负责任地提出观点
使人类比牛或树更加复杂和有趣的事情之一是他们形成观点的能力。提出观点很自然。甚至当我们想要停止提出观点，我们也做不到。我们也不应该这样做。这个能力有两面，当然，它既能使我们获得智慧，也能使我们陷入浅薄甚至荒谬之中。以下是一些可以帮助您提高观点质量的提示：
- 理解观点是如何形成的。和其他每个人一样，你不断地在感觉——这就是，通过你的感官收集信息。并且和其他人一样，你有着自然的动力去发现你所感所想的意义。这种驱动力可以被强化或者弱化，但是不会彻底消失。实际上这意味着，不管你有没有掌控这个过程，你忍不住就会对你所看到的听到的情况形成观点。当你不能控制，你的智力系统就会按照非批判性的默认模式运作。下面是非批判性模式和有意识地更加小心谨慎地批判性思维模式的区别。
非批判性的默认模式
感知
让一个观点“进入大脑”
聚焦在支持观点的信息上
拥抱观点
批判性思考模式
感知
调查这件事情
考虑其他观点
决定哪个观点更合理
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克制你将观点当做事情的诱惑。这个诱惑非常强大。一旦你形成了一个观点，你很自然的就会和它紧密结合，就像父母和孩子的联系。你从你的脑海里调用这个观点并且向其他人表达的越多，联系就变得越强大。质疑它的合理性就变得无法想象了。尽管如此，你可以肯定有些你的观点是经过非批判性思考形成的，于是需要接受挑战。问题是你无法确认那些是这样的。谨慎的做法是（在证据出现表明观点是基于习惯、冲动、幻想、个人偏好、或者是受流行观点而不是现实的影响时）质疑任何观点，甚至你珍爱的也不例外。
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监控你的思想，防止非批判性思考的默认模式占据主导。任何时候你开始对一个人、一个地方或者一种状况形成印象时，遵循古希腊哲学家爱比克泰德（Epictetus）的建议：“不要被栩栩如生的印象冲昏头脑，而是要说，‘印象，等我一会儿。让我看看你是什么，代表了什么。让我尝试［测试］一下你。’”。这个方法可以防止在你认为这些印象是合理的以前将它们固化成观点。
按照这三个步骤，你可以获得对你观点的掌控，相比让它们控制你有相当大的优势。
原文：
Forming Opinions Responsibly
One of the things that makes human beings vastly more complex and interesting than cows or trees is their ability to form opinions. Forming opinions is natural. Even if we wanted to stop doing so, we couldn’t. Nor should we want to. This ability has two sides, however. It can either lift us to wisdom or mire us in shallowness or even absurdity. Here are some tips that can help you improve the quality of your opinions:
- Understand how opinions are formed. Like every other human being, you are constantly perceiving—that is, receiving data through your senses. Also like everyone else, you have a natural drive to discover meaning in your perceptions. That drive can be enhanced or suppressed, but it can never be entirely lost. In practical terms, this means that you cannot help producing opinions about what you see and hear whether or not you take control of the process. When you are not in control, your mental system operates in the uncritical default mode. Here is how that uncritical mode compares with the conscious and more conscientious critical thinking mode:
Uncritical Default Mode
Perceive
Let an opinion “come to mind”
Focus on information that supports the opinion
Embrace the opinion
Critical Thinking Mode
Perceive
Investigate the issue
Consider alternative opinions
Decide which opinion is most reasonable
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Resist the temptation to treat your opinions as facts. This temptation can be powerful. Once you’ve formed an opinion, it is natural to bond with it, much as a parent bonds with a baby. The more you call your opinion to mind and express it to others, the stronger the bond becomes. To question its legitimacy soon becomes unthinkable. Nevertheless, you can be sure that some of your opinions have been uncritically formed and therefore need to be challenged. The problem is that you can’t be sure which ones those are. The prudent approach is to question any opinion, even a cherished one, the moment evidence arises that suggests it is based on habit, impulse, whim, personal preference, or the influence of fashionable ideas rather than reality.
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Monitor your thoughts to prevent the uncritical default mode from taking charge. Whenever you begin forming impressions of a person, place, or situation, follow the advice of the ancient Greek philosopher Epictetus: “Be not swept off your feet by the vividness of the impression, but say, ‘Impression, wait for me a little. Let me see what you are and what you represent. Let me try [test] you.’” This approach will prevent your impressions from hardening into opinions before you determine their reasonableness.
By following these three steps, you will gain control of your opinions,
and that is a considerable advantage over having them control you.
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