{"ops":[{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"[Missed Part 1? "},{"attributes":{"bold":true,"link":"https://community.criticalthinking.org/blogPost.php?param=238"},"insert":"Read It Here"},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"]"},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":" "},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"italic":true,"bold":true},"insert":"Philosophical and Unphilosophical Minds: Philosophy as a Mode of Thinking and a Framework for Thinking"},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"italic":true,"bold":true},"insert":" "},{"insert":"\nPerhaps the best way to show what lies at the heart of the uniqueness and power of philosophy is to consider the contrast in general between unphilosophical and philosophical minds. In doing so, I present the two as idealized abstractions for the purpose of clarifying a paradigm; I realize that no one perfectly illustrates these idealizations.\n \nThe unphilosophical mind thinks without a clear sense of the foundations of its own thought, without conscious knowledge of the most basic concepts, aims, assumptions, and values that define and direct it. The unphilosophical mind is trapped within the system it uses, unable to deeply understand alternative or competing systems. The unphilosophical mind tends towards an intra-system closedmindedness. The unphilosophical mind may learn to think within different systems of thought if the systems are compartmentalized and apply in different contexts, but it cannot compare and contrast whole systems, because, at any given time, it thinks within a system without a clear sense of what it means to do so. This kind of intra-system thinking can be skilled, but it lacks foundational self-command. It functions well when confronted with questions and issues that fall clearly within its system, but is at its worse when having issues that cross systems, require revising a system, or presuppose explicit critique of the system used.\n \nUnphilosophical liberals, for example, would be hard pressed to think clearly and accurately within a conservative point of view, and hence would not do well with an issue like “What are some of the most important insights of conservativism?” Unphilosophical psychologists, to take another example, would find it difficult to integrate sociological or economic insights into their thinking. Indeed, thinking unphilosophically in almost any discipline means thinking reductionistically with respect to insights from other disciplines; one either reduces them to whatever can be absorbed into the established concepts in one’s field or ignores them entirely.\n \nAn unphilosophical mind is at its best when routine methods, rules, or procedures function well and there is no need to critically reconceptualize them in the light of a broad understanding of one’s framework for thinking. If one lacks philosophical insight into the underlying logic of those routines, rules, or procedures, one lacks the ability to mentally step outside of them and conceive of alternatives. As a result, the unphilosophical mind tends toward conformity to a system without grasping clearly what the system is, how it came to be thus, or how it might have been otherwise.\n \nThe philosophical mind, in contrast, routinely probes the foundations of its own thought, realized its thinking is defined by basic concepts, aims, assumptions, and values. The philosophical mind gives serious consideration to alternative and competing concepts, aims, assumptions, and values, enters empathically into thinking fundamentally different from its own, and does not confuse its thinking with reality. By habitually thinking globally, the philosophical mind gains foundational self-command, and is comfortable when problems cross disciplines, domains, and frameworks. A philosophical mind habitually probes the basic principles and concepts that lie behind standard methods, rules, and procedures. The philosophical mind recognized the need to refine and improve the systems, concepts, and methods it uses and does not simply conform to them. The philosophical mind deeply values gaining command over its own fundamental modes of thinking.\n \nThe discipline of philosophy is the only one at present that routinely fosters the philosophical mind, though there are philosophical minds at work in every discipline. The philosophical mind is most evident in other disciplines in those working on foundational concepts and problems. In everyday life, the philosophical mind is most evident in those who deeply value doing their own thinking about the basic issues and problems they have and giving serious reasoned consideration to the ideas and thinking of others. In everyday life, the philosophical mind is most evident in those not afraid to probe conventional thought, rules, mores, and values, those skeptical of standards answers and standard definitions of questions and problems.\n \nIn teaching, the philosophical mind is most evident in those who routinely probe the concepts, aims, assumptions, and values that underlie their teaching; who routinely raise fundamental issues through Socratic questions; who routinely encourage students to probe the foundation and source of their own ideas and those of others; and who routinely encourage students to develop their own philosophy or approach to life or learning based on their own disciplines, rational thought. Need I add that philosophical thinking is not habit foremost?\n"}]}