A Critical Issue

Hot on the tail of Habermas' Paradigms are the principles of critical thinking; 8 of them to be exact. When broken down into 8 distinct considerations the task is clear enough:  I am to dig a little deeper than (the information) which has been brought to my attention.

Let's cruise through the 8 principles of critical thinking (as described by the textbook) with the aid of "15 Fun Facts About Women" ( http://www.tastyhuman.com/15-fun-facts-about-women/ ).

Fact: Women can have partners that are years younger without being called dirty old perverts.
Principle: Be skeptical; accept no opinion as fact. 
This is already like shooting fish in a barrel, because there is simply no way that anyone can make a claim as broad as this one with any certainty that it is true. 


Fact:  According to Playboy, more women talk dirty during sex than men.
Principle: Examine definition of terms.
For what is it to 'talk dirty,' anyway? How can this be a fact when no context is given to the very topic we are discussing?


Fact: Sex is more physical for men and more emotional for women.
Principle: Examine the assumptions or premises of arguments. 
Here we are not considering that there may exist an emotional element of sex which appeals to men and likewise a physical element which exists for women. Someone was not thinking critically when they wrote this fluffy article!




Fact: The two highest IQ’s ever recorded (on a standard test) both belong to women
Principle: Be cautious in drawing conclusions from evidence. 
In our age of information we could easily check to see if this is true. When we look at the list of which this fact is a part of, we can see that it would be wisest to do so. To have evidence is not enough anymore; we need to look at where the evidence is coming from. 


Fact: The first naked man women see is ‘Ken’
Principle: Consider alternative interpretations of research evidence. 
This reads like a made up fact. I must doubt that this is based on the polling of 1287 women on cosmopolitan.com. In fact, if we re-visit our principle regarding definition of terms we will realize that 'Ken' is not even a man. He is a plastic figure. With no penis. Does that really stand up in the world of 'seeing a naked man?'


Fact: A Saudi Arabian woman can get a divorce if her husband doesn’t give her coffee
Principle: Consider the kinds of evidence upon which conclusions are based
Oddly enough, this fact seems to check out. We now see that critical thinking is not used exclusively to falsify claims (not that I ever suggested such was the case) but that by looking more thoroughly at a (fact) by principles of critical thinking we can clarify truth.


Fact: When a woman answers, “I’m fine, ” after a few seconds, she is not fine.
Principle: Do not oversimplify.
This is a swimming example of oversimplification. Surely there have been instances in which a woman spoke of being fine when she indeed was (fine)!? In any case such as this one I would suggest reading more deeply into the tone in which the words "I'm fine" was spoken. To regard the above fact as true in every instance is an error of miscommunication waiting to happen.


Fact: It’s cool to be a daddy’s girl. It’s sad to be a mommy’s boy. 
Principle: Do not overgeneralize. 
But aren't there daddy's girls who cannot look after themselves by virtue of having been overprotected by their fathers? That's not cool! And aren't there mommy's boys who are quite successful by the standards of both themselves and others? Overgeneralizing is synonymous with stereotyping, an act most detrimental to one who is learning to develop and employ his or her own critical thinking skills. 




And so we see any point can be more closely examined by using our newly learned principles of critical thinking. These principles give us very pointed guidance when looking at issues of human sexuality. The underlying idea here is to be willing to listen to many different viewpoints and to think carefully about (anything under discussion) . These principles provide a framework for how we can do that, and if we know that we are confidently using these methods of critical thinking while examining issues, we will know that we have explored material in this course in a thoughtful, mature and thorough manner.