up a controlled
experiment to test the claim. The student might, for example, chant every other day and keep a record of whether
she is more successful on the days she chants. She might get several other students to do the same thing. They can
compare notes after a few weeks and see if there is any difference in success rates. I need not go into all the details
here about how this leads the student to clarify her claim, critically examine it, and find out for herself why the
claim is either false or trivial. The key point is that the student needs to be open-minded enough to be willing to test
her belief. Others with more experience and knowledge are not closed-minded, however, simply because they don’t
test her claim themselves. Furthermore, to simply impose one’s views on others by fiat or ridicule, no matter how
correct those views are, would hinder the development of critical thinking.
One must be careful, however, that one does not become so in love with one’s own beliefs that one becomes
incapable of recognizing when it is time to change. Remember that it was the Swiss who invented the quartz watch
but failed to patent it because they were sure the world would always want only the traditional mechanical devices
the Swiss were so expert at producing. The failure to be open-minded enough to consider the possibility that the
quartz watch would become popular cost the Swiss billions of dollars and thousands of jobs.
Finally, the attitude of the critical thinker should be characterized by intellectual humility. Whatever we come
to believe must be adhered to tentatively. We must always be ready to examine new evidence and arguments, even
if our examination leads us to discover that a cherished belief is in error. In short, arrogance, as Socrates noted,
does not befit the critical thinker. However, as we shall see, having the right attitude is not sufficient. There are
many factors that can limit and hinder our desire to be a critical thinker.
Exercises
1. Define critical thinking and describe how it is related to intelligence and knowledge.
2. List the standards of evaluation used by the critical thinker. Where did they originate?
3. What are the main characteristics of the critical thinking attitude? Why is this kind of attitude important in
critical thinking?
4. What does it mean to be open-minded, and why is open-mindedness essential to critical thinking? How does
open-mindedness differ from being gullible?
5. What is meant by ‘healthy skepticism,’ and why is having a healthy skepticism important to critical thinking?
How does having a healthy skepticism differ from being closed-minded?
A critical thinker is neither dogmatic nor gullible. The most distinctive features of the critical thinker’s attitude are
open-mindedness and skepticism. These characteristics may seem contradictory rather than complementary. On the
one hand, a critical thinker is expected to consider viewpoints different from his or her own. On the other hand, a
critical thinker is expected to recognize which claims do not merit investigation. Also, sometimes what looks like
open-mindedness is simply gullibility and what looks like
skepticism is really closed-mindedness. To you, you are being
open-minded when you take at face value the psychic’s tip
about a bomb on the plane. To your boss, you are being
gullible. On the other hand, if you had dismissed the psychic’s
claim out-of-hand and written her off as deluded despite her offering to prove her psychic ability by reading your
mind, then you would have crossed over from a healthy skepticism to closed-mindedness.
To be skillful and fair in evaluating beliefs and actions, we need to seek out various views and positions on the
issues we intend to judge. Being open-minded means being willing to examine issues from as many sides as
possible, looking for the good and bad points of the various sides examined.1
One’s goal in examining the positions and reasoning of others must be to get at the truth rather than to find
fault. To be open-minded doesn’t mean simply listening to or reading viewpoints that differ from one’s own. It
means accepting that someone else might have thought of something we’ve overlooked or that we could be in error
ourselves. It may be painful, but you must admit that your boss has brought up a good point when she reminded
you that there is no evidence for psychics using paranormal powers to discover bombs planes. You must admit that
you were wrong in not considering this fact.
Most of us have little difficulty in being open-minded about matters that are unimportant to us. In such cases,
the possibility that we may be wrong is not very threatening. If we’re wrong, we can change our minds without
feeling embarrassed or humiliated. But if the issue is ingrained in us or is one we feel strongly about, it becomes
more difficult to be open-minded. It becomes harder to accept the fact that we might be wrong or that other views
might be more reasonable than our own.
How can we overcome the tendency to be closed-minded on important issues? First, we must overcome the
feeling of being threatened when a cherished belief is opposed. One way to overcome this feeling is to commit
oneself to search for the most reasonable
beliefs and the most reasonable ways to act.
Approaching all-important issues with a view
to improving your beliefs does not mean that
you must think that your views are wrong. It
does imply that you must be able to step back
from your beliefs to evaluate them along with other views. Certainly, everyone needs a basic set of
*“A broad mind is no substitute for hard work.”
--Nelson Goodman
*“Both teachers and learners go to sleep at their post as soon as there
is no enemy in the field.” --John Stuart Mill, On Liberty
beliefs in order to live a meaningful life. Yet, if those beliefs are inflexible and unchangeable, their very rigidity
may work against you when you need them most, namely, in times of personal crisis. Becoming a critical thinker,
in other words, requires more than mastering a set of skills; it requires a certain spirit or attitude. Sometimes this
spirit is mistakenly thought to be negative only. Indeed, the primary use of the word ‘critical’ is to note an inclination
to find fault or to judge severely. But uncovering faults and errors in one’s own and other’s reasoning is only a
part of critical thinking. One must cultivate a healthy skepticism along with an ability to be open-minded,
especially when considering viewpoints contrary to one’s own. Too much skepticism leads to doubting everything
and committing oneself to nothing; too little skepticism leads to gullibility. We need not be so demanding that we
will commit ourselves to a belief or action only if we can be absolutely certain we are right. On the other hand, we
should not accept claims simply because the person making the claim seems “normal” or because the majority or
the experts or some witty talk-show host makes them.
On the other hand, being open-minded does not mean that one has an obligation to examine every crackpot
idea or claim made. For example, I have studied occult and supernatural claims for many years. When someone
says aliens have abducted him, but he has no physical evidence of his abduction, I feel no need to investigate the
issue further. If someone claims to have alien body parts or vehicle parts, by all means let’s examine the stuff. But
if the only proof for the abduction is that the alleged abductee can’t remember what happened to him for a few
hours or days and he has some marks on his body he can’t account for--common claims by alleged abductees--then
my hunch is that there is a natural explanation for the memory loss and the marks. He may be lying because he
doesn’t want anyone to know where he really was; or he passed out from natural or self-induced causes and then
dreamt or hallucinated. Many of us have scrapes and bruises we can’t account for. Am I closed-minded? I don’t
think so. However, many years ago, when I heard about UFOs and alien abductions for the first time, I would have
been closed-minded had I not investigated. Once a person has studied an issue in depth, to be open-minded does
not mean you must leave the door open and let in any idea that blows your way. Your only obligation is not to lock
the door behind you.
An open-minded person who is
inexperienced and uninformed will need to
be willing to investigate issues that an
experienced and informed person need not
pursue. A critical thinker must find things
out for herself, but once she has found them
out she does not become closed-minded simply because her opinion is now informed! So, the next time you hear
some defender of astral projection, past-life regression, or alien abductions accuse a skeptic of being “closedminded,”
give thought to the possibility that the skeptic isn’t closed-minded. Perhaps she has arrived at an
informed belief. It is also possible that the accuser is a clever arguer who knows that charging an opponent with
being closed-minded is often a successful tactic in the art of persuasion.
There are some issues about which it is not possible for a given person to be open-minded. I am thinking of
issues that are not, in the words of William James, living options.2 It is not possible for me to seriously consider
that Muhhamad was a prophet of God, any more than it is possible for a devout Muslim to consider that Siddhartha
Gautama was a divine incarnation. Before anyone can be open-minded in the sense we are talking about here, an
issue must be alive for that person. It must be within the realm of possible belief for that person. Nevertheless, even
if a belief is not a living option for you, it should be possible to be open-minded enough to try to understand what it
is for someone to have that belief. It may not be possible for me to believe that Muhhamad was a prophet of God,
but it is possible for me to understand what such a belief consists of. I can study Islam, listen to Muslims, and try to
understand their beliefs.
I’ll try to clarify this complex relationship between open-mindedness and skepticism with one more example,
taken from a teacher of critical thinking, Connie
Misimer. She told this story at a critical thinking
conference. A student believed that chanting a
*“...if opponents of all-important truths do not exist, it is
indispensable to imagine them and supply them with the strongest
arguments which the most skillful devil’s advocate can conjure up.” -
-John Stuart Mill, On Liberty
*“Be open-minded, but not so open-minded that your
brains fall out.” --Jacob Needleman
mantra (repeating some phrase, e.g., “Gopaugovinda, Gopaugovinda....”) as she drove around looking for a parking
space always resulted in her finding a parking space. Most teachers of critical thinking would be skeptical of the
claim that a chant would have any effect on traffic or parking spaces. We would not investigate such a claim
because we would consider it absurd or trivial on its face: absurd if the claim is that chanting causes parking spaces
to open up; trivial if it means that she always finds a place to park her car. Some teachers might ridicule the student
for being so gullible. Ms. Misimer, however, took another approach. She advised the student to set up a controlled
experiment to test the claim. The student might, for example, chant every other day and keep a record of whether
she is more successful on the days she chants. She might get several other students to do the same thing. They can
compare notes after a few weeks and see if there is any difference in success rates. I need not go into all the details
here about how this leads the student to clarify her claim, critically examine it, and find out for herself why the
claim is either false or trivial. The key point is that the student needs to be open-minded enough to be willing to test
her belief. Others with more experience and knowledge are not closed-minded, however, simply because they don’t
test her claim themselves. Furthermore, to simply impose one’s views on others by fiat or ridicule, no matter how
correct those views are, would hinder the development of critical thinking.
One must be careful, however, that one does not become so in love with one’s own beliefs that one becomes
incapable of recognizing when it is time to change. Remember that it was the Swiss who invented the quartz watch
but failed to patent it because they were sure the world would always want only the traditional mechanical devices
the Swiss were so expert at producing. The failure to be open-minded enough to consider the possibility that the
quartz watch would become popular cost the Swiss billions of dollars and thousands of jobs.
Finally, the attitude of the critical thinker should be characterized by intellectual humility. Whatever we come
to believe must be adhered to tentatively. We must always be ready to examine new evidence and arguments, even
if our examination leads us to discover that a cherished belief is in error. In short, arrogance, as Socrates noted,
does not befit the critical thinker. However, as we shall see, having the right attitude is not sufficient. There are
many factors that can limit and hinder our desire to be a critical thinker.
Exercises
1. Define critical thinking and describe how it is related to intelligence and knowledge.
2. List the standards of evaluation used by the critical thinker. Where did they originate?
3. What are the main characteristics of the critical thinking attitude? Why is this kind of attitude important in
critical thinking?
4. What does it mean to be open-minded, and why is open-mindedness essential to critical thinking? How does
open-mindedness differ from being gullible?
5. What is meant by ‘healthy skepticism,’ and why is having a healthy skepticism important to critical thinking?
How does having a healthy skepticism differ from being closed-minded?
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