Reason, Informal Logic, Evidence, and Critical Thinking

[Ricardo]

I completely agree with the assertion that rationality and objectivity are foundational to meaningful philosophical discourse. To maintain truly rational, logical, and objective thought, individuals must ideally remain free from personal interests, partisanship, ideological bias, religious beliefs, or even sports-related favoritism. Each of these elements, while natural aspects of human experience, tends to introduce limiting, reductive, or even extreme and radical tendencies that hinder the development of philosophical reasoning.

True philosophical inquiry demands intellectual honesty and the willingness to evaluate ideas on their merit rather than through the lens of pre-existing biases. When such biases dominate, they lead to dogmatic stances, which are incompatible with the open and questioning spirit that philosophy requires. By cultivating an environment where critical thinking is unencumbered by external allegiances, we allow space for ideas to be rigorously tested and for wisdom to emerge untainted by extremism or reductionism.

In this way, we not only preserve the integrity of philosophical thought but also foster dialogue and understanding that are vital for personal and societal growth. Without such a commitment to neutrality, we risk the fragmentation of discourse into echo chambers and ideological silos, where reason is abandoned in favor of emotional or subjective appeals.

[Alan, Founding Moderator and Author]

SOCRATES, COGNITIVE PSYCHOTHERAPY, AND CRITICAL THINKING

I have reviewed Donald J. Robertson’s How to Think Like Socrates: Ancient Philosophy as a Way of Life in the Modern World at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show....

[Alan, Founding Moderator and Author]

FREE SPEECH AND CRITICAL THINKING

See this March 31, 2025 statement by Michael I. Kotlikoff, the president of Cornell University: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/31/op... (gift article).

I am cross-filing this post in the “Freedom of Speech” and “Reason, Informal Logic, Evidence, and Critical Thinking” topics of this Goodreads group.

[Alan, Founding Moderator and Author]

“How Gen Z Became the Most Gullible Generation”

The foregoing is the title of this April 23, 2025 Politico article: https://www.politico.com/news/magazin.... This is very scary. Somehow, schools and parents need to educate young people to exercise reason and critical thinking regarding both online and offline media. It isn’t happening. Will they improve with age? It’s not very hopeful, since many people in older generations also fail to separate fact from fiction in what they are told. We are becoming a nation of sheep, not to say zombies.

[Alan, Founding Moderator and Author]

ADDENDUM TO MY PRECEDING POST:

See this April 26, 2025 Politico article titled “The New Partisan Divide Is Old Gen Z vs. Young Gen Z: Gen Z politics is transforming before our eyes”: https://www.politico.com/news/magazin....

The first two paragraphs state:

New data out of Yale’s Youth Poll broke the internet last week when it revealed a partisan split within Gen Z. Given a generic Democrat vs. Republican ballot for 2026, respondents ages 18-21 supported Republicans by nearly 12 points, while those ages 22-29 backed Democrats by about 6 points.

It was a stunning gap that undermined the longstanding notion of younger voters always trending more liberal. On the contrary, today’s youngest eligible voters are more conservative than their older counterparts: According to the poll, they are less likely to support transgender athletes participating in sports, less likely to support sending aid to Ukraine and more likely to approve of President Donald Trump. Fifty-one percent of younger Gen Zers view him favorably, compared to 46 percent of older Gen Z.

[Ian]

Ernst Cassirer: The Last Philosopher of Culture by Edward Sidelsky, is $3.99 on Kindle.

For those unfamiliar with his work, Cassirer was the author of the four-volume Philosophy of Symbolic Forms ( The Philosophy of Symbolic Forms, Volume 1: Language. Mythical Thought, The Philosophy of Symbolic Forms 3: The Phenomenology of Knowledge, and The Philosophy of Symbolic Forms: Volume 4: The Metaphysics of Symbolic Forms), and The Myth of the State. I was already acquainted with his little Language and Myth, which is a convenient introduction, but doesn't do justice to his range of thought.

[Alan, Founding Moderator and Author]

PRACTICAL REASON AND INSTRUMENTAL RATIONALITY

See my review of Paul Erickson et al, How Reason Almost Lost Its Mind: The Strange Career of Cold War Rationality (University of Chicago Press, 2013) at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show....