Intro to Critical Thinking

In this episode of the Awareness to Action Enneagram Podcast, Mario Sikora, María José Munita and Seth "Creek" Creekmore have a conversation on developing critical thinking skills and practices. Very important skills - both with the enneagram and life in general.  “It’s just the habit of challenging our assumptions, of questioning our conclusions. All the time.” -María José Munita [8:45]“We are not wired to be skillful thinkers, we are wired to believe what is convenient to believe.” - Mario Sikora [19:44]“If you are positioning yourself to be a teacher of the enneagram, but you are not working on your critical or clear thinking skills, then you are being irresponsible.” - Mario Sikora [20:41]“Heurisitc?”- Seth "Creek” Creekmore [24:00]
“What does that feel like? What does that look like?” -Seth "Creek” Creekmore [25:57]
“Hold ideas as hypotheses rather than truths.” - María José Munita [25:55]
“It’s about embracing particular attitudes that increase the probability of thinking skillfully.”- Mario Sikora [26:30]
TIMESTAMPS
Intro
[ :29] Next time? Mario is cooking!
[1:33] Mario’s book, “How to Think Well, and Why: The Awareness to Action Guide to Clear Thinking”
[3:00] Daniel Kahneman, “Thinking Fast and Slow”
[4:35] Mario changes his mind
[4:41] Neo-Platonic essentialism enters the chat
[5:02] Plato in 30-ish seconds
[7:30] MJ changes the topic and offers a practical critical thinking tip
[8:50] Sikorian question: "How do I know this to be true and what is the evidence against it?”
[8:59] cognitive dissonance
[10:06] Do we have to agree about God?
[11:34] the work, develop, nurture and grow core qualities
[12:17] MJ profoundly disagrees
[12:23] Pema Chodron “Comfortable with Uncertainty”
[13:00] metaphysical assumptions v. Objective facts. Occam & Aquinas
[16:05] Pope John Paul II, “Truth Cannot Contradict Truth”
[17:25] not implying critical thinking goes against spirituality or religion
[18:36] every religious tradition has a group that are the thinkers
[21:24-22:19] 5 obstacles to critical thinking
[22:19] 5 solutions to them
[22:50] “we tend to decide something emotionally and then we find evidence for it rationally.” - Mario Sikora
[22:30] motivated reasoning
[23:46] short cuts; Kahneman’s “system 1 & system 2”
[24:01} “heuristic”, defined
[24:32] confirmation bias
[27:18] intellectual character & practical habits
[28:55] always been guard and assess degrees of provisionality rather than certainty
[30:55] “If we are seekers after truth we need to think critically. That involves seeing other people for who they arena not who we think they are.” - MJ
[31:45] When Creek is sad, it does not mean that he is sadness. 
[32:52] fundamental attribution error
[34:21] outro