scholarly journals Bertrand Russell: Cognitivism, Non-Cognitivism and Ethical Critical Thinking

Phronimon ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Angelo Nicolaides
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Basic Problem ◽  
Bertrand Russell ◽  
Central Problem ◽  
Ethical Knowledge ◽  
General Kind ◽  
Per Se ◽  
Ethical Conviction

Bertrand Russell converted from ethical cognitivism to ethical non-cognitivism and this was historically important, as it gave rise in part, to meta-ethics. It also clarified the central problem between cognitivism and non-cognitivism. Russell’s view was that defining “good” is the basic problem of ethics. If “good” is not amorphous, the rest of ethics will follow. He did not believe in ethical knowledge per se and asserted that reason is, and must only be, the servant of desire. A factual statement is thus true if there is an equivalent fact, but as ethical statements do not state facts, there is no issue of a corresponding fact or the statement being true or false in the sense in which factual statements are. Ethics has no statement whether true or false, but consists only of desires of a general kind and people know intuitively what is “right” or “wrong”. To Russell critical thinking is entrenched in the structure of philosophy. His epistemological conviction was that knowledge is difficult to attain, while his ethical conviction showed that people should be expected to exercise freedom of inquiry when arriving at conclusions of something being either “good” or “bad”.

Bertrand Russell on Critical Thinking

1998 ◽  
pp. 142-149
Author(s):  
William Hare
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Deep Understanding ◽  
Bertrand Russell ◽  
Educational Aims ◽  
Recent Debate ◽  
Ethical Conviction ◽  
The Ideal ◽  
Relational Skills

The ideal of critical thinking is a central one in Russell's philosophy, though this is not yet generally recognized in the literature on critical thinking. For Russell, the ideal is embedded in the fabric of philosophy, science, liberalism and rationality, and this paper reconstructs Russell's account, which is scattered throughout numerous papers and books. It appears that he has developed a rich conception, involving a complex set of skills, dispositions and attitudes, which together delineate a virtue which has both intellectual and moral aspects. It is a view which is rooted in Russell's epistemological conviction that knowledge is difficult but not impossible to attain, and in his ethical conviction that freedom and independence in inquiry are vital. Russell's account anticipates many of the insights to be found in the recent critical thinking literature, and his views on critical thinking are of enormous importance in understanding the nature of educational aims. Moreover, it is argued that Russell manages to avoid many of the objections which have been raised against recent accounts. With respect to impartiality, thinking for oneself, the importance of feelings and relational skills, the connection with action, and the problem of generalizability, Russell shows a deep understanding of problems and issues which have been at the forefront of recent debate.

The “Open Society” and its Fallacies

1960 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
pp. 972-979 ◽  
Author(s):  
Willmoore Kendall
Keyword(s):  
John Stuart Mill ◽  
Central Problem ◽  
Open Society ◽  
Advanced Society ◽  
Freedom Of Thought ◽  
The One ◽  
Ethical Conviction ◽  
Civilized Society

A little over 100 years ago John Stuart Mill wrote in his essay On Liberty that “… there ought to exist the fullest liberty of professing and discussing, as a matter of ethical conviction, any doctrine, however immoral it may be considered.” The sentence from which this is taken is not obiter: Chapter Two of his book is devoted to arguments, putatively philosophical in character, which if they were sound would warrant precisely such a conclusion; we have therefore every reason to assume that Mill meant by the sentence just what it says. The topic of Chapter Two is the entire “communications” process in civilized society (“advanced” society, as Mill puts it); and the question he raises is whether there should be limitations on that process. He treats that problem as the central problem of all civilized societies, the one to which all other problems are subordinate, because of the consequences, good or ill, that a society must bring upon itself according as it adopts this or that solution to it. And he has supreme confidence in the Tightness of the solution he offers. Presumably to avoid all possible misunderstanding, he provides several alternative statements of it, each of which makes his intention abundantly clear, namely, that society must be so organized as to make that solution its supreme law. “Fullest,” that is, absolute freedom of thought and speech, he asserts by clear implication in the entire argument of the chapter, is not to be one of several competing goods society is to foster, one that on occasion might reasonably be sacrificed, in part at least, to the preservation of other goods; i.e., he refuses to recognize any competing good in the name of which it can be limited.

Aristotle on Kind‐Crossing

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philipp Steinkrüger
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Disciplines ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
General Kind ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Per Se

This paper concerns Aristotle's kind‐crossing prohibition. My aim is twofold. I argue that the traditional accounts of the prohibition are subject to serious internal difficulties and should be questioned. According to these accounts, Aristotle's prohibition is based on the individuation of scientific disciplines and the general kind that a discipline is about, and it says that scientific demonstrations must not cross from one discipline, and corresponding kind, to another. I propose a very different account of the prohibition. The prohibition is based on Aristotle's scientific and metaphysical essentialism, according to which a scientific demonstration must take as its starting point a set of per se properties of a subject, if these make up a single, unitary definition. The subject of demonstration here is a kind, although not the general kind associated with a discipline, but rather the particular kind that the particular demonstration is about.

Natural Kinds: Rosy Dawn, Scholastic Twilight

2007 ◽  
Vol 61 ◽  
pp. 203-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Hacking
Keyword(s):  
Present State ◽  
Natural Kind ◽  
Basic Problem ◽  
Natural Kinds ◽  
Bertrand Russell ◽  
Victorian England ◽  
Logical Concept ◽  
State Of Affairs

The rosy dawn of my title refers to that optimistic time when the logical concept of a natural kind originated in Victorian England. The scholastic twilight refers to the present state of affairs. I devote more space to dawn than twilight, because one basic problem was there from the start, and by now those origins have been forgotten. Philosophers have learned many things about classification from the tradition of natural kinds. But now it is in disarray and is unlikely to be put back together again. My argument is less founded on objections to the numerous theories now in circulation, than on the sheer proliferation of incompatible views. There no longer exists what Bertrand Russell called ‘the doctrine of natural kinds’—one doctrine. Instead we have a slew of distinct analyses directed at unrelated projects.

Natural Kinds: Rosy Dawn, Scholastic Twilight

2007 ◽  
Vol 61 ◽  
pp. 203-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Hacking
Keyword(s):  
Present State ◽  
Natural Kind ◽  
Basic Problem ◽  
Natural Kinds ◽  
Bertrand Russell ◽  
Victorian England ◽  
Logical Concept ◽  
State Of Affairs

The rosy dawn of my title refers to that optimistic time when the logical concept of a natural kind originated in Victorian England. The scholastic twilight refers to the present state of affairs. I devote more space to dawn than twilight, because one basic problem was there from the start, and by now those origins have been forgotten. Philosophers have learned many things about classification from the tradition of natural kinds. But now it is in disarray and is unlikely to be put back together again. My argument is less founded on objections to the numerous theories now in circulation, than on the sheer proliferation of incompatible views. There no longer exists what Bertrand Russell called ‘the doctrine of natural kinds’—one doctrine. Instead we have a slew of distinct analyses directed at unrelated projects.

scholarly journals Augmenting Tertiary Students' Soft Skills Via Multiple Intelligences Instructional Approach: Literature Courses in Focus

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 230
Author(s):  
El Sherief Eman
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Labor Market ◽  
Learning Styles ◽  
Multiple Intelligences ◽  
Soft Skills ◽  
Teaching Literature ◽  
Universities And Colleges ◽  
Multiple Intelligences Theory ◽  
Per Se

The second half of the twentieth century is a witness to an unprecedentedly soaring increase in the number of students joining the arena of higher education(UNESCO,2001). Currently, the number of students at Saudi universities and colleges exceeds one million vis-à-vis 7000 in 1970(Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia, Washington). Such enormous body of learners in higher education is per se diverse enough to embrace distinct learning styles, assorted repertoire of backgrounds, prior knowledge, experiences, and perspectives; at this juncture, they presumably share common aspiration which is hooking a compatible post in the labor market upon graduation, and to subsequently be capable of acting competently in a scrupulously competitive workplace environment. Bunch of potentialities and skills are patently vital for a graduate to reach such a prospect. Such bunch of skills in a conventional undergraduate paradigm of education were given no heed, being rather postponed to the post-graduation phase. The current Paper postulated tremendous  merits of deploying the Multiple Intelligences theory as a project-based approach, within  literature classes in higher education; a strategy geared towards reigniting students’ engagement, nurturing their critical thinking capabilities, sustaining their individualistic dispositions, molding them as inquiry-seekers, and ending up engendering life-long, autonomous learners,  well-armed with the substantial skills for traversing the rigorous competition in future labor market.  Keywords: Multiple intelligences, teaching Literature, motivation, autonomous learning, critical thinking. 

scholarly journals Analytic Philosophy: A Very Short introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Beaney
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Ludwig Wittgenstein ◽  
Analytic Philosophy ◽  
Bertrand Russell ◽  
Gottlob Frege ◽  
Short Introduction ◽  
Philosophical Questions

Analytic Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction introduces some of the key ideas of the founders of analytic philosophy—Gottlob Frege, Bertrand Russell, G. E. Moore, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and Susan Stebbing around the turn of the 20th century—by exploring certain fundamental philosophical questions and showing how those ideas can be used in offering answers. Considering the work of Susan Stebbing, it also explores the application of analytic philosophy to critical thinking, and emphasizes the conceptual creativity that lies at the heart of fruitful analysis. Throughout, this VSI illustrates why clarity of thinking, precision of expression, and rigour of argumentation are rightly seen as virtues of analytic philosophy.

scholarly journals Contributions of critical thinking as a form of participation and political deliberation

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (27) ◽  
pp. 5-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diego Felipe Arbeláez-Campillo ◽  
Vasyl Ya. Tatsiy ◽  
Magda Julissa Rojas-Bahamón ◽  
Oleg G. Danilyan
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Human Activities ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Philosophical Essay ◽  
The Status ◽  
Per Se ◽  
Political Deliberation ◽  
Critical Reason

Critical thinking is an attribute of consciousness that can be manifested in all human activities where it is required, as a condition of possibility, in the use of critical reason and deliberation. Consequently, it is in the domains of politics that critical thinking is used more frequently, to discuss the scope and concrete significance of the discourses and practices that, from the exercise of public powers, are deployed on intelligent citizenship and with the minimum necessary of information for peer deliberation. The objective of this article is to deconstruct the most common contributions of critical thinking as a form of participation and political deliberation. Methodologically it is a research of documentary design developed in the coordinates of the philosophical essay, next to the Latin American philosopher and the revision of the most popular political theory. Among the main findings, the idea that critical thinking is not the exclusive patrimony of certain self-defined political and ideological tendencies as progressive in the region stands out. It is concluded that, this way of thinking is uncomfortable per se for all the paradigms that serve as the basis for the status quo, in politics and society.

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