Inspiring Critical Thinking About John DOE Case Study: Child Pornography

Even though thinking critically is one of the most important faculties that a person may have, there are many barriers that may hinder the formation of these correct trains of thought. It is important to recognize these in one’s own thinking in order to be aware of them and not allow them to take ahold of one’s thought processes. In this sense, I believe that emotional influences and projection.
With regards to emotional influences, I recognize that I am constantly led by my sentiments instead of my reason. Obviously, there are many times that one notices that one is being guided by emotions, especially when they are very strong. Nevertheless, this is not always the case, and one may sometimes manifest certain ideas and prejudices because of how one feels at the moment. One way to overcome this is trying to establish the thought process in paper and attempt to follow its logical development as if it were an actual logic problem, with premises and logical connections. Even though this may seem often odd and impractical, it is a good way to get rid of these influences, and think more critically.
On the other hand, projection is another barrier that I have to be constantly aware of. In this type of ego defense, one attributes one’s own undesired characteristics onto others. For example, I am usually a very belligerent person, and tend to find this in many other people as well. However, many have pointed out that this is not actually due to them being stubborn, but my projection of this attribute on them. In order to do away with this, I have an inventory of my negative personal characteristics and constantly check with a third party to see if my perception of these characteristics is shared or not.