Papers by Dr. Isidoro Talavera
Forum on Public Policy: A Journal of the Oxford Round Table, Sep 22, 2011
Introduction The ancient dilemma of discord among many of the great religions of the world may be... more Introduction The ancient dilemma of discord among many of the great religions of the world may be exemplified in our times by a resurgent Islam and a rising evangelical Christianity. In this essay, I argue that a salient matter feeding many such longstanding world conflicts along religious fault lines is the mistaken idea that what is right (or wrong) may be found in a formal (or an informal) code of values. To be sure, religious groups aspiring to promote their respective notions of what is right (or wrong) have historically made one of their foremost concerns the promotion of a code of ethics. Accordingly, virtually every great religion of the world has a code of ethics. And such a code of ethics supposedly guides choices and actions and determines the purpose and course of the believer's life. Unfortunately, this may engender conflict because what is right (or wrong) depends on the individual who does it (usually manifesting a passion or commitment born out of doctrinal certainty) and where it is done, and whether or not a certain religious community approves. But although many in the religious world have traditionally made one of their foremost concerns promoting a written (or unwritten) code to govern a follower's ethical behavior, the more fundamental concern of misgivings about a code of ethics has been largely ignored. The primary reason for this might be the confused belief that we can actually appeal to a code of ethics, since many objections might be lessened or removed. (1) To be sure, the goal of a sound code of ethics is to provide a set of fundamental ethical rules (or commands) that help the individual or group do what ought to be done in face of (sometimes problematic) ethical situations. In this essay I will show, however, that given some significant misgivings about codes of ethics and some underlying pitfalls of the ethical (or moral) doctrines of absolutism and relativism, (2) religious culture cannot hope to do right things by appealing to ethical codes (where doing right is simply a matter of applying the right ethical rule). I argue that what is needed is a culture in which critical thinking (4) is fomented. To hope to do right things, we must go beyond ethical codes and think critically about the ethical issues that may confront us. Misgivings about a Code of Ethics To be sure, misgivings about a code of ethics abound. For instance, a code of ethics may be driven by legalistic demands designed to keep everyone in line and help to get the house in order. As a result, a code of ethics may be invoked to serve compliance. Accordingly, all things must move toward the code's established rules or instructions for action to be right. In this sense, a code of ethics is really about following rules or instructions efficiently (i.e., it is a recipe for merely doing things right, not doing right things (5)). And, since an unvarying set of rules (or commands) is to be spoon-fed to a captive audience, convergent thinking is encouraged. But, if everyone is thinking convergently, then no one is thinking critically very much. The problem is that a code of ethics focuses on what the individual must obey (i.e., it seeks compliance) rather than on the ethical issues that a person needs to think critically about. Always in control, such a code denies the individual any real opportunity to analyze and evaluate the pressing ethical issue at hand, for control comes at the price of independent or divergent thinking. This is because requiring that a person do things right amounts to a deliberate attempt to change a mixture of belief and emotion that predisposes the individual to respond to the code's way. The individual, overwhelmed into passivity, always acquires someone else's values, on someone else's terms, for someone else's purposes. To do otherwise, is to engage in what seems to be ethically irrelevant activity. For a code of ethics has been selected, packaged, and conveyed by others to force the individual to attend, not to his or her own thoughts and choices, but to the sterile prescriptions and choices of others. …
Academia letters, Mar 29, 2022
Academia letters, Jan 27, 2021
Critical Ethics (as a unified account of normative and meta-ethics) uses critical thinking to get... more Critical Ethics (as a unified account of normative and meta-ethics) uses critical thinking to get around the limitations of personal belief and indoctrination to get to what ought to be done and why to improve the human condition. For, if we teach only moral beliefs (whether as a set of absolutistic or relativistic normative codes)—no matter how useful and even inspiring they may be to a particular culture or community—the adherent will have a hard time distinguishing, or simply may not be able to distinguish, good from bad as an act of personal responsibility and free choice. Moreover, without critical thinking the adherent could possibly end-up believing all kinds of false or inconsistent things and moral beliefs may well end-up in conflict with better established background information. This would very likely lead to cognitive dissonance and inconsistency in a person’s actions; and, when generalized, would have devastating consequences for the survival of the human species because a person’s beliefs would not align or match with (at times dangerous) reality. Accordingly, it is crucial that we learn how to evaluate and to select among alternatives to do the thing that must be done, when it ought to be done, using critical thinking.
Advances in educational marketing, administration, and leadership book series, Jun 24, 2022
Academic inclusion seeks to increase participation and learning in a secure and collaborative env... more Academic inclusion seeks to increase participation and learning in a secure and collaborative environment where all individuals are full, accepted, and valued members of their school community. This chapter will focus on some problems in advancing academic inclusion. Specifically, the author will expand on the nature and importance of critical thinking to academic inclusion and examine the limits of outcome-based instruction, the role and problem of leadership and why it matters and the problem of working definitions for diversity, equity, and inclusion and why they matter. Accordingly, the objectives of the chapter are to analyze the reasons, significance, and consequences of such limits to posit the need for a new perspective of action based on critical thinking.
Forum on Public Policy: A Journal of the Oxford Round Table, Jun 22, 2016
There is a gap between the facts learned in a science course and the higher-cognitive skills of a... more There is a gap between the facts learned in a science course and the higher-cognitive skills of analysis and evaluation necessary for students to secure scientific knowledge and scientific habits of mind. Teaching science is not just about how we do science (i.e., focusing on just accumulating undigested facts and scientific definitions and procedures), but why (i.e., focusing on helping students learn to think scientifically). So although select subject matter is important, the largest single contributor to understanding the nature and practice of science is not the factual content of the scientific discipline, but rather the ability of students to think, reason, and communicate critically about that content. This is achieved by a science education that helps students directly by encouraging them to analyze and evaluate all kinds of phenomena, scientific, pseudoscientific, and other. Accordingly, the focus of this treatise is on critical thinking as it may be applied to scientific claims to introduce the major themes, processes, and methods common to all scientific disciplines so that the student may develop an understanding about the nature and practice of science and develop an appreciation for the process by which we gain scientific knowledge. Furthermore, this philosophical approach to science education highlights the acquisition of scientific knowledge via critical thinking to foment a skeptical attitude in our students so that they do not relinquish their mental capacity to engage the world critically and ethically as informed and responsibly involved citizens. 1
In this treatise, I hope to show that science educators can engage students philosophically with ... more In this treatise, I hope to show that science educators can engage students philosophically with a distinctive methodology that incorporates critical thinking applied to the pressing issue of climate change-as it has played out in the public sphere. Specifically, this approach can be applied to claims about climate change to help the science educator present a more robust picture about this life-threatening issue and deal directly and systematically with students' misconceptions and resistance to modern climate science. 1 Throughout this treatise, we will operate under a common core understanding of critical thinking that is about taking some argument apart using analysis and evaluating whether some derived conclusion follows from the evidence. See 1. An Introduction to Critical Thinking (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oefmPtsV_w4&feature=related); and, 2. What is Critical Thinking? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OLPL5p0fMg). Accessed August 18, 2019. 2 For a description and survey of the stark fissures between scientists and citizens on a range of science, engineering and technology issues see Funk, C., and L. Rainie. 2015. Public and scientists' views on science and society.
Forum on Public Policy: A Journal of the Oxford Round Table, Jun 22, 2014
Introduction On the Sistine Chapel ceiling in Rome, Michelangelo (1475-1564) painted his famous T... more Introduction On the Sistine Chapel ceiling in Rome, Michelangelo (1475-1564) painted his famous The Creation of Adam. This is his interpretation of the scene of the Creator, Lord God, giving life to Adam. Focusing on the hands of Adam and God, however, we may note that God's index finger is fixed and firm (a mode or identification of constancy) about to touch Adam's fingers that are bending and unsteady--reaching to the heavens (a mode or identification of change) so that they almost touch God's index finger. As if moving away on purpose from the literal depiction of the scene described in the Bible, (1) Michelangelo suggests both figures reach to the other in different ways. But, can Adam (emblematic of all creation) ever receive God's transcending and immutable touch? Is there a rational relation between God's transcending immutability and the dynamic character of the physical universe? This is one of the most challenging and important questions in the dialogue between Western philosophy (and, derivatively, natural science) and theistic religion. Without a solution to the underlying problem of constancy and change as diametrically opposed aspects of true time, the relation of God to our physical universe remains irrational. To be sure, the notions of change and constancy alternatingly have had something of a pivotal position within the logical geography of ancient Greek philosophical thinking about the nature of time and reality. This pivotal position not only speaks for the different modes or identifications of change and constancy in ancient Greek philosophy, but the two great Greek themes of change and constancy are so basic that they emerge throughout philosophy. Earlier concerns about change and constancy took on their full form as two sharply differing accounts of time within the boundaries of a Heraclitean metaphysic of becoming and a Parmenidean metaphysic of being. In a key sense, Heraclitus' metaphysics was the exact reverse of Parmenides' metaphysics. In the Heraclitean metaphysic of becoming, Heraclitus held that change (or motion, a type of change) was the only reality. On the other hand, in the Parmenidean metaphysic of being, Parmenides held that the whole of reality consisted of a single unchanging (or unmoving) substance. (2) For the metaphysical heirs of Heraclitus and Parmenides philosophy could never be the same, since most major philosophers felt that one had to take into account such antagonistic views of time. Plato, for example, first brought together in a systematic way the ancient distinction between constancy (principally a Parmenidean influence) and change (principally a Heraclitean influence) and defined the work of philosophy ever since. And, in modern times, Alfred North Whitehead generally characterized the whole of Western philosophical tradition as nothing but a series of footnotes to Plato. (3) Thus, the bifurcation of time was to leave its mark upon the whole body of ancient Greek philosophy, and through Plato, (4) upon the whole of Western philosophy. (5) Accordingly, the whole of Western philosophy and (derivatively) natural science have been haunted by a contradictory conception of time: time has been thought of and articulated as essentially transitory, while at the same time (and in the same sense) assumed to stand still (apart from the world of temporal items and happenings). In the extreme, this bifurcation of time (and/or corresponding bifurcation of knowledge) has led some to commit the fallacy of misplaced temporality, which privileges one aspect of time (the static or dynamic) over another. In its most damaging form, the fallacy dismisses essential aspects of true time by quietly disposing of constancy (labeling it as timeless) and/or quietly disposing of change (labeling it as lower/subjective or unreal). This problem arises in force when the context is shifted from philosophy to theistic religion. (6) A case in point is the Judeo-Christian tradition that sees God as active within the historical process which, in consequence, represents not only a causal but also a purposive order, but locates God outside of time (7)--entirely external to the perishable (or lower) realm (8) of change and process. …
We will never be able to achieve a liberal civil society because limitations of a civil society c... more We will never be able to achieve a liberal civil society because limitations of a civil society cannot be seen to be just a matter that it sometimes operates in an arena where contradictory forces are at play-where imperfect people organize around democratic and liberal values, and also around values that can be defined as uncivil to protect their group-based interests. The five conditions prohibit a liberal civil society because when applied each of which seems, when independently considered, to be plausible, but when taken together in fact conflict and are logically incompatible. Accordingly, one may argue that civil society should be considered as part of a wide spectrum of the different forms or degrees of uncivil society .https://fuse.franklin.edu/ss2016/1026/thumbnail.jp
Dr. Isidoro Talavera states that the values of a community determine what is right within that cu... more Dr. Isidoro Talavera states that the values of a community determine what is right within that culture or society. This presents the problem of whose ethics (and what values) we are going to “teach” (i.e., instill and enforce) via character “education” and/or ethical codes. Moreover, most evils are due to moral defects of character or upbringing quite as much as to lack of critical thinking. Many times we must think outside our cherished values to do the right thing. The right or wrong action (or practice), for instance, may be a function of the reasoning involved and the quality and weight of the evidence that supports it. One way to think outside our cherished values (or character “education”), then, is by improving ethical analysis and evaluation skills (i.e., critical thinking).https://fuse.franklin.edu/forum-2013/1018/thumbnail.jp
Advances in Educational Marketing, Administration, and Leadership
Academic inclusion seeks to increase participation and learning in a secure and collaborative env... more Academic inclusion seeks to increase participation and learning in a secure and collaborative environment where all individuals are full, accepted, and valued members of their school community. This chapter will focus on some problems in advancing academic inclusion. Specifically, the author will expand on the nature and importance of critical thinking to academic inclusion and examine the limits of outcome-based instruction, the role and problem of leadership and why it matters and the problem of working definitions for diversity, equity, and inclusion and why they matter. Accordingly, the objectives of the chapter are to analyze the reasons, significance, and consequences of such limits to posit the need for a new perspective of action based on critical thinking.
Forum on Public Policy: A Journal of the Oxford Round Table, Sep 22, 2011
Introduction The ancient dilemma of discord among many of the great religions of the world may be... more Introduction The ancient dilemma of discord among many of the great religions of the world may be exemplified in our times by a resurgent Islam and a rising evangelical Christianity. In this essay, I argue that a salient matter feeding many such longstanding world conflicts along religious fault lines is the mistaken idea that what is right (or wrong) may be found in a formal (or an informal) code of values. To be sure, religious groups aspiring to promote their respective notions of what is right (or wrong) have historically made one of their foremost concerns the promotion of a code of ethics. Accordingly, virtually every great religion of the world has a code of ethics. And such a code of ethics supposedly guides choices and actions and determines the purpose and course of the believer's life. Unfortunately, this may engender conflict because what is right (or wrong) depends on the individual who does it (usually manifesting a passion or commitment born out of doctrinal certainty) and where it is done, and whether or not a certain religious community approves. But although many in the religious world have traditionally made one of their foremost concerns promoting a written (or unwritten) code to govern a follower's ethical behavior, the more fundamental concern of misgivings about a code of ethics has been largely ignored. The primary reason for this might be the confused belief that we can actually appeal to a code of ethics, since many objections might be lessened or removed. (1) To be sure, the goal of a sound code of ethics is to provide a set of fundamental ethical rules (or commands) that help the individual or group do what ought to be done in face of (sometimes problematic) ethical situations. In this essay I will show, however, that given some significant misgivings about codes of ethics and some underlying pitfalls of the ethical (or moral) doctrines of absolutism and relativism, (2) religious culture cannot hope to do right things by appealing to ethical codes (where doing right is simply a matter of applying the right ethical rule). I argue that what is needed is a culture in which critical thinking (4) is fomented. To hope to do right things, we must go beyond ethical codes and think critically about the ethical issues that may confront us. Misgivings about a Code of Ethics To be sure, misgivings about a code of ethics abound. For instance, a code of ethics may be driven by legalistic demands designed to keep everyone in line and help to get the house in order. As a result, a code of ethics may be invoked to serve compliance. Accordingly, all things must move toward the code's established rules or instructions for action to be right. In this sense, a code of ethics is really about following rules or instructions efficiently (i.e., it is a recipe for merely doing things right, not doing right things (5)). And, since an unvarying set of rules (or commands) is to be spoon-fed to a captive audience, convergent thinking is encouraged. But, if everyone is thinking convergently, then no one is thinking critically very much. The problem is that a code of ethics focuses on what the individual must obey (i.e., it seeks compliance) rather than on the ethical issues that a person needs to think critically about. Always in control, such a code denies the individual any real opportunity to analyze and evaluate the pressing ethical issue at hand, for control comes at the price of independent or divergent thinking. This is because requiring that a person do things right amounts to a deliberate attempt to change a mixture of belief and emotion that predisposes the individual to respond to the code's way. The individual, overwhelmed into passivity, always acquires someone else's values, on someone else's terms, for someone else's purposes. To do otherwise, is to engage in what seems to be ethically irrelevant activity. For a code of ethics has been selected, packaged, and conveyed by others to force the individual to attend, not to his or her own thoughts and choices, but to the sterile prescriptions and choices of others. …
To foster the development of ethical, responsible, and engaged citizens, it is important for stud... more To foster the development of ethical, responsible, and engaged citizens, it is important for students to learn to modify or correct belief molded by personal interest, motivated thinking, upbringing, and/or indoctrination. Critical ethics comes into play whenever a systematic attempt to get around the limitations of personal belief is sought to get to what ought to be done. Accordingly, I examine the problems associated with teaching and applying critical ethics—where critical thinking takes some ethical argument apart, via analysis, and evaluates whether some derived conclusion follows from the evidence to make reasonable, intelligent decisions about what to believe and what to do (enter applied ethics).https://fuse.franklin.edu/ss2018/1079/thumbnail.jp
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Papers by Dr. Isidoro Talavera