We all know that assuming is bad because it makes an ass out of you and me, right? But beyond that sort of childish word play, do we really look at the assumptions we make every single day? And could it help us to do so? Could it be a valuable part of our critical thinking skillset to be aware not only that assumptions exist but what kind of things we assume to be true? I think so.
I’ve talked in other critical thinking videos about the role of emotions in our thought process and I’ve also gone over things like labels, beliefs vs facts and thought-stopping cliches. Recent discussions and reading I’ve done about the state of affairs in other countries as well as subjects like the Middle East and Islam have challenged a lot of my basic assumptions about the world and made me realize what an important part of critical thinking this can be. Critical thinking isn’t just having strategies to win arguments. The best critical thinking we can do for ourselves is to deeply examine not just what we think but why we think it and confirm that our reasoning is built on solid foundations. When we just assume things to be true that aren’t necessarily true at all, we can make some really big blunders. I think any of us can see how preconceived ideas get in the way of how we view things.
According to the Foundation for Critical Thinking website, here’s the difference between an inference and an assumption.
“An inference is a step of the mind, an intellectual act by which one concludes that something is true in light of something else’s being true, or seeming to be true. If you come at me with a knife in your hand, I probably would infer that you mean to do me harm. Inferences can be accurate or inaccurate, logical or illogical, justified or unjustified.”
“An assumption is something we take for granted or presuppose. Usually it is something we previously learned and do not question. It is part of our system of beliefs. We assume our beliefs to be true and use them to interpret the world about us. If we believe that it is dangerous to walk late at night in big cities and we are staying in Chicago, we will infer that it is dangerous to go for a walk late at night. We take for granted our belief that it is dangerous to walk late at night in big cities. If our belief is a sound one, our assumption is sound. If our belief is not sound, our assumption is not sound. Beliefs, and hence assumptions, can be unjustified or justified, depending upon whether we do or do not have good reasons for them. Consider this example: “I heard a scratch at the door. I got up to let the cat in.” My inference was based on the assumption (my prior belief) that only the cat makes that noise, and that he makes it only when he wants to be let in.”
Every day we make all kinds of assumptions. In fact, it would be impossible to get through life without them. Every argument you’ve ever had has been based on underlying assumptions or things you simply took to be true regardless of whether your belief was based on any facts or evidence. Most assumptions I’d say are harmless or inconsequential but some of them bear a little closer inspection since they are tied in so closely with our identity and self-image and how we view the world around us. Let’s talk about that for a minute.
No one understands consciousness but we do understand many of the factors that shape how our consciousness functions. In other words, when we talk about things like our viewpoint, we might not understand what exactly it is that is doing the viewing but we do understand the various factors that shape or mold how we look at things. Where we are born and raised all by itself has a ton to do with how we view the world. In fact, this might be the one thing that dominates our world view since our location and culture determine our primary language, the physical conditions we grow up in and what kind of moral values will be instilled in us. We have a perfectly natural instinct to want to be right in our decisions and actions and this lends itself to a basic assumption almost all of us make: that the way we were raised is the best and most right way to be. This is not just the foundational assumption behind nationalism but is even more pervasive than that. In our childhood, we are often told repeatedly or we find other reasons to think that our language is the most expressive, our education the most enlightening, our form of government the most enlightened, our legal system the most just and of course our religion the single best expression of supernatural truth. We simply assume that these things are true because as far as our lifetime is concerned, things have always been that way and everything we look at from the time we are born forward is given that context.
It usually takes a very conscientious effort on our part to filter out these assumptions or look at something from a fresh, different perspective. For example, I’m studying the Middle East and Islam now. I could assume that the history, beliefs and practices of Islam are ridiculous and silly, that its traditions are steeped in tribal superstition and basically judge everything I read against the Western values that have been instilled in me since the day I was born. Yet as a critical thinker who is striving to understand not just the rules and regulations of Islam but the entire tradition and history of it, I actually need to put aside all of my Western preconceived ideas. If I simply assume that it’s all barbaric nonsense, I will never be able to truly understand why anyone would find Islam appealing or worth not just believing in, but literally giving up their life for.
That’s not to say I have to believe in Islam myself to understand it. It’s that I have to do the best job I can to put aside my assumptions about it if I’m ever going to understand why someone else would believe it. And that’s the only way I can ever get into a place where I can honestly evaluate or critique it or talk intelligently about what it takes to de-radicalize someone who has gone all in on that belief system to the point they’re willing to kill for their beliefs. I could assume it’s all just a bunch of crap, but that wouldn’t help me do my job and it wouldn’t help anyone else in terms of what practical actions we need to take to bring about a more tolerant and peaceful society.
We make assumptions about other people all the time, based on inferences we make from news stories, our educational background and even rumors and gossip. A person with a more forgiving nature might assume that a person deserves the benefit of the doubt and that they are innocent until proven guilty, whereas a more cynical or jaded person might think that any accusation should be believed no matter what its merits because they assume the worst in everyone. It’s pretty easy to see how these kinds of assumptions drive so much of our social discourse today. When it comes to accusations made in the media, none of us have all the facts in hand but we run with our assumptions as though we do.
Once I got to thinking about this, I thought maybe there are some other problems that could be resolved if we could better examine our most basic assumptions. For example, in the big wide world there’s a lot of conflict between nations. We have huge battles going on throughout Europe and the United States over immigration. Natives are worried that immigrants won’t assimilate and will try to change their culture. Immigrants are worried not just about resettling in a new land that has very foreign ideas to what they are used to, but about whether they will be accepted and what they’re going to have to change about themselves to fit in. The competing and conflicting value systems create tension and unrest. It might help if we were more aware of the fact that our different cultures don’t just have different clothes and languages and value systems but that we make very different basic assumptions about the value of human life, how we define human rights or whether people even have rights at all. It’s these kinds of assumptions which form the backbone of our cultures and governments.
On a separate note, there are long-standing traditions and assumptions in Western cultures that are changing at what I think are alarming rates. For example, it’s traditionally been assumed that everyone’s viewpoint is valid and that people’s opinions are worth listening to. These were bedrock assumptions underlying our entire structure of government and law. Yet these assumptions are not really true anymore. Despite our traditional principles of free thought and free speech, there has been a great deal of work done by people who want to shut people up and not let them speak their minds. What’s in vogue now are hate speech laws. For example, in the United Kingdom, if you cause someone “harassment, alarm or distress” merely by saying words that they don’t want to hear, you can be prosecuted and even jailed for years. That’s not to say that everyone is ending up in jail for mouthing off, but there are plenty of free speech advocates who are concerned about where hate speech laws are going. If a celebrity says the wrong thing in an interview or on social media, their career can be ended overnight. I don’t think the well-intentioned people who are behind these laws have really thought much about the unintended consequences of their actions. Once you start down the road of shutting people up who you disagree with, there really is no logical end until everyone is muffled and no one can say anything. I don’t think any of us want to go there but then again, that’s just another assumption on my part, isn’t it? Maybe that’s exactly where these people want society to go. For my part, I’d rather err on the side of too much latitude than too little.
And of course when it comes to destructive cults and the kind of people who run them, we also get fooled by assumptions we make such as:
Well they looks like a good person.
They must mean what they say.
They’re only doing this because they want to help other people.
This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t give people the benefit of the doubt. I just think it’s a good idea from time to time to remember to challenge our own assumptions about ourselves and the world around us. By doing so, we can learn more about what’s going on, be in a position to make better decisions and maybe not be fooled by things we could have seen coming a lot sooner if we’d been better critical thinkers.
Thank you for watching.