1. MATURITING:

One of the factors influencing our thinking is something that might be called our "maturity" level. However, it is not always easy to identify for ourselves exactly what our maturity level is. Sometimes at the age of 15 we feel very mature. Sometimes at the age of 25, we realize we are less mature than we thought.

In in-person classes, I find students of similar ages exhibit very different levels of maturity. Some students seem to me to be best described as being in the Later Stages of Childhood. Some seem to be in the Early Stages of Adulthood. Some seem to be Solidly into Adulthood. Again, age is not always a determining factor.

These three stages (Later Childhood, Early Adulthood, and Solid Adulthood) are somewhat subjective to an observer and are not tied directly to age. For this assignment, use your own sense of what these maturity levels represent.

2. THINKING NARROWLY:

The second aspect of socialization (or how we are trained to think) that may be an obstacle to thinking clearly as adults is that we are trained to think narrowly.Being trained to think narrowly means being trained to consider only certain perspectives, but not others. It means we consider certain information, but not other information. Thinking narrowly may mean we don't ask certain questions or don't listen to certain people.

It is important to recognize that we have a tendency to see things only in certain lights. It also may be in other people's interest that we think narrowly. For instance, a salesperson may want us to just focus on how much we want a new truck, and not focus on the cost or a poor reliability record. A politician may want us to see a series of events (like a war) in just a positive or just a negative light in order to get our vote. In all these cases, it may be in our best interest to see all aspects of the situation, not just the perspective the sales person or the politician wants us to see.

3. How we are trained to accept certain socially defined Concepts:

Of course to think about our thinking, and to discuss what comes from thinking about thinking, we need a commonlanguage.This is not as easy as it seems.Even though you and I use a common language, we can't assume that we hold identical definitions of the words we use.For example, the terms Masculine and Feminine mean something to me.They may not mean the exact same thing to you.In fact, they almost certainly don't.My concepts of Masculine and Feminine have been formed out of my experiences, values, and thoughts.Your concepts of Masculine and Feminine have been formed out of your experiences, values, and thoughts.We hold some aspects of these terms in common and others not.

Masculine and Feminine are concepts.So are terms like Integrity, Maturity, Ethics, and Fairness. Concepts are the basic ideas we hold in our minds.

Since all of our thinking is based on concepts, the issue of concepts will come up again and again in the class.They are at the core of understanding why we think the way we do.You will notice that every college class is full of new concepts for you to understand and apply.

Here is your first writing assignment for this unit: EXPLAIN TO ME WHY YOU THINK I BEGAN THE CONTENT OF THIS CRITICAL THINKING COURSE WITH THESE ISSUES IN UNIT 3

1) maturity (Later Stages of Childhood, Early Adulthood, and Solid Adulthood)

2) thinking narrowly

3) how we are trained to accept certain socially defined Concepts.

You may need to glance back at what I wrote on those topics in Unit 3. Remember that if an assignment has three parts, each part should be covered in a separate paragraph. These are not to be lumped together.