Wouldn’t we all benefit from a better understanding of what it means to think well? If so, why don’t we do it?

Alan Jacobs is the author of “How to Think.” He serves as a Distinguished Professor of Humanities in the Honors Program at Baylor University and a Senior Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia. He writes, “Relatively few people want to think. Thinking troubles us; thinking tires us. Thinking can force us out of familiar, comforting habits; thinking can complicate our lives; thinking can set us at odds, or at least complicate our relationships, with those we admire or live or follow. Who needs thinking?” Would you agree?

Alan Jacobs finishes his book by giving The Thinking Person’s Checklist. This 12-point checklist is designed to help us think well, and have better conversations. This conversation will offer “hope that each of us can reclaim our mental lives from the impediments that plague us all. Because if we can learn to think together, maybe we can learn to live together, too.” Join the conversation, learn to Think Well, and bring your questions so we can put this checklist into practice. Callers are welcome!

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Content Discussed

  • 0:00 Intro
  • 2:00 Announcements, Merch Launch, and upcoming shows
  • 7:53 Why have a thinking person’s checklist?
  • 10:28 Two systems of thinking: snap judgments and conscious reflection
  • 13:59 Point 1: When faced with provocation to respond to what someone has said, give it 5 minutes.
  • 18:02 Point 2: Value learning over debating.
  • 23:18 Point 3: As best you can, avoid the people who fan flames.
  • 24:26 Points 4 & 5: You don’t have to respond to what everyone else is responding to in order to signal your virtue or right-mindedness. If you do have to respond in order to signal your virtue or right-mindedness, or else you lose your status in your community, then you are not in a community but an inner ring.
  • 25:03 Inner Ringism vs Community
  • 31:12 Point 6: Gravitate as best you can toward people who seem to value genuine community and can handle disagreements. Why is it so hard for people to see those who disagree with them as equally intelligent, or equally decent human beings?
  • 34:47 Point 7: Seek out the best and fairest-minded people whose views you disagree with. Listen to them without responding and think about what they said.
  • 39:25 Point 8: Patiently, and as honestly as you can, assess your repugnances.
  • 41:55 Point 9: Sometimes the “ick factor” is telling; sometimes it’s a distraction from what matters.
  • 45:22 Point 10: Beware of metaphors and myths that do too much cognitive lifting.
  • 48:19 Point 11: Try and describe other positions in the language they use. Avoid in-other-wordsing 49:23 Point 12: Be brave
  • 54:10 CALLER: Theists should spend less time worrying about finding and worshipping God and accept the reality that we are all insignificant dust on a rock (optimistical nihilism)
  • 1:01:18 CALLER: Has Christian missionary work colonized and exploited people?
  • 1:07:15 CALLER: Christianity discourages curiosity
  • 1:28:31 LIVE QUESTION: Please address poor thinking with presuppositional arrogance, using hermeneutics to justify views, offering the same charity to others, and admitting that Christianity is ultimately faith.
  • 1:33:19 LIVE QUESTION: How do you know that you are not under the influence of cognitive dissonance or confirmation bias?
  • 1:40:54 LIVE QUESTION: Christianity is all post-hoc in its epistemology, the real basis is the satisfying of emotional needs and then creating justifications.

Previous Shows on Critical Thinking

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