[MD] self

[MarshaV]

Greetings X-man,

On Feb 2, 2013, at 11:51 AM, X Acto <xacto at rocketmail.com> wrote:

> Ron had said:
> The irony is that those who typically champion RMP as a relativist and Pyrrhonist were also championing
> critical thinking without seeing the difficulty of pairing those two ideas as highly incompatable with the
> act of critical thinking.
> 
> 
> Ron clarifies:
> I believe those that take RMP as promoting relativism and Pyrrhonism fall to Nomothetic Fallacy.
> They seem to believe naming the problem can bring such relief (relief of personal responsibility)
> in the end goal of attaining  ataraxia in apatheia. 
> 
> Critical thinking however, is a way of deciding whether a claim is always true, sometimes true, 
> partly true, or false. It connotes involving skillful judgment as to truth, merit, etc.
> Its focus is in learning and developing the habitual intention to be truth-seeking. It's end goal
> is excellence.

The day I unquestioningly accept what you say, that is the day my critical thinking skills should be doubted, and that includes your narrow self-serving definition of critical thinking.  And to your referring to skepticism, try this: 

---
also sceptic, 1580s, "member of an ancient Greek school that doubted the possibility of real knowledge," from Frenchsceptique, from Latin scepticus, from Greek skeptikos (plural Skeptikoi "the Skeptics"), literally "inquiring, reflective," the name taken by the disciples of the Greek philosopher Pyrrho (c.360-c.270 B.C.E.), from skeptesthai "to reflect, look, view" (seescope (n.1)). The extended sense of "one with a doubting attitude" first recorded 1610s. The sk- spelling is an early 17c. Greek revival and is preferred in U.S.

Skeptic does not mean him who doubts, but him who investigates or researches as opposed to him who asserts and thinks that he has found. [Miguel de Unamuno, "Essays and Soliloquies," 1924]


http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=skeptic&allowed_in_frame=0 

--- 



Marsha