Would studying books/materials on critical thinking, and logic, help reduce suffering?

I’m not sure how reading books about that has anything to do with suffering really…

I haven’t read any book about critical thinking, but I learned it all by myself by observing real life. I used to believe in everything I saw on the Internet, and unfortunately I got into contact with a lot of creepy and depressing “facts” on Facebook, and I ate them up. It really messed with my perception of reality. Now I learned to question what I see, and I also learned that real life is much more mundane than we think, so I’m not affected by provocative fake news anymore. But that’s just my experience.

If you begin with the premise that suffering is bad and should be reduced then what more can critical thinking and logic teach you?

@flutherother Whether one is actually living a bizzare reality or just hallucinating? Or to be sorting through life’s quirks? Also how to see through b.s. from life.

Yes. Critical thinking is valuable in evaluating the validity of arguments made by others. If people were better critical thinkers then they would reject many of the ideas and policies that cause suffering. Furthermore, they would hold our media, politicians and other leaders to higher standards of rational arguments. If we memorized and learned to recognize logical fallacies the way we learn the multiplication tables, that would be a very good start.

@RedDeerGuy1 Critical thinking often enables us to put up barriers to helping others. We become aware of suffering and then we think of excuses not to help. Critical thinking and logic are themselves neutral and can be used to defend anything.

Critical thinking would help you realize correlation is not causation.. The lack of critical thinking is not the cause of suffering; an increase in critical thinking would not alleviate suffering.

Suffering is part of the human condition. It is not completely avoidable. But it is incumbent on each of us to not contribute to increasing anyone’s suffering, and to aid in alleviating it when we can.

A book shouldn’t be necessary, and I seriously doubt that you will ever be accused of lacking either compassion or a functioning conscience.

Imo yes! I know it helped me be a better human being. I. Think. In my own point of view. Lol

Books are only good under three conditions:
– you read them
– you understand the content
– you apply what you learn

Skip any of those and a book is just kindling for a fire.

No. If those things were to help, they would have.

I don’t think that we can analyze suffering away. We’re not suffering because of what we’re experiencing, we’re suffering because our minds don’t accept it – our minds are rebelling, fighting, and saying, “this shouldn’t be happening”. That’s where meditation can help, imo.

Imagine that you go to a critical thinking specialist. You explain your problem and they write a lot of equations on a whiteboard. At some point they step back and say, here is the problem. You were incorrectly applying the contrapositive. That should fix things. If that does not sound silly then start reading your books on logic and critical thinking.

I think that reading on critical thinking is a diversion for ones suffering in agony.
If that works well for you then f=go ahead and read to your hearts content.
But if its not helping you then here is a link with suggestions that maybe worthwhile to think on.

https://tinybuddha.com/blog/6-ways-to-decrease-your-suffering/

Typo error caught to late to edit.
If that works for you then” go ahead”.....

In this unusual time of Covid pandemic its tough not to dwell on sufferings, regrets etc

@Inspired_2write I love tinybuddha!