Ascendant and Descendant Types of Thinking and the Impact on Tolerance as an Educational Value

Authors

  • Doru Valentin Castaian Universitatea Dunarea de Jos Galati

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18662/po/13.2/467

Keywords:

ascendant thinking, descendant thinking, education, education policies, cultural conflict, secularization, religious thinking, tolerance, critical thinking, science

Abstract

This article will explore the pattern of conflicts between secular thinking and religious beliefs from the perspective of critical thinking and analyse the potential that this conflict holds for increasing tolerance inside mixed society such as in Romania. It is often said that the ability of thinking critically deeply erodes the propensity towards religious faith and there are numerous study results that back up this assertion. This article tries to explain that  religious faith becomes fully understandable only in some larger pattern that shapes morality, cognitive strategies and social practices and this is true for secular thinking as well. We can name this patterns ascendant, respectively descendant. Ascendant thinking derives and explains higher level practices beginning from lower level entities through progress and emergence and for this kind of thinking, morality and cognition are an open fields that can be indefinitely improved. This kind of thinking embraces novelty and creativity and aims at human beings becoming capable of managing this novelty. The descending model derives from and explains the lower levels through complex and immutable entities and will tend to see novelty as change capable of breaking their models and therefore act towards neutralizing novelty through interpretation. Information and practices that cannot be neutralized will be counted as abnormous. The article comes forward with a comparative analysis between these two opposing patterns, showing that this interpretative frame is valid in retrodiction and that it can fundament concrete predictions. It will also show that critical thinking is permitted and can fundament a space for compromise and dialogue between religious and secular people.

References

Almond, B. (2010). Education for tolerance: cultural difference and family values. Journal of Moral Education, 131-143.

Berend, I.T (2007). Social Shock in Transforming Central and Eastern Europe. Communist and Post-Communist Studies, 40, 269-280.

Berlin, I. (2021). Lemnul strâmb al omenirii. Capitole din istroia ideilor. Humanitas: Bucureşti.

Bugaric, B (2015), A crisis of constitutional democracy in post-Communist Europe: "Lands in-between" democracy and authoritarianism. Icon International Journal of Constitutional Law, 13, pp. 219-245.

Căstăian, D. (2016). Căutându-i pe fanatici. Despre ce ne apropie şi ce ne desparte in Contributors, 26th of October, available at https://www.contributors.ro/cautandu-i-pe-fanatici-despre-ce-ne-apropie-si-ce-ne-desparte/

Căstăian, D. (2018). Referendumul pentru definirea familiei, lumea postmodernă şi ieşirea din religie. Contributors, 3rd March 2018, available at https://www.contributors.ro/referendum-ul-pentru-redefinirea-familiei-lumea-postmoderna-si-iesirea-din-religie/

Chesterton, G.K. (2002). Ortodoxia sau dreapta credinţă. Paralela 45: Piteşti.

De Waal, F. (2017). Bonobo şi ateul. În căutarea umanismului printre primate. Humanitas: Bucureşti.

De Waal, F. (2019). Suntem îndeajuns de inteligenţi pentru a înţelege inteligenţa animalelor? Humanitas: Bucureşti.

Dunn, K., & Singh, S.P. (2014). Pluralistic conditioning: social tolerance and effective democracy. Democratization, 21, 1-28.

Furtună, D. (2018). Homo Agressivus. De ce nu se opresc războaiele şi violenţa. Lexon: Chişinău.

Furtună, D. (2018). Mozaicul uman. Evoluţia omului şi originea raselor. Lexon: Chişinău.

Le, N. (2019). Organic Selection and Social Heredity: The Original Baldwin Effect Revisited. In Fellermann, H, Bacardit, J, GoniMoreno, A, Fuchslin, R (eds), Alife 2019: The 2019 Conference on Artificial Life (pp. 515-522).

Maci, M (2020). Trei întrebări: pe măsură ce România se modernizează scade, paradoxal, încredrea oamenilor în şansele de a trăi aici. Contributors, 28th of December, available at https://www.contributors.ro/trei-intrebari-pe-masura-ce-romania-se-modernizeaza-scade-paradoxal-increderea-oamenilor-in-sansele-lor-de-a-trai-aici-o-viata-decenta/

Matei, A. (2021). The Postmodern East, or How Can We Be Post-modern without Post-modernity”. Interlitteraria, 26, 324-329.

Modood, T. (2019). Essays on Secularism and Multiculturalism. ECPR Press: Colchester.

Stanley, B (2019). Backsliding Away? The Quality of Democracy. Central and Eastern Europe in Journal of Contemporary European Research, 15, 343-353.

Taylor, M. (2009). After God. University of Chicago Press: Chicago.

Taylor, M. (2014). Speed Limits. Where Time Went and Why We Have So Little Left. Yale University Press: New Haven & London.

Zhabaikhan, M.A., & Raushan, Z.A. (2020). Evolution of Morality in Human and Cultural History. Voprosy Filosofii, 72-83.

Downloads

Published

2022-06-24

How to Cite

Castaian, D. V. (2022). Ascendant and Descendant Types of Thinking and the Impact on Tolerance as an Educational Value. Postmodern Openings, 13(2), 489-498. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/13.2/467

Issue

Section

Theoretical articles

Similar Articles

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.


Publish your work at the Scientific Publishing House LUMEN

It easy with us: publish now your work, novel, research, proceeding at Lumen Scientific Publishing House

Send your manuscript right now