Question

Conventional wisdom describes thinking or explanations which we all generally embrace as true. The term refers to the widely accepted truth about something - a truth we together, as a community or larger society, deem to be beyond question. In the textbox below, please type your responses to the following questions. After clicking Save you will see two sample answers from fellow critical thinking learners. Can you think of some examples of conventional wisdom? What might be some of the problems associated with basing judgments on conventional wisdom?

Does anyone know how to write this answer? it is from the critical thinking class. thank you

Answer 1

Conventional wisdom in the easiest terms can be understood as commonplace knowledge. Something that seems to true in most cases if not all and hence is accepted as a universal fact. Some examples of conventional wisdom can be seen in everyday life, like when we think that politicians lie, or that boys are naturally better at maths than girls, children should highly focus on academics to be successful in their lives and many more such notions. These are what most people believe to be true because thy feel most other people believe it to be true. However, basing our judgements on such notions can not yield a very valid argument considering the problems  with conventional wisdom itslf. Such opinions hardly ever have any scientific backing and even though when proven wrong scientifically, these opinions are hard to change. This resistance to change is another issue with such notions. Especially when considered in institutional settings, having such thoughts may hinder acceptance of new ideas and hence progress of the institution and the individuals associated with it.