CRITICAL.

1.

Being critical means not taking opinions and statements at face value. It means asking questions about them to make sure they are sound. Like if you buy a piece of furniture you might examine it carefully to find out exactly what it is made of and how it has been stuck together. And then you might kick it and throw it about a bit to see if it holds up.

Similarly if you are being critical of an opinion you will ask for that opinion to be clarified in every tiny detail. And you will deliberately come up with arguments that try to show that it not correct. This is what the usual meaning of “being critical of” is: “trying to find things wrong with”.

Of course, this isn’t the same as actually “finding things wrong with”. When you are “trying to find things wrong with” as part of being critical you aren’t really aiming to “find things wrong with”. You are just making sure that you won’t “find things wrong with” despite your efforts at trying to.

When you are throwing the chair about you aren’t trying to destroy it although that is what it might look like.

2.

For any given opinion there will be anti-arguments which (claim to) show that that opinion is not correct. To genuinely hold (believe) an opinion it is not good enough to just have arguments to show that the opinion is correct. You must also have arguments to show that the anti-arguments are not valid. (It’s not good enough to just ignore them.)

3.

I’m not sure you can teach people to be critical, to be some person who wants to critically examine things they hear. Being critical might just be a personality trait.

You can teach someone how to be critical in the sense of describing to them techniques a truly critical person might utilise. But that’s not the same as teaching them to be critical, to be a critical person.

4.

It might not be pleasant being such a person as they will inevitably apply their critical tendency to that which is closest to them. Which is their acquaintances (those who can put up with it) and, most of all, their own selves.

We look for faults in those we love because we care about them. Even if we do find faults that doesn’t affect how much we love them.

The critical person can come across as rather negative. But the natural acceptance of the negative has a kind of mystical feel to it. As Jesus said: “don’t resist evil” the critical person will say: “don’t resist criticism”. And the critical person will accept others being critical of them with perfect equanimity.

[1 June 2016]