Critical Thinking.
10 random takeaways.
1.
TST Term.
Idea Evaluation is where thinking becomes disciplined. Instead of accepting an idea because it feels right, sounds good, or belongs to your group, you test it with questions, evidence, reasoning, comparison, and feedback. In TST, good ideas are not protected from reality; they are strengthened by reality’s pushback.
2.
Quote:
- Hannah Arendt.
- 1963.
From History:
Arendt warned that history’s worst outcomes are rarely driven by monsters. They are driven by ordinary people who surrender judgment. When obedience replaces moral thinking, cruelty no longer feels like a choice—it feels like routine.
3.
From History:
Schemas shape what feels normal, right, threatening, or familiar. Compare the same schema across family, religion, work, politics, and culture. The subtle differences can bring wisdom. Some inherited templates resonate with your authentic self; others were simply handed to you. To think well, keep what fits and revise what does not.
4.
Creative intuition is the beginning of inquiry, not its conclusion. Redefining multiplication is a speculative move — but mathematics must remain internally consistent and empirically aligned. When a redefinition collapses structure or breaks correspondence with reality, calibration rejects it. Multiplying is factoring and that definition stands more aligned with the material world.
5.
Quote:
- William Kingdon Clifford.
- 1877.
From History:
Belief is not just private. What you believe shapes you and the world around you. Although his suggestion is stricter than most like, I think he wants you to treat belief as a responsibility: seek evidence where you can, stay humble where you cannot, and do not let wishful thinking do the work of truth.
6.
From History:
We all must live with human cognitive biases, our mental shortcuts that simplify a complex life. With understanding comes control. Overcome their distortion of truth. They are not moral failures. You can control these mind traps by exercising structured reasoning and empirical testing to calibrate your confidence in a belief. This helps to prevent your inflated certainty and tribal thinking.
7.
Academic paper summary:
Truth Hammers are review-based public truth systems that help societies test claims against shared reality. Based on current evidence, they represent the best estimate of truth by authorities. When you understand how to watch science, the law, and journalism, they allow you to gather more accurate information quickly, saving you much time and energy.
8.
Quote:
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
- 1755.
A Social Construct is a shared non-natural belief; created and maintained by groups; and they shape reality.
9.
From History:
The main philosophical idea taught by Williams, Locke, and Montesquieu was that power needed to be checked, which in turn protects individual liberties. Williams split state and church. Locke established natural rights and split King and Parliament. Montesquieu came along and said let’s split government into three branches of checks and balances.
10.
Article summary:
The legacy of Pythagoras reminds us that even flawed ideas can spark progress—our challenge is to distinguish insight from illusion. Pythagoras was a rational pragmatist. He was a good authority on math, but he still fell into numerology. The same is true today. Most people mix evidence, reason, and personal beliefs in different ways, so choose your authorities by subject matter. Most of all, remember: those who dismiss good evidence are rarely good authorities on much of anything.
The End. Refresh for another set.
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Content and coding by Michael Alan Prestwood.
(c) 2025-2026 TouchstoneTruth.
Content and coding by Michael Alan Prestwood.
