[Música] The decision making process is an ongoing, continuous activity that, ultimately, is not being completed. We make ourselves through our decisions. Sancho Panza in Don Quixote said, "Each of us is the son of his own works." We shape the environment and the environment shapes us, and we are interacting in a dynamic exchange with our natural or social surroundings. In some cases, the initiative for the activity comes from the environment, and human beings undergo certain changes and deviations in their endeavors. In other cases, the behavior of the things and people around us complete the tasks or activities we have sought and lead to the consequences we desired or sought in our efforts. To the extent that the connections between what happens to person and what he or she does in response , and what the person does to the environment and the way in which the environment responds, their actions and the things they did acquire a meaning. People learn to understand both themselves and the world of men and things. We construct ourselves through a sequence of behaviors that come from our train of ideas, images, emotions, beliefs, goals and expectations. So, we need some way to articulate them. We all need a philosophy of life. In fact, we all have one, otherwise we wouldn’t be able to make our way through this world. A philosophy of life is a practical, since it helps us understand the world we live in, and constitutes what it is known as a worldview. Worldview implies the entirety of what we comprehend and believe about the world, about ourselves, and how each interacts with the other. Whenever you are thinking about one of the following concepts, you are thinking about your worldview; when you think about perspectives, the angle of things, points of view, positions and beliefs about life and about the world. all of this constitutes t way you think. The German language has a special word that encompasses all these terms about how we see the world: WELTANSCHAUUNG, which means “vision of the world”. Worldviews are composed of theories and interpretations, where we look for consistencies for our beliefs. We always search for consistency in what we believe. However, if we are to modify our worldview, then we need to inquire freely about all our beliefs when there seem to be inconsistencies in our lives. We need to be fully aware that the way in which we build our inner world will help us to discover the the source of conducts and behaviors and be aware of how the social environments has influenced us. When you don´t think critically, you begin to accept passively beliefs you inherited from your family and your culture, thereby losing freedom and autonomy, since those beliefs are not yours after all and you will end up living with those embedded predispositions. We can enhance our decisions by raising our level of consciousness about how we think and get away from the automatic, rapid way of thinking that guides us. This is why critical thinking matters. You will be confronting decisions in every area of your life, with issues related to: your professional career, family, financial affairs and business options. In addition, you have diverse ways of thinking, as we explained in the first session of the course. You have systemic, holistic, analytical, scientific, moral and creative thinking. So, you have a worldview, you have diverse ways of thinking, you have the questions the world asks you and you have some choices to make. Throughout this module we will be reviewing all of this train of thought and try to outline a model to articulate critically all those issues, and develop the habits that will turn into experiences so that you can become a reflective 107 00:03:49,080 --> 00:03:51,680 thinker. [Música]