Lessons in Critical Thinking
Sunday, 8th June, 2025
With Dr. Esha Lovrić
Dear Readers,
This week’s Trio-of Thoughts:
- Aphorism or quote: In just a few short words, we are triggered to think deeply and philosophically about our lives.
- This week’s lesson.
- Activities for the week to improve your critical thinking, emotional intelligence, and innovative thinking power.
THOUGHT 1
AN APHORISM ABOUT THIS WEEK’S LESSON
“The unexamined self is more dangerous than the unexamined life.”
— Eugene Gendlin, philosopher and psychotherapist
Gendlin, known for developing Focusing, a reflexive practice involving deep inner attention, believed that genuine change arises not just from analysing the world, but from attending to the felt sense of our own internal experience. This quote highlights the risk of overlooking our internal patterns as we critique the world.
THOUGHT 2
REFLEXIVITY: YOUR MOST POWERFUL COGNITIVE SKILL
To be able to think critically about human experiences, you need reflexivity. Without it, you cannot think about people with any meaningful form of intelligence.
Reflexivity is an intellectual process. It is also a spiritual practice, most deeply intellectual processes end up being, but I’ll cover that later.
What Is Reflexivity?
Reflexivity is the ability to consciously observe your own thoughts, emotions, and assumptions as they arise. It reminds you to recognise that you are not just experiencing the world, but interpreting it through your own history, identity (this includes biology), and social conditioning. It is about thinking about your thinking.
Assumption definition: beliefs or ideas that we accept as true without proof or full evidence, usually because they seem obvious, familiar, or convenient at the time. They are mental shortcuts that help us interpret the world quickly, but they can be risky when they’re unconscious or unexamined. In critical thinking, assumptions often hide underneath our opinions, arguments, or decisions.
It’s the process of recognising that you, the thinker, are not a blank slate. You are not a neutral processor of information. You bring your emotions, your identity, your social history, your wounds, your hopes, and your beliefs into every conversation, every judgement, and every idea you entertain. Becoming aware of this isn’t to say all your ideas are wrong; it just brings attention to the fact that they are your ideas.
Reflexivity is not the same as reflection. Reflection is a thought. Reflexivity is a relationship with yourself. Reflexivity takes our assumptions head-on.
Reflexivity in Social Science
In the social sciences, reflexivity is a fundamental element of critical thinking about social facts. This is because we are assessing the ideas of humans as well as the decisions they’ve made that shape their social practices. BUT, to evaluate the perspectives of others fairly, we have to evaluate our own—to understand how we’re seeing them to begin with.
What arrogance must exist in a person who passes judgement on others without first becoming deeply suspicious of their own thoughts?
Ethical social scientists are reflexive and transparent about their potential biases, which is precisely why reflexivity is so important. It allows us to examine how our own assumptions may influence the way we interpret the world. If we do not demonstrate awareness of this, we are not practicing social science or critical thinking.
Our biases and allegiances to social institutions are so strong that, despite learning and teaching reflexivity, many social scientists (PhDs) do not practice true universal reflexivity.
Once we learn how we ourselves view the world, we begin to uncover the fundamentals of thinking: that every human sees the world through a reflexive lens, and every idea is funnelled through that lens.
The Speed of Bias
Without activating reflexivity, most people will only have access to the automatic and reactionary, fast-thinking system to assess others. It’s lightning fast, and our biases are right there to fill in the knowledge gaps. Biased thinking arises when individuals evaluate others through the filter of their own experiences, without situating those behaviours in the other person’s context. When you do this, it’s like forcing a cube into a round hole. Your perspective simply won’t fit their reality. It is the cause of most communication breakdowns, relationship tensions, and the worst part, a missed opportunity for deep, connected, and intellectual exploration.
These are the flaws in our thinking.
We often use our biases to protect what we do not want to change. It is a way to protect our group from ideas from outsiders. However, intellectual thinking requires new ideas. Intelligence recognises when it is time for innovative thinking and when it is time to protect values.
The Limits of IQ
Mechanical or analytical intelligence (associated with high IQ) alone won’t help you understand human behaviour or the reasons behind the ideas people hold. This is why a person with a high IQ but low reflexive ability can be remarkably unintelligent when trying to navigate or sustain human relationships.
What Is Intelligence?
Intelligence is the ability to observe, recognise, evaluate, test, and apply ideas to generate new knowledge.
Knowledge can be considered credible if it works. If it helps solve something. This applies to all areas: objects, systems, and human relationships.
However, my argument is that we need to learn how to solve the complex equation of human beings. Sustaining and maintaining meaningful human relationships is essential for our biological body, psychological health, and social well-being. You don’t need to be close to everyone, but you do need to understand that connection keeps your social brain alive. Without it, your thoughts will become centred on yourself, and that is a catastrophe which we are seeing in the modern world.
The Practice of Reflexivity
Reflexivity, if practised consistently, will bring you nearly all the cognitive abilities needed to reach your potential. When you begin doing it consistently, it starts to become automatic. It will deliver you reasoning, logical intelligence, psychological healing, or emotional and social intelligence.
Years of Practice
It is something you need to do first, for years and years. People are not naturally reflexive, but we do tend to be naturally and automatically judgemental. But habitual judgement, when unexamined (which is common), is not a sign of intelligence; it is a cognitive shortcut that allows us to stay exactly the way we are. This is fine if the way we are is the best choice to be, and if we have come to that conclusion after reflexive attention. Reflexivity enables transformation because it directs attention inward. It is about getting to know the self really well. It is, fundamentally, a deeply intellectual and deeply philosophical practice.
Thinking About Identity
Reflexivity is about thinking deeply about your identity. More precisely, it’s about understanding:
How your identity has been formed (through your history, culture, upbringing, biology, psychology, social environment, etc.), how that identity shapes your thoughts, emotions, and interpretations, and how all of that influences the way you interact with the world. Not just in a surface sense like “who am I?” It’s about asking:
- What experiences have shaped the way I see this issue?
- What assumptions do I bring into this situation?
- Where did those assumptions come from?
Identity in Context
- E.g., Biological factors like hormones, temperament, sensory sensitivity, and neurodiversity influence how we experience the world. They shape our energy levels, our emotional thresholds, and how we physically feel things (this is why understanding our physiological facts is vital).
- E.g., Psychological propensities are about how we tend to think and feel. Whether we’re more anxious or calm, curious or withdrawn, reactive or reflective. These mental tendencies affect how we process emotions, handle stress, and form beliefs (this is why high-quality personality tests are valuable).
- E.g., Social factors include our family dynamics, cultural background, religious beliefs, political stage, language, community expectations, education, economic resources, and our exposure to safety or danger (why it is important to think about social constructions and environmental factors and their impact).
All of these interact uniquely. It’s the age-old dance between nature and nurture.
We can begin to understand ourselves very well by carefully noticing the patterns we repeat. It means using both knowledge and personal observation to learn about the self.
The Introspective Lineage
Meditation is a reflexive practice. So is mindfulness. And so is philosophy, though most people don’t realise that.
When you meditate, you are not just “relaxing.” You are watching your thoughts as they come and go. You are seeing which ones make you uncomfortable. Which ones you cling to. You’re not controlling your thoughts, you’re just observing them. That is also reflexivity.
When you practice mindfulness, which is just sitting for an extended time with little external distractions, you are paying attention to your present experience without reacting impulsively. There is nothing to steal your attention. Again, this is reflexivity. It’s the ongoing discipline of being aware of yourself in the moment.
Philosophy, too, is built on reflexive foundations. Every philosophical idea began in someone’s mind. Someone reflexive who noticed a way of being and asked introspective and difficult questions of themselves. They then test those questions against the world, all while being completely reflexive in a back-and-forth eternal dance of self-discovery. That’s why we have such a diversity of philosophical thought. Because no one lives in the same body or history. Every philosophical lens is a reflexive product of a person interrogating their own lived reality, and then parts become universalised. It becomes something that may be seen as theoretically true, as it resonates across many lives.
Why This Matters for You
We live in a Western world that has steadily moved towards the externalisation of everything, seeking comfort, validation, and answers outside ourselves. Over time, this habit has made us dependent on external sources of relief, causing us to forget the immense inner power we each hold. It’s a power that’s simply sitting there waiting to be activated. We’ve lost the introspective traditions of ancient philosophy, which taught us to begin by looking inward.
Now we ask outwardly: Who is responsible? What did they do wrong? Who is wrong? Who is right? Which system is broken? Who is broken? What’s the latest global catastrophe? Someone must pay for my discomfort!
I can assure you, this hell in your mind is not doing you any favours. Every time you feel excessively, pause, and just take the rest of your life to get to know yourself.
THOUGHT 3: ACTIVITIES
- Go back to the ‘Thinking About Identity‘ section in this week’s letter, re-read it, and then use reflexivity to answer the following questions next time you are reflecting on an interesting, controversial, or discomforting topic or idea:
- What experiences have shaped the way I see this issue?
- What assumptions do I bring into this situation?
- Where did those assumptions come from?
2. At least once a day, stop in a moment of emotional discomfort. Don’t fix it. Don’t analyse it to death. Just pause.
Then ask:
- What do I feel right now?
- Where did this come from?
- What part of me is reacting here—my past, my fear, my identity (which part of it > bio/psycho/social?), my ego? (Be honest!).
If you’re willing to sit with these questions without needing immediate answers, you’re already building the reflexive muscle.
3. For children, you have a time advantage so use it.
You can nurture reflexive thinking from an early age, helping them build healthy mental habits before the problematic ones build and stack up over a lifetime. Children experience countless emotionally charged moments they don’t yet understand! Guiding them to reflect on these emotions and think about why they exist and what purpose they serve helps activate the reflexive muscle early.
References or further reading
1. Eugene Gendlin (1996) Focusing-Oriented Psychotherapy: A Manual of the Experiential Method
→ A profound and practical book on the inner experience. Gendlin’s work centres on tuning into the “felt sense” and internal reflection to shift patterns of thought and behaviour. Reflexivity, for him, is an embodied process, not just an intellectual one.
2. Pierre Bourdieu & Loïc Wacquant (1992) An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology → A core academic text in the social sciences. Bourdieu argues that researchers must turn the critical gaze onto themselves, questioning their own position and assumptions. Reflexivity is essential to ethical and rigorous thinking about society.
3. Jack Mezirow (1991) Transformative Dimensions of Adult Learning → Mezirow explores how adult learning is rooted in critical self-reflection. Reflexivity is described as the process that allows individuals to revise distorted perspectives formed by past social conditioning.