In addition, critical thinking encourages tolerance and compassion. To evaluate beliefs, individuals must identify and analyze multiple perspectives and the contexts in which belief systems are embedded, what Janette Ryan and Kam Louie call a "meta-cultural awareness" (Mason 345). This awareness encourages tolerance in place of "egocentric and sociocentric thinking" (Mason 341). It also encourages compassion by showing that people can change their beliefs and behavior, which disproves the assumption that people exist in a "static state of being" rather than a "dynamic state of change," an assumption that "denies and undermines a person's potential for change and insists that a person forever remain handicapped by past views and actions" (Parker 85).

Because rhetoric and critical thinking inform each other, Michael Leff proposes emphasizing "humanistic rhetoric," communication that includes respect for deliberative discourse in civic life, a connection between rhetoric and ethical behavior, and a connection between ethical behavior and political activity (136). In the next section, I propose a pedagogy that reflects humanistic rhetoric by focusing on critical thinking, collaborative learning, and service learning projects.

Learn about encouraging ethical behavior through a participatory-critical pedagogy.