Beyond Feelings

Beyond Feelings Summary and Reflection

Chapter 1 asks, “Who are you?” It explains that living in a different age or culture would make you a different person. If we had lived in America during Colonial times we would be likely to not have any objections to barring women from serving on a jury, owning property, or voting. If we had been raised in the Middle East, we would stand much closer to people when we talk to them than we do in America. If we had been raised in India, we would not have a problem with our parents choosing our spouse for us. Native Europeans, Asians, and South Americans have a different idea of punctuality. While thirty minutes late for a business appointment in Arab countries is acceptable, in America it is not. A different cultural origin also means different tastes in food. In doing business and understanding others it is beneficial to be aware of the cultural differences between you and that person. This can prevent many issues during your dealings with people from foreign countries.

We should regard individuality as something that we acquire and not as something that we are born with. One of the guidelines to help achieve individuality that I already practice is: Treat your first reaction to any person, issue, or situation as tentative. I like to examine people and situations before judging and/or making decisions. I learned this through personal experiences where my initial judgments of a person or a situation were completely off, and sometimes it caused an embarrassing situation or lack of fairness in my part.

Chapter 2 asks, “What is Critical Thinking?” After thousands of years of humans’ experiencing thought and talking and writing about thinking, it remains one of the greatest mysteries of our existence. An example in this chapter is when teachers ask their students to think or to start thinking. Is this something that we are supposed to do on command? This is the way it has been taught to children in school,...