Foundation for critical thinking - Essay Example

Foundation for Critical Thinking: Valuable Intellectual Traits Intellectual humility, intellectual perseverance and intellectual autonomy are intellectual traits that I need to reinforce in my personality. Intellectual humility entails having a realization that no one has a monopoly of knowledge. Our knowledge is limited and failure to control our egocentrism hinders us from considering other people’s viewpoints, thereby, denying us opportunities to acquire new valuable ideas. The implication of this is a conviction or tendency to pretend or boast that we know too much,`` which might not be the case.

Intellectual humility does not mean loss of power to reason but rather understanding that each encounter with other people is an opportunity to learn (Foundation for Critical Thinking, 2013). Intellectual perseverance refers an awareness of the importance to adhere to insights and facts no matter how disabling situations might be or the magnitude of unreasonable oppositions from other people with different points of view. Intellectual perseverance denotes the ability to take our time to work through confusion and questions that trouble our minds in order to gain deeper understanding on various issues.

It is the ability to acquire courage to navigate intellectual complexities (Foundation for Critical Thinking, 2013). Intellectual autonomy is the capacity to have control over our values, beliefs and inferences. Intellectual autonomy implies that an individual is able to use reason and evidence to analyze different beliefs. He /she is able to object where it is expedient to object and only believes when it is sensible to believe (Cone, 2013). Depending on situations, it may not be rational to object or believe.

Intellectual autonomy in such cases dictates that we conform (Foundation for Critical Thinking, 2013). Therefore, to maximize my intellectual perseverance, I will look to hard tasks as opposed to easy tasks. It won’t matter how time consuming they will be. I will repeatedly attempt to accomplish the task until it’s done. The satisfaction of achievement that I will gain after tackling the hard task will leave me with a magnified sense of accomplishment and pride that I chose the harder way and persevered.

I will improve my intellectual humility by training myself to tolerate and listen to other peoples’ views and ideas, bearing in mind that they may be more knowledgeable than I am. Finally, I will maximize intellectual autonomy by developing a habit of gathering adequate facts regarding a particular issue, analyzing the facts and making a final liberal decision about the issue, rather than unthinkingly conforming to the majority’s opinion. I will also be ready to face the consequences of the liberal decisions I make without putting blame on others.

ReferencesCone, C. (2013). Empathy and Autonomy. Retrieved 7 November 2014, from http://www.etbu.edu/php/theintersection/empathy-and-autonomy/Foundation for Critical Thinking. (2013). Valuable Intellectual Traits. Criticalthinking.org. Retrieved 7 November 2014, from http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/valuable-intellectual-traits/528