Beyond Feelings

P A R T T W O
The Pitfalls
The first seven chapters explored the context in which thinking
occurs. You now know, popular notions notwithstanding, that individuality
doesn’t come automatically but must be earned again and
again, that critical thinking is as applicable to your own ideas as it is to
other people’s, that truth is discovered rather than created and genuine
knowledge is elusive, that opinions are only as good as the evidence
that supports them, and that argument is a matter not of
scoring points or shouting down others but of compiling accurate
information and reasoning logically about it.
In this section we will examine the various errors that can impair
thinking. We will also consider how you can best discover them in
other people’s writing and speaking and avoid them in your own. The
most basic error, “mine-is-better” thinking, seems rooted in our
human nature and paves the way for many of the other errors. The
other errors are grouped according to when they occur. Errors of perspective
are erroneous notions about reality that are present in our
minds more or less continuously. Errors of procedure occur when we are
dealing with specific issues, errors of expression when we put our
thoughts into words, and errors of reaction when someone criticizes or
challenges a statement or argument we have made. The final chapter
in this section explores how these errors can occur in combination.
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