Scholarly communication

Abstract

In this article constructive scholarly communication is positioned within the context of critical thinking and the underlying principles guiding meaningful intellectual interaction. Informal logic is briefly mentioned before it is argued that showing a sense of solidarity is more fundamental than just being ‘critical’ – thus making a plea for the requirement of critical solidarity. As an alternative to fruitless transcendent criticism a number ofexamples of immanent criticism are discussed, anticipating the nature of factual and transcendental criticism, taking into account the difference between the logical principle of non-contradiction and the ontological principle of the excluded antinomy, and challenging the idea of objective and neutral scholarship. Finally, the broadening perspective of transcendental criticism is briefly elucidated with reference to one of the examples discussed in the explanation of immanent criticism.

Keywords:

• Critical solidarity
• critical thinking
• factual criticism
• immanent criticism
• transcendental criticism