Quotes from Richard W. Paul

Intellectual empathy requires us to think within the viewpoints of others, especially those we think are wrong.

Most people lie about small things but would be afraid to lie about big things. But manipulators know that if you insist on a lie long enough, many people will believe you — especially if you have the resources of mass media to air your lie. All skilled manipulators are focused on what you can get people to believe, not on what is true or false. They know that the human mind does not naturally seek the truth; it seeks comfort, security, personal confirmation and vested interest. In

Everything we know, believe, want, fear, and hope for, our thinking tells us. It follows, then, that the quality of our thinking is the primary determinant of the quality of our lives.

For example, before World War II, the U.S. government called the department that wages war the "War Department." After the war, they decided to call it the "Defense Department." This change has come about because the government does not want to admit that it starts wars. Rather it wants to manipulate people into thinking that it only defends the country against aggressive others. In short, politically, the word "defense" sells better than the word "war.

Remember these rules: Don't say all when you mean most. Don't say most when you mean some. Don't say some when you mean a few. And don't say a few when you mean just one.

Fallacies are "foul ways" to win arguments, yet they are winning arguments and manipulating people everyday. The mass media are filled with them. They are the bread and butter of mass political discourse, public relations, and advertising. We all at times fall prey to them. And many live and breathe them as if they were the vehicles of sacred truth. Your

People are often ready to accept a false dilemma because few feel comfortable with complexity and nuanced distinctions. They like sweeping absolutes. They want clear and simple choices. So, those skilled in manipulating people, face them with false dilemmas (one alternative of which is the one the manipulator wants them to choose, the other alternative clearly unacceptable). They present arguments in black or white form.

We are clever; you are cunning. We support freedom fighters; you support terrorists. We set up holding centers; you set up concentration camps. We strategically withdraw; you retreat. We are religious; you are fanatic. We are determined; you are pig-headed. There are literally thousands of words that fall into good-when-I-do-it-bad-when-you-do doublets. Most people are not skilled in detecting doublespeak. Dirty

There are many manipulators highly skilled in telling "big" lies and thus in making those lies seem true. For example, if one studies the history of the CIA, one can document any number of unethical deeds that have been covered up by lies (see any volume of Covert Action Quarterly for documentation of the misdeeds and dirty tricks of the CIA in every region of the world).14 Virtually all of these unethical acts were officially denied at the time of their commission. Dirty

The US government has often spread disinformation — for example, to justify sending Marines into Central or South American Countries to depose one government and put a more "friendly" government into power. The fact that these stories will be discredited years later is of no consequence, of course, to the fabricators of such stories. Disinformation often works. The discrediting of it is usually too late to matter. Years later, people don't seem to care.

Manipulators look for ways to make their opponent, or his position, look ridiculous (and therefore funny). People like a good laugh and they especially like laughing at views that seem threatening to them. A good joke is almost always well received, for it relieves the audience of the responsibility to think seriously about what is making them uncomfortable.

and pain. Critical thinking is the disciplined art of ensuring that you use the best thinking you are capable of in any set of circumstances.

Writing is essential to learning. One cannot be educated and yet unable to communicate one's ideas in written form.

To formulate questions that probe thinking in a disciplined and productive way, we need to understand thinking—how it works and how it should be assessed. It is critical thinking that provides the tools for doing this, for analyzing and assessing reasoning. This is why understanding critical thinking is essential to effective Socratic dialogue.

The function of generalizations is quite simple. Without generalizations we could not explain anything. Things would occur around us for no reason that we could fathom. We would stand around in a stupor, unable to relate anything to anything else, for a generalization is simply a way to take some set of things (that we don't understand) and compare them with something we do understand by means of some "abstract" words.