Here are some critical questions to ask when confronted with bold claims.
Other interesting reads:
HOW TO DETECT BIAS IN NEWS MEDIA
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE: CRITICAL THINKING – THE SOCRATIC METHOD
TUTORIALS FOR SUBJECT SPECIFIC INTERNET RESEARCH SKILLS
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When you doubt, rather than automatically criticising yourself for being indecisive, remember that doubt is a healthy natural process by which you can discover your true beliefs.
Doubt shows your mind is trying to tell you something. Trust it, and don’t reject it. If you’re feeling conflicted about an issue, let those feelings in.
When overwhelmed by doubt, try this meditation: Count to 20 while focusing on breathing in and out. Then stop counting. Allow your doubt to come back into your mind, to simply ‘hang’ there. Try to view it as a natural and necessary phenomenon, like rain.
If you feel paralysed and indecisive, then set a timer for three minutes and externalise your doubts by writing them down rapidly. Engaging in this physical process will help you to detach from your doubts – and move on.
Source: Psychologies Today (UK)
Read also:
This Canadian documentary film, winner of 25 awards, covers the history of the modern-day corporation. CEO’s and activists alike offer their critical opinions about corporate responsibilities, failings to date and visions for the future.
The movie investigates examples of corporation crimes and their behaviour towards society and the world at large.
The documentary lays bare some of the major failings of corporations: Read the rest of this entry »
One major source of happiness for me personally is to have choices and live autonomously. Easy enough – or is it really? Not if you rely solely on news presented by mainstream media to supply you with views of the world and the state of society. It actually takes quite an effort to make up your mind and to choose sources of information that are not biased and paid for by advertisers with their own agendas.
The film is full of valid comments by Chomsky on issues such as media analysis, control of public opinion and free speech. Here are a two of my favourites:
I’m helping people develop intellectual self-defense… I don’t mean go to school, because you’re not going to get it there… It means that you have to develop an independent mind, and work on it. That’s extremely hard to do alone… The beauty of our system is that it isolates everybody. Each person is sitting alone in front of the tube. It’s very hard to have ideas or thoughts under those circumstances. You can’t fight the world alone. Some people can, but it’s pretty rare. The way to do it is through organization. Read the rest of this entry »
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I have to admit, my first attempt at trying to understand philosophy was a disaster. I’ve always been a critical thinking person, keen to understand where popular perceptions originate from. Just because some views are popular and promoted by respected individuals throughout history doesn’t necessarily mean that they are right. So eventually you find yourself looking at philosophy.
A while back a friend of mine asked me to help her to prepare for an exam that looked at different statements made by Immanuel Kant and asked the student to explain the meanings and opinions each entailed. I read the first one, scratched my head and tried the next one only to shake my head and starting to question the quality of my education. I simply didn’t grasp what this man was on about.
Now you can choose to give up and feel intimidated by it all or you look for alternative ways to approach the subject. Guess what, I chose the second option and here are my suggestions: Read the rest of this entry »
We are all opinionated, or are we? I used to be quite carefree about revealing my opinions, not giving much thought to whether they would put me in trouble or make me look like a difficult person. This is especially tricky in the workplace.
It’s quite a task to identify which colleagues you can be open with and with whom you have to be careful to ‘wrap’ your comments, so to speak. Read the rest of this entry »
Ever got frustrated about one sided reports in the popular news media? Well I get that all the time and I plan to move on from that. I have the choice of what to read and to trust, right?
Even when I choose to continue to read popular news magazines or watch mainstream news programmes, I can learn how to identify flaws and make the responsible editors and programme managers aware of them if I feel passionate enough about certain issues.
There are ample links on this subject on the net and here are only two of such pages that have a close eye on the media: Read the rest of this entry »
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