1. Chapter 3. Becoming a Fair-Minded Thinker
Najlaa Al-ruwaili
Maryah Al-Fares
Sec:207

2. Outline Weak versus Strong Critical Thinking
What Does Fair-Mindedness Require?
Intellectual Humility: Having Knowledge of Ignorance
Intellectual Courage: Being Willing to Challenge Beliefs
Intellectual Empathy: Entertaining Opposing Views
Intellectual Integrity: Holding Ourselves to the Same Standards to Which We Hold Others
Intellectual Perseverance: Working Through Complexity and Frustration
Confidence in Reason: Recognizing that Good Reasoning Has Proven Its Worth
Intellectual Autonomy: Being an Independent Thinker
Recognizing the Interdependence of Intellectual Virtues

3. Weak versus Strong Critical Thinking
Being fair-minded…
Sophistry is the art of winning arguments regardless of whether there are obvious problems in the thinking being used
Think critically …

6. What does fair- mindedness require?
The basic aim in fair mindedness is to try to treat the point of views that are relevant to a situation with unbiased way.

7. What does fair- mindedness require? (cont.)
*There are some points that should be considered in fair-mindedness:
Avoid selfish reasons.
Our fair mindedness should balance the benefits between all parties.
The opposite of fair-mindedness is intellectual self centeredness. Actually, it means who treat the opinion on their own standards and on their own way of thinking.
For example :when the teacher think that international school students are more intelligent or better than the other students.

8. What does fair- mindedness require? (cont.)
Fair mindedness requires from us to develop into:
intellectually humble.
intellectually perseverant.
intellectually empathetic.
intellectually courageous.
intellectually autonomous.
intellectually honest.

9. Intellectual Humility: Having Knowledge of Ignorance
It is having a consciousness of the limits of one’s knowledge.
The opposition of intellectual humility is intellectual arrogance.
Example:
The manger of the company has intellectual arrogance, he decides
the position of the employees based on
their fashion style and how they look!!

10. Intellectual Courage: Being Willing to Challenge Beliefs
having a consciousness of the need to face and fairly address ideas, beliefs, or viewpoints toward which one has strong negative emotions and to which one has not given a serious hearing.
Consider the following resolution:
I will not identify with the content of any belief. I will identify only with the way I come to my beliefs. I am a critical thinker and, as such, am ready to abandon any belief that cannot be supported by evidence and rational considerations. I am ready to follow evidence and reason wherever they lead. My true identity is that of being a critical thinker, a lifelong learner, and a person always looking to improve my thinking by becoming more reasonable in my beliefs.

11. Intellectual Empathy: Entertaining Opposing Views
It is an awareness of the need to imaginatively put oneself in
the place of others so as to genuinely understand them.
The opposite of intellectual empathy is intellectual self-centeredness.
Example:
misunderstanding between couples or
the parents with their children.

12. Intellectual Integrity: Holding Ourselves to the Same Standards to Which We Hold Others
recognition of the need to be true to one's own thinking and to hold oneself to the same standards one expects others to meet.
The appearance of integrity means a lot because it affects our image with others

13. Intellectual Perseverance: Working Through Complexity and Frustration
It is the disposition to work one's way through intellectual complexities despite the frustration inherent in the task.
The opposite of intellectual perseverance is intellectual laziness.
Example:
If the person face difficulties in his/ her
career path, he/ she will not stop,
but continuous to overcome till reach to the goal.

14. Confidence in Reason: Recognizing that Good Reasoning Has Proven Its Worth
Confidence in reason is based on the belief that one's own higher interests and those of humankind will be best served by giving the freest play to reason.
people tend to have uncritical or "blind" faith in one or more of the following:
Faith in charismatic cult leaders
Faith in institutional authorities ("the company," police, judges)
Faith in social institutions (the courts, schools, charities, governments).
Faith in one's own unanalyzed experience, and emotions.
Faith in people who have social status or position (the rich, famous, powerful).
You have to ask yourself: Are there good grounds for having that faith? For example, it makes sense to have faith in a friend if that friend has consistently acted as a friend over an extended time

15. Intellectual Autonomy: Being an Independent Thinker
It is Internal motivation based on the ideal of thinking for oneself.
The opposite of The opposite of intellectual autonomy is
intellectual conformity, or intellectual or emotional
dependence.
Example:
Supervisor in a company like to work with obvious results,
he do not
prefer to pass through the other experiences.
Therefore, to prevent any losses in the business.
Intellectual Autonomy: Being an Independent Thinker  

16. Recognizing the Interdependence of Intellectual Virtues
intellectual courage
intellectual sense of justice
intellectual humility
Intellectual integrity
Imagine, for example, that your company decides to reorganize your division and some people lose their jobs. To what extent are you able to intellectually empathize with colleagues and the managers? Are you able to intellectual humility; to what extent are you able to think autonomously, intellectual sense of justice, think with integrity

17. Conclusion
Natural v. Critical Thinking: *As humans we think; as critical thinkers we analyze our thinking. *As humans we think egocentrically; as critical thinkers we expose the egocentric roots of our thinking to close scrutiny * As humans we are drawn to standards of thinking unworthy of belief; as critical thinkers we expose inappropriate standards and replace them with sound ones. * As humans we live in systems of meanings that typically entrap us; as critical thinkers we learn how to raise our thinking to conscious examination, enabling us to free ourselves from many of the traps of undisciplined, instinctive thought.

18. *As humans we use logical systems whose root structures are not apparent to us; as critical thinkers we develop tools for explicating and assessing our participation in the logical systems in which we live.
As humans we live with the illusion of intellectual and emotion freedom; as critical thinkers we take explicit intellectual and emotional command of who we are, what we are, and the ends to which our lives are tending.
* As human thinkers we are governed by our thoughts; as critical thinkers we learn how to govern the thoughts that govern us.