Browsing by Subject "philosophy of knowledge"

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    Critical Thinking for Ordinary People and Professional Analysts
    (2015-10-02) Andregg, Michael M.
    Educators are constantly urged to cultivate “critical thinking.” This would be difficult even if everyone agreed what “critical thinking” is. Which they don’t. Furthermore, many of the teaching aids available on-line or in print were written by philosophers (of logic usually) which makes them hard to understand. Logic has an honored place in critical thinking, but also a big weakness because two highly educated and very intelligent people can have opposite opinions on what is “logical.” Consider the firm opinions of Democrats and Republicans on many issues, for one example, or the evidence presented by ardent proponents of different religions for another. This essay tries to simplify commentary on critical thinking to focus on a few themes that most would agree with. Those will be: 1. Sourcing all data, and searching for multiple, independent sources. 2. Evidence based reasoning contrasted with “authority” and “credibility.” 3. Editorial frames (or “bias”) among sources, and the value of editorial processes. 4. Propaganda, Marketing and Spin Doctoring. 5. Groupthink, Politicization and “Logic.” 6. Financial and other Conflicts of Interest among sources. 7. Statistics 8. Wisdom (ha, try defining that!) versus “facts” and “opinions.”
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    How "Wisdom" Differs from Intelligence and Knowledge in the Context of National Intelligence Agencies
    (2003-02-28) Andregg, Michael M.
    It is customary at this point to spend considerable time defining key terms like wisdom, intelligence and knowledge. I will come back to that after cutting to the bone of the topic at hand. Wisdom has a longer time horizon than either intelligence or knowledge. It spans a greater scope of concern, and reflects a set of values infused into knowledge that include compassion as a core component. It requires a deep understanding of human nature, because it is only called upon during crises of human affairs. All the rest is details, which can distract from these cardinal truths. With respect to issues of international security, this difference is exemplified by cases like Afghanistan (1979-89), Guatemala (1954) and Iran (1953-79). In each case focus on short-term, narrowly defined and mainly American national interests resulted in significant tactical victories. The long-term cost has been generating intense hatred of America among hundreds of millions of people worldwide. That hatred has diffuse military and economic consequences that are difficult to measure, but by any measure are profound. Of course there are excuses for this sacrifice of long-term, general welfare for short-term, narrow goals. But such excuses should not obscure the great price to thoughtful intelligence professionals, who undoubtedly do care about the future of their countries and their children.