Thinking with others

It matters what stories tell stories, and what ideas we think other ideas with. What Rugnetta believes is the most important ingredient to all the videos on his channel. He wanted to allow for multiple perspectives for a more engaging discussion. For most of his life, he believed that critical thinking very vaguely. There is an idea that critical thinking is just trying to be objective, or to remove one from their own thought. There are many types of thinking, and Linda Elder, president of the foundation of critical thinking, has her share on what she believes critical thinking is. To quote, “self guided, self disciplined thinking which attempts to reason at the highest level of quality in a fair-minded way. People who think critically strive to diminish the power of their egocentric and sociocentric tendencies. They work diligently to develop the intellectual virtues of intellectual integrity, intellectual humility, intellectual civility, intellectual empathy, intellectual sense of justice and confidence in reason. They avoid thinking simplistically about complicated issues and strive to appropriately consider the rights and needs of relevant others.They recognize the complexities in developing as thinkers and commit themselves to a lifelong practice toward self improvement.” The process of thinking critically thinking is having thoughts about things and thoughts, where the thinkers doing the thinking thinking themselves thinking, and adjusting their thinking based how what they thought about how they thought, which basically means that critically thinking requires one to be aware of oneself, and to not be objective, but honest and humble. Thinking is a way to dissect things, but also a way for one to grow. Through talking to one another, we learn more than just listening to one person. Our current tradition believes that emotion is a direct contrast to critical thinking, however it is actually needed and a type of thinking. Critical empathy is described as the process of establishing connections with other people, communication with a emotional, intellectual level. There is an importance to see what life is like for the person you are trying to connect to. And by using that knowledge, you can better yourself. Peter Elbow, a professor of English Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, believes that “the doubting game is the rhetoric of propositions, and the believing game is the rhetoric of experience.” The doubting game is the central mechanic of science. Most people believe that doubt creates good thinking. Elbow doesn’t believe that we should replace the doubting game, but add to it, the “believing game,” where the practice of trying to be as welcoming to every idea, not just trying to find a way to counter that idea, but earnestly trying to believe them. The idea that Rugnetta wants to leave with his audience is to think with others, and to pursue intellectual empathy and civility, because they will help one grow. It is important to believe each other, when some piece of culture has hurt or helped them, even if it’s something you would have never expected.