Critical Thinking in its Contexts and in Itself

Abstract

The nature of critical thinking remains controversial. Some recent accounts have lost sight of its roots in the history of philosophy. This article discusses critical thinking in its historical and social contexts, and in particular, for its educational and political significance. The writings of Plato and Aristotle are still vital in considering what makes certain kinds of thinking and certain kinds of knowledge distinctive. But neither Plato nor Aristotle theorised critical thinking in its specificity, that is, by differentiating it from other kinds of thinking and by outlining its features. It was only with German Idealism, as part of the European Enlightenment, that philosophy achieved a level of self-reflection and engagement that broadened, deepened and made radical the logos of Socrates and Plato. In the encounter between Modern German and Ancient Greek philosophy we can see that there are different kinds of reason, the most politically and existentially significant of which runs through critical thinking, which we can only ever experience as critical dialogue. The logos of dialectical reason is uncompromising in its pursuit of truth and ‘the good life’, and as such, demands courage from those who pursue it.

Keywords:

• critical thinking
• dialogue
• education
• knowledge
• action

Notes

1. I thank the extraordinary teacher and philosopher the late Dr Zawar Hanfi for introducing me to Greek and German philosophy during the 1980s.

2. Of course, even when classical Athens was democratic, the polity excluded most of its residents—all women, slaves and foreigners. It was only tangentially and indirectly that its greatest thinkers acknowledged the sense of human equality, for example, in Plato’s portrayal of the slave in the Meno. In its embrace of Greek thought, German Idealism radicalised critical thinking but, as it took the form of transcendental philosophy, it was politically and socially impotent. This impotence was eroded by Feuerbach and finally terminated by Marx. The seismic political transformation of modernity is widespread democratisation, whose pivotal initial moment was the French Revolution, but whose global reach only started in a sustained way well into the twentieth century. The remarkable and widespread economic growth of capitalist modernity has provided the material foundations upon which a decent life is possible for most humans—in both theory and practice.