|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
Categories and Critical Thinking
Categories (See Categories) represent one of the fundamental, very important characteristics of Western thinking-analysis. Without analysis, we would have very few categories. When we analyze something, we take it apart to see how it works. In so doing, we always create categories we can use to refer to these operations. The opposite of analysis is "synthesis," putting two or more things together to make a new thing. If a person can show evidence that he or she can analyze things, it is assumed that their education has been at least relatively successful. The ability to analyze and create categories has great value today and is often referred to as "critical thinking." The danger with critical thinking is the assumption sometimes made that it can be used in a straightforward and fairly simple search for truth. "Critical Thinking" is a "buzz-word," that is, a term that comes into widespread use in a short period of time, and that is often accepted quickly and with little analysis. Buzz-words usually indicate that the user of the term is or wants to be accepted as a member of a group that is socially approved. Unfortunately, serious analysis often requires a lot of careful thinking. Let us consider the idea that "All races are equal." This seems like a straightforward and just statement. If we want to analyze the statement, we might observe that the word "race" normally refers to such things as the color of skin, hair and eyes. If I say that all races are equal, I am basing my statement on the idea that there is a thing such as race. Also, if I say that two things are equal, I am affirming that they are not the same. Dexter Jeffries, an African-American, had accepted this particular concept until he realized that, for him, there was no reality to many of the categories that constitute the concept named "race."
From that day, I kept on the main track with only some minor digressions. She helped me understand who I was, from a humane point of view. And when it comes down to it, race is not human; it's an artificial categorization employed to justify what is inherently human: weakness, fear, diffidence and timidity. By focusing on the human side-my family, my relationships with my father, mother, brother and sister-I was able to make some substantial progress in consolidating a genuine identity. (224) What Jeffries did was to think critically about a concept, race, and find that at least in some uses, it did not mean what people usually assume that it means. He had to struggle with the meaning of a word that he had assumed was a correct part of the analysis of the world. Ultimately, he rejected the idea of race and, by extension, that part of the process of critical thinking that is based on race. Another example of this phenomenon is reported by Kathleen Gaffney (2002) who reports an instance where she had been speaking highly of the arts to an assembly of Native Americans. "I had been speaking for only ten minutes when from the back of the audience a man rose, He was Black Bear, the leader of the Black Feet, and he spoke very loudly and slowly with respect. 'Excuse me, I mean no disrespect, but we of the Black Feet have difficulty every time you say the word "art." For in our language, there is no such word. For us, what you call art is everything we are and everything we do. You Anglo's-and I mean no disrespect-have taken art out of everything and put it over there.' He pointed far away. 'But for me what you call art is my clothing, my healing, my cooking, my spirit: it is as close to me as my skin.'" The valuable lesson Jeffries and Black Bear teaches us is that we should examine carefully every part of an argument, and that we should not stop examining just because of a buzz-word that is wisely used at the time. We consider briefly some related matters in the discussion of Lexical Structure in Writing. Dexter Jeffries (1996). "Who I Am" in Identities: Readings from Contemporary Culture. Ed. Ann Raimes. Houghton Mifflin Co.: Boston. Gaffney, Kathleen (2002) "Creative Lightning" to appear in College Teaching for the New Millenium: 27 Essays on and by Howard Gardner." Clyde Coreil, ed. New Jersey City University: Jersey City, NJ.
© Copyright 2002 Dr. Clyde Coreil
|
|||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
|||||||||
Navigation