29 ways of stimulating conscious understanding of our world to stimulate critical thinking and creativity.

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29 Observations on Holistic Critical Thinking:
Seeking Reality with the Human Mind
By Earon S. Davis
Revised 4/16/2016
Following are mental process insights for inviting meaning and truth into our thinking,
cultivating both creativity and critical thought. They are fluid and mutually inclusive.
From studying these factors, one can see human irrationality being our normative state
and rational thought as being rather exceptional.
1. Human Nature. We humans are not particularly rational, although we are
capable of rational thought and inquiry. Driven by emotions, our nature is dual;
we have a biological nature and a social nature. The social nature expands our
horizons and shapes our reality while our biological nature has its own needs and
drives, constantly interacting with one or another social or environmental reality.
We are complicated beings, prone to filter everything through our emotions,
whether we are aware of it or not, which are what makes us human. Developing
our intellects, though, can be a danger when we fail to understand the role of our
emotions in how we process information and form ideas. Consider body, mind,
spirit, emotion and community as our kaleidoscopic realm, always in flux, always
being experienced in different ways.
That said, there is a cohesion among humans and a reverence for life. This is
perhaps best expressed by Kropotkin as ‘Mutual Aid.” We may see it, simply, as
love.
2. Cognitive Dissonance. We humans have difficulty holding two inconsistent views
at the same time. Paradoxes baffle us. Prodded by our social and job
connections, we seem compelled to choose one or another label or idea,
regardless of whether there is a logical reason to choose. As a result, we create
polarizations (dualities) and have difficulty understanding other filters for reality
when social approval or economic benefit depends upon our rejecting them.
For example, severe poverty, racism, sexism, homophobia and political
oppression are partially hidden from view by the privilege of the unaffected
majority. This is reinforced by the social “reality” in which the majority lives,
wherein the oppression is justified as being necessary in some way, which
happens to support the status quo that is benefiting the majority. On a more
individual level, those who earn their living generating toxic chemicals or
marketing new pharmaceuticals tend to require less stringent proof to support
their safety than others. We are incapable of understanding the impact of our

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own biases.
3. Transdisciplinarity. Since our world is comprised of interconnected thoughts,
physical realities and environments, no one discipline is adequate for
understanding anything, even in the sciences. There are a multitude of lenses
that need to be used in order to draw rational conclusions about what there is
and how it can, or should, be effected. Two or three (or 5 or 10) disciplines
cannot adequately explain any object or process because reality consists of
interactions that range across all disciplines and all fields.
Like national boundaries, the lines we draw between ideas are artificial and
limited by past experience, culture and other biases. One of the great explorers
of transdisciplinarity and systems thinking was Gregory Bateson. Alfonso
Montouri has an excellent look at these in “Gregory Bateson and the Promise of
Transdisciplinarity.” Complexity theories need to be considered, also.
4. Process Thinking. Everything that goes on is a process. Nothing is permanent
and truth is multifaceted. Object-oriented thinking sees “things” rather than
processes of transformation inside of other processes in transformation. Linear
thinking is just one way of expressing limited knowledge.
5. Systems Thinking. This is an approach by which one looks at the
interconnectedness of things and processes that interact with other things and
processes, showing that knowledge is more complicated than we like to believe.
All systems can be broken down to narrow systems (reductionism), but to
understand how systems operate, we need to conceptualize systems of systems
(Holism). Donella Meadows. The Waters Fourndation. General systems theory.
6. Linguistics. The words and concepts we use tend to lead us to particular results.
When our language is loaded with nouns, we are often lose focus on the myriad
processes that are going on, resulting in reductionist thinking. When our
language is balanced with verbs, or otherwise holistic and expansive, we
recognize processes, which can result in holistic thinking, but the language of
science tends toward reductionism, seeking concreteness and specificity.
7. Limits of Scientific Method. The scientific method is often reductionist and
excellent for controlled experiments with very specific, quantitative parameters. It
is not as useful for drawing conclusions about systems and processes that we do
not fully understand or for expressing how we want our world to be. Modeling of
systems can include many variables in the analysis, but are dependent upon a
sophisticated understanding of all significant nuances and relationships of the
objects and processes. When models are tested, there are often significant

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unintended consequences. By informing science with critical thinking skills, we
can expand our awareness and our understanding of how things are, what we
would like them to be and how to move closer to the desired reality.
8. Media Literacy. We are bombarded by information without objective filters as to
its credibility and accuracy. Even major newspapers, academic journals,
magazines, television, online media and movies have a perspective and a
history. Objectivity, itself, is a fallacy. That is why good journalism was expected
to provide support for all credible points of view and to allow the reader to make
their own choice. Perhaps this is why we no longer seem to value traditional
journalistic practices. We seek only what we want.
We always need to consider the motivations, conscious and unconscious, that
led to the presence and promotion of any information. Are advertisers or
corporate interests influencing the “news?” Are fictional materials “selling” a
certain point of view? Are the sources of information revealed? How does the
nature of the media shape the message (Marshall McLuhan)?
9. Intercultural Literacy. The human community is comprised of myriad different
cultures, nationalities, ethnicities, religions and sub-cultural minority groups and
their perspectives. If our perceptions are driven by just one cultural vantage, we
cannot see what is clear to many other people. Often, we cannot clearly see our
own culture unless we leave it at times. This can allow us to compare and
contrast views and practices in ways that reveal alternatives we would not
otherwise see.
10.Understanding the Limits of Our Knowledge? We do not understand that which
we do not know. Where we do not understand some thing or process, and this is
the rule rather than the exception, we are prone to making stuff up. We need to
seriously assess the importance of further holistic study or testing before drawing
any conclusions, and certainly before making any changes in the world or the
lives of other beings, directly or indirectly. This is expressed in some Native
American traditions as the Seventh Generation rule; consider how a current
decision would affect people seven generations from now. Epistemology.
11.Earon’s Observation. Because everything is interconnected, one cannot truly
know anything unless they know everything. Modesty is in order. We can’t
possibly know as much as our minds tell us we know, and what lays in the areas
around and in-between. Our tendency to tinker with reality is creative and
charming, but dangerous. Still, we will stretch and shape realities all the time,
well, well beyond our critical thinking abilities and our ability to discern reality.

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12.Unintended Consequences flow from acting beyond the limits of our knowledge.
Serious problems are caused when we fail to test and explore the limits of our
knowledge and assume that we know things when we do not. Actions that cause
unintended consequences are our responsibility. Tragic consequences are likely
when we do not understand, or incorrectly assess, our assumptions and the risks
of unintended results.
13.The Calculus of Risk. We can accept large risks of tiny problems but not tiny
risks of huge problems. For example, a 1% risk of destroying our planetary life
support systems is not acceptable. However, a 20% risk of having a single paper
cut may be completely acceptable. A 90% chance of generating a belch may be
seen as inconsequential, but a .5% chance of developing an inoperable and fatal
brain cancer will not generally be acceptable. This is the calculus of risk, the
likelihood of an event time its severity.
14.Logical Fallacies. Know the logical fallacies to which humans, including great
scientists, inventors and creative geniuses, are all susceptible. These are
glitches in what we often assume to be our rational minds. Awareness of these
fallacies are part of our key guidance system and a basic reason why we need to
get reality checks on our point of view, often discussing our ideas with others
who possess critical thinking abilities outside of the areas covered by our ideas.
Flaws in logic will always crop up and our thinking needs to be balanced out
constantly. See “begging the Question,” “argumentum ad hominem,” “circular
reasoning,” “false authority,” “false dichotomy,” “gambler’s fallacy,” “regression
fallacy,” “cherry picking evidence,” the “moral high ground fallacy,” etc., etc., etc.
15.The Story. There is power in stories (including formulas) to carry insights that
are true and that are false. Stories are simulations that allow us to convey real-
life seeming truths, to apply theories onto other theories and allow people to
experience deeper, or shallower truths. It is important to use stories to move
from specific insights to more general insights and back. Dissecting the stories
and testing them is our laboratory bench for seeking truth. This process is like
shaking something that is wet or dusty to help dry it off or to remove debris.
16.There Are No Experts. People may know a lot about how things have worked,
but they are not likely to know much about how things can or could work. Most
people are limited by their knowledge and use it to manipulate the same
parameters over and over. Therefore, experts tend to stifle innovation and create
domains in which they dominate and maintain control. Step outside the domain
of experts to see how changing some parameters can result in a very different
process – even if it makes the “experts” irrelevant.

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17.Specialization limits our capabilities and impairs the relevance of what we do.
For every specialist there need to be several generalists making sure that they
do not so completely de-contextualized the subject matter that their inquiry is
meaningless and potentially destructive.
18.Design Thinking. This is a team process to eliminate the constraints posed by
our acclimatized thinking, our habitual acceptance of patterns and constraints
that limit our potential. It helps to have a truly diverse team all dedicated to
developing an approach that perhaps no individual could come up with by
themselves. Begin with immersing and empathizing with the situation and the
people and what could improve the users’ lives. Define the challenge you want
to address and frame it thoughtfully, examining your point of view and other
points of view. Think/ideate. Broad exploration of the possibilities and concepts
and dimensions. Build a model or prototype, with various features and shapes,
keeping broad, and interact with users and others. Test your solution/creation
and see how it works and how users feel. Return, refine, re-test, zoom back out,
start again, go in different directions. (9, see “An Introduction to Design Thinking
Process Guide”)
19.Transductive Reasoning. This is a more individualized process of shaking ideas,
zooming in and out, left and right, up and down, inside out and outside in.
Vibration in different dimensions helps us see whether it works to explain or
predict something. Think of how a wet dog shakes itself, and the more subtle
way we shake our heads when puzzled. Both inductive and deductive,
reductionist and holistic, object-oriented and process-oriented, playing with the
ideas and their friends and enemies and bystanders, turning them in all directions
to see where they fit as multi-dimensional, constantly changing puzzle pieces in
an ever-changing puzzle. Each twist or turn may bring a different sense of order
to other ideas, and transform the ideas as we observe.
20.Critical Pedagogy. This practice morphs critical (social) theory into a philosophy
of education. It takes a critical look at how societies operate and especially at
concepts, practices, principles and underlying realities in which some ideas,
practices and groups dominate others. It focuses on developing awareness of
power and processes by which authoritarianism dominates societies, and seeks
ways to correct perceived distortions and imbalances.
21.Confirmation Bias. This is one of the most pervasive aspects of our distorted
thinking. I think there are two major aspects of this phenomenon, fact-based and
individual-based. We humans generally tend to find credible those things that
agree with our prejudices, our initial assessments or even our socially
conditioned values. When we are addressing an issue, seeking a fact,
information that is consistent with our beliefs receives heavier weight than that

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which is inconsistent.
This same phenomenon appears in how we attach credibility more readily to
some people over others. Sometimes, the additional credibility is attached to
friends, family members and others who are in our ‘in-group.’ People with power
over us also tend to receive greater credibility in that they tend to define what we
see as “reality.” In society, most often, greater credibility is attached to being
‘white’ vs. ‘black,’ light skin color vs. dark skin color, male vs. female, gendered
vs. transgendered, tall vs. short, ‘attractive’ average looking and average looking
vs. unattractive, able vs. disabled, fit vs. unfit, educated vs. uneducated,
confident vs. unconfident, straight vs. gay, gay vs. transgendered, extroverted vs.
introverted, rich vs. poor, articulate vs. inarticulate, local vs. foreign, etc., etc.,
etc.,.
22.Privilege. Our prejudices and distorted attachments of credibility result in some
people, or groups of people, having unearned power and agency in society. Of
course, there are drawbacks to being privileged, also. There are efforts, at times,
to counter or neutralize the privileges of some people, often seeming unfair in the
eyes of those with the privilege. Privilege thus puts groups of people in conflict,
regardless of their personal intentions.
What complicates that situation further is that privilege is often invisible to those
who have it – or they believe that the privilege has been earned. Privileges, in
western societies, in general, flow to groups identified above as having credibility.
Wealthy people have many economic and social privileges in that they have
more options to capture greater credibility. In American society, ‘white’ people
are generally privileged over ‘people of color,’ men are privileged over women,
straight people have been privileged over LGBTQ people, ‘able-bodied’ people
are privileged over ‘disabled’ people.
23.Intersectionality is another consideration of the interconnectedness of social
systems. Refined in Feminist studies, intersectionality looks at how overlapping
or intersecting social identities and their related systems of oppression (or
domination or discrimination) are inter-related. Studied separately, solving their
challenges can become divisive and counterproductive, as various groups
appear to have conflicting, competing interests. Addressed as parts of a larger
system of systems, intersections appear at which many different interests
combine and unify. In this way, more effective societal remedies become
possible or capable of being leveraged.
24.Decoding the Disciplines. This is a helpful concept developed at Indiana
University, Bloomington, showing that each discipline has ideas that correspond
to those of other disciplines, so that we can look at how to better communicate

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between the disciplines. This takes some effort, to be sure, but the process
sheds light on the differing realities of the various disciplines and sub-disciplines
and seeks to provide common language to facilitate cooperation in mapping the
enormous gaps and potential overlaps.
25.Personal Philosophy. Try as we might, and we will try, to understand everything,
we simply cannot. We need a backpack lined with self-esteem at times in which
to place the unknown, to carry around with us, to maintain balance and to share
perspectives on the larger realities. Often expressed as spirituality, personal
philosophy can be the cultivation of a fully portable worldview that fits into a
backpack, not a full explanation of anything, but perhaps a series of slogans that
give us a sense of order in the chaos of our society and our minds. This is not
the same as a religion, which can be an enormous, intricate structure impossible
to carry around, needing to be protected and repaired, rather than being
lightweight and completely portable.
Personal philosophy or spirituality may be particularly useful because it cultivates
a non-egotistical self-esteem, perhaps creating a smile when there is no
particular reason to smile – a real gift. For me, the world’s religions and wisdom
traditions have been a huge gift shop as there really are people in all of them
who are more enlightened that you might expect. Coming to drink water at such
an oasis, you may find others who may shed light on your concerns.
26.Patience and Persistence. These processes don’t happen all at once, but
sometimes they do. We can’t entirely control the pace of our comprehension or
creativity, but we need to be able to enjoy the unfolding, refolding, shaking and
sculpting and morphing of thoughts. It helps to share them with others who have
the capacity to understand the words you use, the language you are creating,
and see how it might fit into the other languages you and they can decipher and
transform.
27.Time to Relax and Reflect. Take a walk. Stretch. Take a vacation. We are
animals. Our bodies need to be taken care of and our needs are not to be
dismissed. Balance. Time to reflect. Time to share. Time to be social. Time to
laugh. Time to be inspired. We need time just being in the present moment in
order to contextualize our experiences and have insight into what is going on in
our minds and the minds of those around us. Self-awareness, self-acceptance
and mindfulness are other ways to express this process.
28.Peace, Joy and Hope. These are indispensables. Our thoughts and
relationships create our own inner realities. Whether these realities meet our
needs or not is rather up to us. We have the power to choose our thoughts and
our realities. (Viktor Frankl) Balance, for each of us, will look differently at any

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point in time and there are many different paths to contentment or happiness.
Everything is constantly changing, though, so we each need to have processes
that cultivate hope (Martin Seligman, Learned Optimism) and to find places and
times when we experience joy and satisfaction.
One expression of seeking balance that cultivates peace, joy and hope is to
consider our attachments and our aversions. These are things or processes that
we seem to love or hate, in a quite visceral way. Examining the implications of
both in our lives can be an illuminating practice.
29.Life Is a Process of Processes, a system of systems. They never end. Consider
returning to item #1 or creating your own list and envisioning each kind of
process in different ways, or in different order, than before. Create your own
ideas and your own order. There is no set order, no set concepts. This is the
dynamic process of living and learning for each individual.
There are different ways to perceive the process of exploring and incorporating
processes into your thinking. Personally, I see this process as finding and organizing
one’s tools, and then periodically cleaning, sharpening or honing them to avoid
forgetting about any. Label them (or not) and learn and experiment with their
capabilities and keep them always within reach, habitually questioning whether you are
using the most appropriate tool in a given situation at a given point in time. What would
happen if you used a different tool?
You will note that these processes are not well referenced. You can find further
information as needed, but my intent is to emphasize the holistic nature of the process
of processes. I chose not to direct you to particular descriptions of these processes that
could distort your own search for meaning and truth. None is perfect. More will surface
and evolve over time from the past, present and future.
Each of us consciously and unconsciously constructs our own processes and our own
reality audits. There is no formula, except to transcend all formulae, even your own
(especially your own). Reality is constantly changing and shifting, as is your mind, and
there are multitudes of ways in which to do and to be. Enjoy! Be aware and
adventurous 
[Dedicated to my partner and muse Martha M. Foster, and Jeremy, Jon and Dan and Tess]