Critical Thinking Archives - Vincent Ryan Ruggiero Official website - Author

Our Urgent Need to Examine Ideas

Vincent Ryan Ruggiero — Sat, 19 Aug 2023 13:50:51 +0000

In a recent essay I noted that critical thinking is a more reliable guide to behavior than emotion, provided it is controlled and directed toward truth. I added that the aim of critical thinking should not just be to evaluate other people's words and actions, but also, indeed foremost, to evaluate our own thoughts, words, and [...]

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How Our Minds Play Tricks on Us

Vincent Ryan Ruggiero — Sat, 15 Jul 2023 12:55:25 +0000

I recall an interesting anecdote that speaks volumes about the workings of the human mind. Henry was driving on a dark country road late at night far from home. All of a sudden, one of his tires went flat. He pulled over, opened the trunk, and saw there was no jack there. "What do I [...]

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Overanalyzing Kindness

Vincent Ryan Ruggiero — Sat, 13 Feb 2021 15:22:44 +0000

Since the election many of my liberal friends seem to have overcome their compulsion to lecture me on what a horrible human being Donald J. Trump is, was, and ever will be, and to recite a litany of ways in which he had ruined our country, perhaps beyond repair. My first interpretation of this change in behavior [...]

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The Path of the Wandering Calf

Vincent Ryan Ruggiero — Sat, 30 Nov 2019 15:03:00 +0000

Many years ago, when I was a college professor, I came across a poem by Sam Walter Foss (1858-1911) that revealed how easily we can fall into habits that keep us from thinking critically and creatively. I shared that poem with my students and included it in the book I was writing at the time, [...]

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Remembering Luis Machado

Vincent Ryan Ruggiero — Sat, 08 Jun 2019 15:10:54 +0000

Simon Bolivar University Luis Alberto Machado (1932-2016) was a lawyer who served in various governmental capacities in Venezuela. He is best remembered for his conviction that intelligence is not innate but instead acquired and thus can be taught. From ancient times until the twentieth century the opposite belief was accepted without question, and though Machado was [...]

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