What Is Critical Thinking(16-17页
当亚瑟在一年级的时候，老师指导全班学生“思考”。“现在，同学们，”她说，“我知道这个问题比我们曾经做过的要难一点，但是我会给你们多一些时间去思考，现在开始思考吧。”
这不是亚瑟第一次听到这个单词这样使用。他在家里听到过很多次，但是从来不是这种状态。这个老师看上去正在要求大家做出一些特殊的行动，他应该知道如何开始和结束的动作——就像他爸爸的车。“唔-唔，”他用半大的声音嘟哝着。因为他的困惑，他没有意识到他发出的这些噪音。
“亚瑟，请不要出声，开始思考。”
很尴尬，亚瑟完全不知道怎么做，他向下看着他的书桌。突然，在他的眼角外的余光，他注意到他旁边的女孩正在盯着天花板。“或许这是你开始思考的方法。”他猜测。他认为其他人可能在去年学会了如何思考，那时候，他因为麻疹呆在家里。因此，他盯着天花板。
当他上小学和中学的时候，他听到上百次同样的指导。“不，这不是答案，你没有思考——现在要思考！”偶尔，他会听到特别自爱自怜的老师嘟哝着大声自言自语：“我做了什么，得到这样的结果？在其他年级，他们没有教任何东西吗？你们这些人不关注思想吗？思考，混蛋，思考。”
因此，亚瑟就整个事情开始感觉到一些内疚。很显然，这个思考是非常重要的行为，他没有学会。或许他缺乏大脑能量。但是他又精力充沛。他看到其他学生，效仿他们做的事情。不管什么时候，当老师开始关于思考的事情，他满脸困惑，皱着眉头，抓耳挠腮，瞪着空气或者看着天花板，然后不断轻轻地自言自语，“现在让我想想，我得想想这个，思考，思考——我希望他不要叫我——思考。”但是亚瑟不知道，这也是其他同学说过自己的事情。
你可能有过和亚瑟一样的经历。换句话说，很多人可能只是简单的要求你思考，而没有解释思考是什么，一个好的思考者拥有什么特质，一个不好的思考者缺乏什么。从这个角度看，你和很多人一样。相对于规则，广泛和有效的思考训练更是稀缺。下面的陈述说明了这个事实和不幸的结果，这来自于熟练的观察者们。
我生命中最有趣和令人震惊的矛盾是几乎所有人都一方面一直坚持“逻辑，”“逻辑判断，”“全面判断，”，另一方面他们根本没有这种能力，并且不愿意接受其他人的这些做法。
我们大多数所谓的推理只是为了继续相信去找理由，就像我们以前一样。
清晰的思考是非常稀罕的事情，甚至一般性的思考都是稀罕的。我们大多数人绝大部分时候并不思考，我们感受，我们相信，但是我们不思考。
精神上的懒惰是人类最普遍的特征。
这个行为到底是什么？每个人都宣称它是重要的，但是很少人掌握了它？思考是一个普遍的词汇用于代表无数的行为，从白日梦到反思到分析。这有一些在罗杰特（ Roget）的《分类词汇编》（Thesaurus）中列出来的“思考”的同义词。
*评价 商讨 幻想 推理 相信 默想 想象 反思 动脑筋 慎思 沉思 反复思量 思索 领悟 冥想 推测 设想 讨论 细想 假设 考虑 空想 认识 衡量 *
所有这些都只是思考的某方面的名称，他们并不是思考的名词解释。事实是经过数千年人类思想的经历，谈论和写作关于思考的情况，在我们的历史中，它在很多方面依旧是最神秘的事情之一。虽然还有很多需要继续研究，我们已经知道的不少情况。
原文：
When Arthur was in the first grade, the teacher directed the class to “think.” “Now, class,” she said, “I know this problem is a little harder than the ones we’ve been doing, but I’m going to give you a few extra minutes to think about it. Now start thinking.”
It was not the first time Arthur had heard the word used. He’d heard it many times at home, but never quite this way. The teacher seemed to be asking for some special activity, something he should know how to start and stop—like his father’s car. “Vroom-m-m,” he muttered half aloud. Because of his confusion, he was unaware he was making the noise.
“Arthur, please stop making noises and start thinking.”
Embarrassed and not knowing quite what to do, he looked down at his desk. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that the little girl next to him was staring at the ceiling. “Maybe that’s the way you start thinking,” he guessed. He decided the others had probably learned how to do it last year, that time he was home with the measles. So he stared at the ceiling.
As he progressed through grade school and high school, he heard that same direction hundreds of times. “No, that’s not the answer, you’re not thinking—now think!” And occasionally he would hear from particularly self-pitying teachers given to muttering to themselves aloud: “What did I do to deserve this? Don’t they teach them anything in the grades anymore? Don’t you people care about ideas? Think, dammit, THINK.”
So Arthur learned to feel somewhat guilty about the whole matter. Obviously, this thinking was an important activity that he’d failed to learn. Maybe he lacked the brain power. But he was resourceful enough. He watched the other students and did what they did. Whenever a teacher started in about thinking, he screwed up his face, furrowed his brow, scratched his head, stroked his chin, stared off into space or up at the ceiling, and repeated silently to himself, “Let’s see now, I’ve got to think about that, think, think—I hope he doesn’t call on me—think.” Though Arthur didn’t know it, that’s just what the other students were saying to themselves.
Your experience may have been similar to Arthur’s. In other words, many people may have simply told you to think without ever explaining what thinking is and what qualities a good thinker has that a poor thinker lacks. If that is the case, you have a lot of company. Extensive, effective training in thinking is the exception rather than the rule. This fact and its unfortunate consequences are suggested by the following comments from accomplished observers of the human condition:
The most interesting and astounding contradiction in life is to me the constant insistence by nearly all people upon “logic,” “logical reasoning,” “sound reasoning,” on the one hand, and on the other their inability to display it, and their unwillingness to accept it when displayed by others.1
Most of our so-called reasoning consists in finding arguments for going on believing as we already do.2
Clear thinking is a very rare thing, but even just plain thinking is almost as rare. Most of us most of the time do not think at all. We believe and we feel, but we do not think.3
Mental indolence is one of the commonest of human traits.4
What is this activity that everyone claims is important but few people have mastered? Thinking is a general term used to cover numerous activities, from daydreaming to reflection and analysis. Here are just some of the synonyms listed in Roget’s Thesaurus for think:
- appreciate consult fancy reason believe contemplate imagine reflect cerebrate deliberate meditate ruminate cogitate digest muse speculate conceive discuss ponder suppose consider dream realize weigh *
All of those are just the names that thinking goes under. They really don’t explain it. The fact is, after thousands of years of humans’ experiencing thought and talking and writing about thinking, it remains in many respects one of the great mysteries of our existence. Still, though much is yet to be learned, a great deal is already known.
