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Voir dans le PDF(s’ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre)Roshan Abraham The Biography of a Pagan Saint: Apollonius of Tyana p 227 - 247
Classical Journal 2014
Anna Afonasina
Measuring Time in Antiquity. Clepsydra and its
Peculiarities (on the basis of literary testimonies and archeological data from
Amphiareion) Language: Russian
Schole 10.2 (2016) 419-436
ANNA AFONASINA
THE STRASBOURG PAPYRUS OF EMPEDOCLES. A
NOTE ON ITS RECONSTRUCTION AND FUTURE TASKS FOR STUDIES
Schole 10.1 (2016) 214-226
llaria Andolfi A counterpart of Greek didactic elegy: the case of Empedocles
Classical Association Annual Conference Edinburgh, 9th April 2016
4p
Azevedo, Cristiane A. Parménides e Empédocles: entre as sensacöes e o intelecto
.
ANAIS DE FILOSOFIA CLASSICA, vol. 10 n. 19, 2016
Ferit Baca
p 37 - 50
PHILOSOPHICAL WORLDVIEWS ON THE NATURE OF THINKING
AND ACTING p 117 - 124
European Scientific Journal July 2014 edition vol.10, No.20 ISSN: 1857 — 7881
(Print) e - ISSN 1857- 7431
Ari Belenkiy
The Novatian ‘Indifferent Canon' and Pascha in Alexandria in
‘414: Hypatia’s Murder Case Reopened
°
Vigiliae Christianae 70 (2016) 373-400
=
ernabe,
p 134 30
In: Pythagorean Knowledge from the Ancient to the Modern World: Askesis,
Religion, Science 2016
14)
Frédéric Le Blay
Chapitre XI. Protée et Pythagore dans la Vie d’Apollonios de
Tyane de Philostrate
In: Protée en trompe-l'oeil
p. 263-281
2016 |
SAG
Todd A. Borlik
Unheard Harmonies: The Merchant of Venice and the Lost Play of
Pythagoras.” Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England (2016): 191-221.
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Voir dans le PDF(s’ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre)PHILOSOPHICAL WORLDVIEWS ON THE
NATURE OF THINKING AND ACTING
Ferit Baca
Lecturer, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tirana
Abstract
“There is nothing unchangeable in the world,
Only variability is unchangeable.”
Albert Einstein
According to ancient Greek philosophers, philosophy is the
loveofwisdom that hoists human consciousness, where, through reason,
meanings of unknowns are distinguished and attested. The science of
philosophy realizes the general recognition of the world’s existence. As an
early science in critical thinking, itdeveloped the progressive performance of
intellectual knowledge in man, by summarizing a set of unified principles
about recognition, where through the reason dictates the concepts on society
and nature as a change and overall knowledge of the world and nature laws.
Philosophers consider the opinion as an intellectual property that helps us
find answers and solutions to the important questions ad problemssuch as: "If
you are not a man who thinks, then what kind of man are you?", or "Are we
what we think?".
Thinking is characterized not only by the study of visible objects as symbols,
but also by the treatment of hypotheses for the acquisition of more accurate
knowledge of various scientific disciplines. It was Plato, who unveiled the
thought as a special feature of the thinkers who brought the necessary
changes in society. While Descartes declared that he doubted everything,
butonly for one thing, - he said, - I do not doubt: That I think! The thought
that arises and emanates from the self is the origin of the goals and the vision
about the surroundinguniverse. It is a reference to the mind, which is based
on experience, on the meaning of things and on the manner how we perceive
phenomena and occurrences of society and nature. Thus, human activity is
directly associated with his thoughts embedded in the psyche and
experienced until the transformation of them intomentalities and habits,
under which it operates. The path described up to present days, but also the
one expected to be described tomorrow is the product of the ideas of human
society.
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Voir dans le PDF(s’ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre)Keywords: Philosophy, Critical thinking, knowledge, reason, wisdom,
creativity
Introduction
Philosophy is thought to be the biggest tree of knowledge, which
includes all branches of human knowledge, or as science of all sciences.
Aristotle used to see philosophy (the love for knowledge-wisdom) as the
science of the first causes and principles. The ideal of knowing meant a
complete mastery of behavior due to the possession of a rational thought.
Since philosophy studied everything, it should give to the individual "the
magic power" to master the dark passions that simmered within the human
being, the diverse desires, and provide solutions to many problems that the
individual faced during his life. We can very easily discern such a
phenomenon if we "consider" with attention "the picture" of the ancient
human society, in which not incidentally, we note that philosophers were
also the wisest people. They were multilateralscholars: mathematicians,
physicians,biologists, astronomers, astrologers, speakers, etc., who put the
emphasis on thinking about science’s expansion and advancement.
Philosophy is the social science that aims to reflect knowledge about
the world that surrounds us. Often we seek to learn more about phenomena
such as birth, death, war and peace, etc., which should be understood as an
effort to recognition of our own existence. Indeed these questions were
answered by prominent thinkers and philosophers of antiquity, who were
called Miletianbecause they belonged to the population that lived in the
coastal city of Miletus. Their philosophical thoughts arose and augmented by
the development and achievements in the fields of history, geography,
literature, discoveries in the fields of mathematics, geometry, as well as those
of other sciences.Focusing on evolutionof philosophical concepts of some of
the philosophers of antiquity, at the same time we will throw light on their
critical thinking evolution, now in the role of an inalienable instrument (or
driving lever) with a developmental character that brought the philosophical
world in today's developments. Critical thinking played the role, in analogy
with Archimedes thesis, who said that if you enable a foothold (to his theory)
to support the lever, he would budge the world!
Critical Thinking - Archimedes lever in the field of philosophy
Philosophy deals with the examination of the laws of nature and
intellectual knowledge extraction from systematic experience, which is
nothing but a lesson that is acquired through pure reason and intellectual
system of thinking. Philosophy, through reason and the empirical experience
gained in its deliberations, tends to analyze approaches to truth by verifying
them through pure reason, in a way for the society to be oriented towards
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Voir dans le PDF(s’ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre)constant changes. One verity we can explore and verify in this concrete case
by suspecting and by introducing comparative studies between evil and
good. Parmenides was the first who highlighted the phenomenon of
impossibility of thinking about nothingness, because, as he used to say, every
thought is always associated with something. The thought object is the basis
of thought itself and according to Parmenides is not possible to separate the
act of thinking from the thought object.
The philosophers of antiquity focused their research interest in
human studying. In these studies began to display their suspicion about the
relative truths that were known by then, an evident featureof critical
thinking. Theplacement of thought in the tarmac of doubt prompted and
encouraged even more critical thinking. The thematic and the variety of the
issues the philosophers of antiquity discussed or put forwardencompassed
also the nature of the problematic content. Socrates reasoning supports the
phenomenon that the human is a reasonable being and interacts according to
the principles that he sets in his life. He focused on the resolution of the
thought: “How should we live according to the principles of good?” The
philosophical thought in ancient period has been very present by giving
strong arguments for the existence of human life. Hence, the first
foundations for living were casted on the basis of universal ideas about the
elements of nature, natural rules and dignity of human beings. The elements
of nature in which the human is included, are physical elements, used by the
individualto abstract in an attempt to live.
The process of critical thinkingis estimated as the most progressive
andclosely related to the look towards the innovative with newer information
and mindset in relation to time. Critical thinking unlike the one problematic
and creative embodies essentially evaluative features, includes even the
results of the critical analysis of the facts and is traversed by a logical good
sense. It is closely related and is dependent on complex real-world problems
solving, from the generation of multiple solutions to a problem, from the
compilation and presentation of the conclusions, synthesis and integration of
new information. Critical thinking is distinguished from fact and opinion or
from evaluation of the achieved results with the trend towards a more
perspective and newer stage or target. At the core of critical thinking is a
process that calls for the use of reflective thought, rational and reasonable to
collect, interpret and assess the information for the formulation of an opinion
with progressive pretensions. This process involves the discoveryof more
than one solution to a problem and to select the most competitive alternative
which not only is a product of the worldview, cultural and scientific
development of the stage reached in the past, but also prepares the
imperative need to a fresh start. So, everything that should be accepted is
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Voir dans le PDF(s’ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre)realized through progressive criteria and facts as well as through a logical
reason.
Since creativity is not an individual privilege, but part of the
intellectual skills of human being universe itself, as such remains even
critical thinking. What distinguishes critical thinking from other categories of
thinking is diverse and imaginative treatment of the problems and
phenomena that are handled, as well as intuition or feeling that is a very
important source of creative knowledge, qualities that distinguish critical
thinking from creative one. Always when we emphasize the word problem,
we talk for different phenomena and the term also implies the resolution of a
conflict, task, etc., therefore, of a matter still unresolved. Critical thinking
involves in itself a higher pace than other modes of thinking during the
dialectical process of passing from the known to the unknown. Thus, during
the critical thinking, we not only affirm and support the knowledge gained
from theory and practice, but create premises to realize a new leap towards
what we still are not familiar with and know.
Critical thinking includes
• The experience or the gained inheritance: The more experience is
obtained and the more educated the individual is, the more opportunities
there are to solve and to easily cope with life's problems.
• Skills we possess: Attainmentof a conclusion is one of the forms of
thinking, which means that from the information and the knowledge we
possess, we extract and derive new knowledge. When scientific criteria are
abandoned, there are not excluded even the cases of derivation of erroneous
conclusions.
• Goals and motivation toward a new target: the direction and trend
of quantitative and qualitative developments necessarily lead to a new
orientation and position which transform into a powerful impetus to move
and look ahead. Of course, this does not mean that it is a denial of the past,
whether good or bad, but for its utilization with selective and creativecriteria.
Critical thinking needs to use a number of tools such as:
• Level of knowledge gained from the past,
• Expression skills through which we can convey to people and
society the new progressiveviews and mentalities.
• The reacting and expressing method, as each individual seeks to
disclose his personal stance on the problems, whether they are positive or
negative.
In most cases the man is the result of his thoughts. It is quite clear
that today's point of arrival is the consequence of our ideas, as well as the
point of arrival tomorrow will depend on their level and quality. Hence, we
analyze what the thought is by using as testing tool the opinion itself. As
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Voir dans le PDF(s’ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre)everywhere, even in this area,we keep in mind the relativity that
accompanies us related to what we treated above.
Thinking comes naturally after a long work of an ample information
collection related to the subject they want to talk about. So, to think and
write in specific areas and disciplines, a special and qualified job is required.
In a way, this kind of thinking should be taught and practiced with
willingness and tenacity. Thinking is the cradle and the bed of creating,
properties these, that exist in every human being with a normal health and
mentally capable, conditioned by the level of socio-cultural environment in
which they live. Thinking, in general, is the selective ability for a particular,
specific issue from the cultural, social, economic and esthetic perspective.
Given that creative thinking is a companion of critical thinking, even
continuously feeding from it, critical thinking is an intellectual process that
emanates from observation, experience, from reflection, reasoning, and
active attitude towards various phenomena of life, theories and social
practices in which the individual is and participates. The ascending stairs
towards deepening of the knowledge require a continuous dialectical
development and not horizontal or intermittent. On the other hand, facing the
reality of life and problem solving requires the acquisition of modern
knowledge.
Critical thinking is the highest quality of thinking. He represents the
"reading between the lines”,the sophisticated opinion (refined) which the
individual tries to protect relying on arguments and facts; evidence and
sound logic. The vision for critical scholars has always been at risk from the
perspective that considers them as skilled people in the development of
criticism. Such an approach is biased and confuses them with people that
criticize, who do not recognize the realistic and dialectical approach towards
the life processes, but only criticize phenomena that hinder the development
and the progress of the society. Critical sound thinking represents an
objective analysis and evaluation, which promotes, supports and assesses the
achievements, but also "reveals" before public opinion, the causes of
absenteeism, offering innovative solutions that would mark a progress of the
society.
The basis of critical thinking is the analysis of a publicly presented
thematic and the oxygen that feeds the freedom of thought, alternatives and
different opinion, far from the slogans, conformism and the barriers that
official indwelling creates. Although critical thinking was born and cradled
in the "cradle" of the field of philosophy, it knows no borders, because it
involves the most sensitive areas of the human society’s life, the art, science,
manufacturing, business, etc. Especially, evidently, it is displayed during
political struggles in the parliamentaryfield and the construction of a
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Voir dans le PDF(s’ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre)democratic state and pluralistic society. Thinking critically, through
judgment disclosure, can be:
• Affirmative and,
• Dissentient.
Kant underlines: "To think means to focus on a particular fact or
phenomenon, to keep a side, to affirm something or to deny it." Affirmative
or dissentient critical thinking should be based on convincing arguments,
reviews and evaluations, illustrations with examples, statistics representation
over a certain reality. Affirmative and dialectical critical thinking, paves the
way for the human society’s development. Implementation of its
methodology has led the world and the human society forward. Dissentient
and reactionary critical thinking represents the remnant in the same place
without moving forward and the thought without ideas or, often, that
prevents and inhibitsthe ideas that pave the way for new developments. The
achievements of human society are the product of the collision and the
affirmation of the progressive critical thinking in all areas of life. Let us
remember the countless sacrifices in thefield of scientific discoveries of
Copernicus, Giordano Bruno and Galileo in defiance of the tenets of time.
The denial of the critical thinking is a feature of dictatorial and
backward regimes, which support the ideological dogmas and dictatorships,
the lack of freedom of speech, of expression and free conscience. Denial of
critical thinking is a heresy in countries with dictatorial political systems.
Specifically, this phenomenon appeared during the proletarian revolution in
the Republic of China, when the ideological basis of the theory of the three
worlds became Maoism, so, the thoughts of Mao Zedong, or in our country,
the thoughts of EnverHoxha. It is worth mentioning that for the development
of all the areas of life in our country, the regime and the ruling party of our
country’s life offered to the people the EnverHoxha’s works, for the army,
art and culture, for petroleum, agriculture, politics and philosophy. In all
these works overruled dogmas and political slogans, where came to the fore
the idea that history, culture and life of the Albanian people knew as
founding date, 8 November 1941, the foundation of the Albanian Communist
Party day. Thus, although the country's economy was backward, every
criticism, even benevolent, was treated as a hostile act against the interests of
the people and the state itself, therefore it was punished with years of jail.
For this, it will remain alive in the memory of contemporaries, Article 55 of
the Albanian legislation that condemned any so-called hostile propaganda
and that violated the party-state policy.
In the People's Republic of China, for example, a group of doctors
claimed that the key to the success of their medical operations stood at
reading, at the control and at the acquisitionof Chairman Mao Zedong ideas.
During the Chinese Cultural Revolution, the works of the most prominent
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Voir dans le PDF(s’ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre)Western writers were burned (Goethe, Man, Zweig, Camus, Sartre, etc.) as
decadent works that were poisoning the conscience of Chinese society. With
all the rights, can be raised the question: "Can critical thinking be taught in a
lesson hour?"As stated, the drop of rain pierces the stone. Gradually,
students can learn enough about critical thinking, both in theory and in
specific situations in the social life as active members of society. But there is
nothing fictional that makes them think critically. Critical thinking takes
place when students are informed and contrast their concepts and knowledge
with philosophical and political developments, with the most advanced
economic and political systems of human society, with the technological and
scientific developments of the time, so, when they are taught and participate
in free debates on various issues and when assessing the essence of a free life
and civil society.
However, without freedom, nothing can be achieved. Freedom is the
source to which we are committed all lifelong, once our freedom is imposed,
we can only assume the human ambitions. Once you have gained freedom
and tolerance within the spiritual ethics, our knowledge will affect with the
intelligent system in the precise understanding of the world. The more we
tend after the acquaintance, the more critical reason to judge the faith and the
special and general ideas towards us we profit. The simple and complex
ideas, which are benefited from the genuine recognition, will remain as
luminous pearls of our intellectual system. The features and the phenomena
of our era, of the fields of arts and sciences have a direct connection with the
development of a sound critical thinking.
Conclusion
It can be said that the basis of critical thinking is the development of
a logical analysis. What are important are the education of an objective
attitude and the exclusion of voluntary and subjective attitudes. Voluntary
and subjective thinkingcarries unscientificdistortions, arrogant and mediocre
attitudes as well as judgments. Critical thinking is an assessment, judgment,
interpretation, analysis process, which reveals the accuracy of the
information, the essence of the problems, of the ideas that come from the
process of creative thinking. Critical thinking requires a realistic, meticulous
and objective assessment of theoretical and practical phenomena in life.
Critical thinking tests the analysis, the decisions taken, the options,
highlights significant assumptions, implements certain standards of logical
reasoning, but also creates track to achieve larger goals, as they say, reveals
and unveils new trails. Through critical thinking are designed objectives in
concrete areas, but also abstract ones, like those of art and philosophy, what
must and what must not be done. It helps us to distinguish the good from
evil, the right from wrong and the real from the unreal. Critical thinking
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Voir dans le PDF(s’ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre)progressively carries in itself even creativity and undoubtedly, represents in
essence a higher worldview level in report with the previous one, because,
"every time has its peak and culmination".
So, today's era, apart from the transition into the industrial society,
creates conditions even for the testing of philosophical concepts as a
precedent of nowadays human society’s development. Critical thinking can
help us to assimilate knowledge, improve our theories and to reinforce
arguments. Critical thinking can be used to increase the efficiency and
effectiveness of business processes and to improve our social institutions.
Critical thinking can be seen as the foundation of science and of a free
democratic society, who need the experimentation and the confirmation of
theories. The proper functioning of a democratic and liberal society needs
citizens capable to think critically on social issues and to give their right
judgment on the right governance and on trends and prejudice overcoming.
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