Critical Thinking, Moral Courage, and Sustainable …
175
Paul and Elder (2006), Bailin and Battersby (2016), and Hamby (2014 apud
Hitchcock 2018) propose the term “virtues” for these components of critical thinking.
They are virtues of character, concerning a person’s ways of thinking rather than their
ways of behaving. They are thus not moral virtues but intellectual virtues or cognitive
values (Kuhn 2008).
Thinking dispositions or intellectual virtues are real properties of thinkers.
They are general tendencies, propensities, or inclinations to think in different
ways in particular circumstances. Dispositions are personality traits of a complex
psychological reality named critical thinking (Dumitru 2012).
Facione (1990) divides the dispositions into two categories: initiating dispositions (those that contribute to starting to think critically about an issue) and internal
dispositions (those that contribute causally to doing a good job of thinking critically once one has started) (Facione 1990). The disposition is a person’s consistent
internal motivation to act toward, or to respond to persons, events, or circumstances
in habitual, and yet potentially malleable, ways (Facione 2000).
Although there is some overlap between the two categories, it is among the initiating dispositions that we find courage. Paul and Elder (2006) explain that fear of
thinking for oneself can stop one from doing it. Thus, willingness to think critically
requires intellectual courage (Paul and Elder 2006).
In the ancient world, courage, moderation, and justice were prime species of moral
virtue. A virtue is a settled disposition to act in a certain way (Parry 2014). Aristotle
says that courage is the just measure between fear and confidence. So, courage cannot
exist in the absence of fear. Courage means that a person should act despite their fear.
An excessive disposition to confidence is rashness and an excessive disposition to
fear and a deficiency in confidence is cowardice (Aristotle, apud Parry 2014). In the
Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle defines fear as the expectation of evil things (III6, 10),
so people should avoid encountering these (disgrace, poverty, disease, friendlessness,
death). It is actually noble to fear some of them, like disgrace and, especially, death,
for which neither good nor bad exists.
Courage involves pain, and is justly praised, since it is more difficult to endure
what is painful than to abstain from what is pleasant (Aristotle, III7b). Courage also
means knowledge, as the Stoics maintained. It is simply knowledge of what is to be
endured: the impulse to endure or not (Parry 2014). It might appear as strange that
courage, a virtue separated from reasoning, depends upon knowledge, which is an
aspect of reasoning. However, courage is not in fact separated from reasoning at all.
Aristotle points out that ignorance seems courageous, but when the person under a
delusion finds out that the situation is different from what they imagined, they run
(Aristotle III7a, 20). So, a courageous decision, rationally chosen (we are getting
close to CT) can be made based on foreseen actions.
This is the link between courage and critical thinking (deciding on what to believe
or to do). Critical thinking needs all the dispositions, including courage, for its development and purposeful use, and courage needs CT for right action based on truth
and morality.
Observe the pictures below.
175
Paul and Elder (2006), Bailin and Battersby (2016), and Hamby (2014 apud
Hitchcock 2018) propose the term “virtues” for these components of critical thinking.
They are virtues of character, concerning a person’s ways of thinking rather than their
ways of behaving. They are thus not moral virtues but intellectual virtues or cognitive
values (Kuhn 2008).
Thinking dispositions or intellectual virtues are real properties of thinkers.
They are general tendencies, propensities, or inclinations to think in different
ways in particular circumstances. Dispositions are personality traits of a complex
psychological reality named critical thinking (Dumitru 2012).
Facione (1990) divides the dispositions into two categories: initiating dispositions (those that contribute to starting to think critically about an issue) and internal
dispositions (those that contribute causally to doing a good job of thinking critically once one has started) (Facione 1990). The disposition is a person’s consistent
internal motivation to act toward, or to respond to persons, events, or circumstances
in habitual, and yet potentially malleable, ways (Facione 2000).
Although there is some overlap between the two categories, it is among the initiating dispositions that we find courage. Paul and Elder (2006) explain that fear of
thinking for oneself can stop one from doing it. Thus, willingness to think critically
requires intellectual courage (Paul and Elder 2006).
In the ancient world, courage, moderation, and justice were prime species of moral
virtue. A virtue is a settled disposition to act in a certain way (Parry 2014). Aristotle
says that courage is the just measure between fear and confidence. So, courage cannot
exist in the absence of fear. Courage means that a person should act despite their fear.
An excessive disposition to confidence is rashness and an excessive disposition to
fear and a deficiency in confidence is cowardice (Aristotle, apud Parry 2014). In the
Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle defines fear as the expectation of evil things (III6, 10),
so people should avoid encountering these (disgrace, poverty, disease, friendlessness,
death). It is actually noble to fear some of them, like disgrace and, especially, death,
for which neither good nor bad exists.
Courage involves pain, and is justly praised, since it is more difficult to endure
what is painful than to abstain from what is pleasant (Aristotle, III7b). Courage also
means knowledge, as the Stoics maintained. It is simply knowledge of what is to be
endured: the impulse to endure or not (Parry 2014). It might appear as strange that
courage, a virtue separated from reasoning, depends upon knowledge, which is an
aspect of reasoning. However, courage is not in fact separated from reasoning at all.
Aristotle points out that ignorance seems courageous, but when the person under a
delusion finds out that the situation is different from what they imagined, they run
(Aristotle III7a, 20). So, a courageous decision, rationally chosen (we are getting
close to CT) can be made based on foreseen actions.
This is the link between courage and critical thinking (deciding on what to believe
or to do). Critical thinking needs all the dispositions, including courage, for its development and purposeful use, and courage needs CT for right action based on truth
and morality.
Observe the pictures below.