Critical thinking consists of discernment, analysis and evaluation. It allows us to form judgments that reconcile scientific evidence with common sense.
Lateral thinking is about reasoning that is not immediately obvious and ideas that may not be obtainable using traditional logic.
So why are critical and lateral thinking in such short supply? Orthodoxy (adherence to conventional beliefs) may be the great enemy of both. Once we are emotionally vested in a belief we become resistant to changing or letting it go. Orthodoxy therefore requires us to suspend critical examination of that belief. If we are not open to examining our beliefs then we are unable to discern problems which might require lateral solutions.
Orthodoxy, however, does play an important role in the management of our increasingly complex society. Once we have found a solution that works, faithful adherence to that solution allows us to focus our time and resources on other challenges. Problems arise when conditions change that render the original solution obsolete.
Adherents to orthodoxy invariably conclude that lack of fidelity to long standing conventions are the underlying cause of our problems. Heretics on the other hand believe that commitment to outdated solutions are the cause.
My questions is, how can we discern what is real without a thoughtful examination of the orthodox?
1 comment:
The other day I was driving and I saw an electrical box in the middle of an empty lot. Its vaguely disconcerting; all this bizarre technology strewn across the landscape, unworkable, phantasmagoric.What could I do with that box? I thought.
Smash walnuts?
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