It's
funny how you think in a particular way for the majority of your life. You are
brought up observing things in certain ways, and absorb what those around you
express about their beliefs and views. You take from that their perspectives
and form your own personal opinions, that in a way helping develop your thought
process and how we perceive all things. It's funny because of how I have always
been one to take a step back and hear all sides of a "story" before
developing my own personal assessment, and yet after reading an excerpt from
Michael Ryan's "Theory
for Beginners." An Introduction
to Criticism: Literature/Film/Culture, I find myself questioning if my
methods are honest.
When
you discuss any particular idea or subject, you like to hear the opinions of
others and then based on your own, debate on the similarities and differences.
You do this because someone else may have different information that is varied
or contradicts that of which you are familiar with and may have already heard.
It allows you to create a better picture with more information to fill it with
and make it more detailed. It can allow you to deduce alternate possibilities
or facts. New conclusions are formed and mysteries unraveled.
The
thing is … we, or at least I, sometimes think we may have derived a masterful
conclusion about something after looking at all angles and hearing all sides of
the story. Since finishing this challenging and interesting read, I learned
that before I come to such inconclusive results, I should use another style of
thinking. I like to think “outside of the box” as much as the next person. I
love philosophy and enjoyed the challenge it brought to my thinking process.
And still, 31 years later I find another method that intrigues me as much,
critical analysis. This type of thinking entices new, never before conceived
thoughts and images to sprout within your “old” brain. I wasn’t sure if I liked
this battle within my mind at first, but once I began to understand it better,
I found it more acceptable to blend with other methods I prefer.
I
have always been an analyst at heart, which is why my mind is constantly
questioning everything, disregarding whether I am capable of understanding it
or not. This is probably why I chose to be an Intelligence Analyst when joining
the Army. Critical thinking has notified my mind of how one-sided it honestly
is, a fact I would not have admitted as of a day ago. I have thought many times
that I had enough facts to base a well thought out opinion on something, and
now realize many of those things may not be as accurate as I once thought. We
have derived certain views because they were pushed on us for so long we only
see that side and forget there are others. Truth is there, so long as we are not blinded. Unfortunately
our blinders on many subjects have been in place long before our generation was
conceived.
There’s
so much to say and describe about what I learned and think now. It is quite the
(fun) eye-opener. I will be questioning old opinions and developing new ones
from here on out. I must digress for now as I have much more to learn in this
world, and not just limiting my education to a new style and process of
thinking. Chemistry will definitely not be the same today.
Andrew -- critical theory is still a philosophical perspective (and there is no "one" way in critical theory).
ReplyDeleteI like that you set up a news feed on your blog -- I'm catching up on the latest KY news while writing this!
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