Page 21 - Smart Thinking: Skills for Critical Understanding and Writing, 2nd Ed

8 SMART THINKING: SKILLS FOR CRITICAL UNDERSTANDING & WRITING

Moreover, as the neo-punk band Bad Religion sing, there is an inner logic to
the events that surround and involve us and, very often, we are taught to stay far
from it. We often think that the best way to live our lives is to stay out of the way.
As the song 'Inner Logic' continues: 'don't ask questions, don't promote
demonstration/don't look for new consensus/don't stray from constitution'. There
are two equally undesirable extremes in this refusal to think things through. At one
extreme, staying away from the 'logic' means putting too much faith in so-called
'scientific', 'objective' knowledge (which appears as if it can never be questioned).
At the other extreme, we shy away from complexity by putting too much reliance
on individual relativism, in which each person's opinion is thought to be as good as
anyone else's. We should never assume that there can be only one right view; we
should not, in turn, presume that all views are right.
We do need to make the 'effort to reveal' the logic, to 'pierce the complexity',
not only for ourselves but for the common good. Smart thinking is how to do it.
Generally, knowledge is tied up in contexts of power and influence, and is hardly
ever 'objective' or 'neutral'. Smart thinking can help empower us in the face of
knowledge, revealing its political and social purposes, its biases and consequences,
its exclusions and errors. Thinking smart is about recognising the contexts of power
and influence in which knowledge exists. Thinking smart is about using knowledge
within and against the constraints of these contexts. It also always involves remem-
bering that our own reasoning may equally involve the exercise of power and of
influence. 5

Review exercise

There is no review exercise for this chapter—move on to chapter 2. Also, there is
no need to do a concept check now. When you have finished the book, however,
return to this chapter and revise it. I am sure you will read it with a very different
perspective.

NOTES
1 From Bad Religion, Stranger than Fiction (compact disc), Dragnet, 1994, MATTCD003.
2 Developed from Josina M. Makau, Reasoning and Communication: Thinking Critically
about Arguments, Wadsworth, Belmont, CA, 1990.
3 Stephen Toulmin, Richard Rieke, and Allan Janik, An Introduction to Reasoning,
Macmillan, New York, 1984, p. 6.
4 An argument, here, does not mean a 'fight' or 'dispute' but is the technical name for
reasoning that seeks to establish a conclusion on the basis of reasons.
5 These issues—objectivity, relativism, and so on—are complex. We will encounter them
again in later chapters (chapters 6, 8, and 9). You should also be aware that there are
legitimate differences of opinion on these matters among intellectuals.