The Humanities and Critical Thinking

"I’ll become a bore to others, a drag in conversation, repeat myself, be slow at comprehension, quick at misunderstanding, have lapses in conceptual sequences. All this will probably be invisible to me. I won’t even be aware of my own decline." (Janaro & Altshuler, 2016, p. 16)

I think this quote from the text that was originally from William Wharton's 1981 novel "Dad," is a great example of why critical thinking is so important not just in an academic setting but our personal lives. The whole reason that students go to college is to better prepare themselves for the real world not only by getting a degree for employment, but learning new values and perspectives of the world around us. I think the university's do a good job at promoting critical thinking in their courses so much so that there is actually a ," critical thinking," requirement for graduation where you have to pass a course that teaches and emphasizes critical thinking. This teaching I believe will make people be able to make more rational and intelligent decisions in everyday life but none more so that politics. In my opinion we have reached a critical point in partisan thinking in the United States where most people vote purely based off of what's popular or how they first feel about a particular issue without thinking or even considering the other sides opinions. This has led to a great divide between political opinion where almost nobody can agree on anything from economic policy to social issues like LGBTQ rights. I think that this is detrimental to society as people don't respect each others views or opinions to the point that whenever one side wins an election, the other side is left feeling spited and oppressed because they will surely see nothing good come from that particular administration. With the teaching of critical thinking however at the vary least people should be able to have civil debates with one another and possibly compromise on issues to actually get things done in government instead of deadlocking legislation and nothing changing for years.

"He then made a famous distinction between two ways of responding not only to drama but to events in real life. He identified as Apollonian that side of the human personality dominated by reason and disciplined analytical, rational, and coherent thought: in short, the side that responds to Greek tragedy by seeking its meaning. He dubbed as Dionysian that side of the human personality dominated by feelings, intuition, and freedom from limits: the side that responds emotionally to music as well as to the force and fury of tragedy."

(Janaro & Altshuler, 2016, p. 17)

I find it interesting to look at the differences between Apollonian and Dionysian thinking and how both ways are important when it refers to critical thinking. In my opinion Apollonian would be the proper way to learn how to apply critical thinking when it comes to humanities and the study of the arts but the text explains why that's not necessarily true. Its impossible to form a personal opinion without both concepts as if you were purely thinking Apollonian you would only find value in the lessons that a given work was trying to convey. However the Dionysian approach is equally as valuable because its the personal and emotional response to something. Saying that you simply enjoyed something because of how it makes you feel emotionally is important because without it you cant form long term feeling towards a certain piece of music or art. In this way I feel that in order to truly think critically you must view both sides of thought, both logical and emotional to fully for an opinion on any given idea. I also like how in the text it describes the works of Nietzsche and how he coined the phrases from Greek mythology based on Apollo and Dionysus for the respective ways of responding to an idea.

"Assumptions are a fact of everyday communication. They are the beliefs on which opinions are based and conclusions drawn. Often these are buried; that is, they lie beneath what people are saying without being acknowledged as assumptions, and often they are the real message that is being communicated."

(Janaro & Altshuler, 2016, p. 23)

Its interesting to think about how many discissions are made daily based purely on assumptions or instinct. In my own life I probably make dozens of these discissions on a daily basis on everything from when I should take food out of the oven to how warm do I want a shower to be. Realistically most of these discissions can be made logically with proper thinking such as, "how long are the instructions on the pizza roll box," or, " well I read an article about how cold showers are better at preventing acne." However for most discissions you don't have to think that deeply about it and just go based in instinct and feeling and even if you mess something up the consequences are so minimal that it doesn't really matter in the long run. However some discissions can not be made so quickly as the consequences may be catastrophic. The text describes and example of the release of a convicted murderer who was found innocent by reason of insanity. In that situation your first instinct may be horror and disgust as you might think that its unthinkable to release such a person onto the streets after committing such a crime. But without knowing all the details of the case its impossible to make an objective discission on weather that person should or shouldn't be allowed back into society. What if for example you learned that the person was abused for years by someone physically and emotionally before they eventually snaped and killed that person. Personally that would make me reconsider my opinion over the case and I would like the fact that they were given help mentally and released to try and live a normal life again. In this way its important to always think critically and not make an assumption without knowing all the facts available to you and to always be willing to reexamine the facts before making a decision or opinion.

Janaro & Altshuler, The Art of Being Human - The Humanities as a Technique for Living 11th Edition, Pearson 2016