Holding/Modifying Beliefs: Critical Thinking and the Problem of Minimal Rationality

Dissertation, State University of New York at Buffalo (1993)
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Abstract

In the dissertation, I explore several models of critical thinking as these address the question of the fixation of belief and the limitations of rationality. Each of the models discussed are represented as epistemological models of critical thinking. I investigate several of the important epistemic issues raised by these models; such as, the relationship of rationality to critical thinking, reflective scepticism, the role of justification in critical thought and the ways in which beliefs are revised in light of critical thinking. I argue that these models are too dependent on internalism in justification and a representational conception of belief. ;I then argue that the models of critical thought presented have attendant constraints associated with the limitation of rationality and the fixation of belief. Persons tend to have and to hold beliefs tenaciously and, at times, utilize irrational procedures in the formation and revision of beliefs. I argue that an adequate model of critical thinking ought to engage the philosophical and psychological problems which belief fixation poses. These models, because of their dependence on internalism, posit an apsychological/ahistorical approach to critical thinking. I reject that account. ;The assumed tradition of epistemology holds to a limited notion of belief. My account illustrates the complexity of belief and discusses various kinds of belief such as memorial or control beliefs. I advance a conception of belief which attends to psychological issues. In support of the limitation of rationality notion and belief fixation, I then explore the research of Tversky on irrational belief, Rokeach on the issue of belief isolation within one's belief system, and the issue of cognitive dissonance represented in the work of Elster. These limitations will lead to a discussion of an alternative definition of critical thinking in the fourth chapter. The emphasis is placed on the agent and the proper function of cognitive processes, the practices involved in the maturation of these processes and the intellectual passions which move these

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