{"ops":[{"insert":"Critical societies are rarely the topic of discussion, in any part of human life. Where are you encouraged and invited to open your mind to alternative (especially unconventional) ways of thinking? Where are safe places for exploring ideas that may seem threatening to the status quo? How do you engage in reasonable dialogue that helps you see things from multiple perspectives and better reason through complexities in issues? How do you find the most enlightened viewpoints on how to live as a cultivated, educated, emotionally-well person in a highly complex, frequently pathological world? How do you help students or employees broaden their thinking, so they actively work to embody intellectual virtues such as intellectual humility, intellectual autonomy, intellectual courage, intellectual empathy, intellectual integrity, confidence in reason and fairmindedness?\n\nThese questions help us imagine what it might look like to live in fairminded critical societies. As we ponder the many things we can appreciate at this time of year, and at all times of the year, let us acknowledge and study the contributions that have come to us through history from thinkers who have contributed to our understanding of the human mind, of critical thinking, and of what is entailed in critical societies. Here are some of these thoughts from the past which, taken together with our other knowledge of human thinking, can help us see what fairminded critical societies might look like:\n\n\\https://community.criticalthinking.org/viewDocument.php?doc=../content/library_for_everyone/6/CriticalSocietiesThoughtsfromthePast.pdf&page=1\n\nWe are of course a very long way from realizing fairminded critical societies. In many ways we humans seem to be moving further away from reasonability. But humans have never embraced a rich conception of ethical critical thinking for all of society. Ethics has characteristically been pushed aside by selfish and vest interest. Where critical thinking "},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"is"},{"insert":" used in human life, it is frequently used in sophistic, or manipulative ways. Consequences of this can be seen throughout human life and throughout human treatment of other species and the planet.\n\nAs you read through the excerpts at the link above, ask yourself how you can better employ the ideas you are reading to help transform you into the person you want to become. \n\nWhat is your contribution to fairminded critical societies? What will be your contribution?\n"}]}