Linda Elder, September, 2007
There are many ways to articulate the concept of critical thinking. Yet every substantive conception of critical thinking must contain certain core elements. Consider the following brief conceptualizations...
"Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action. In its exemplary form, it is based on universal intellectual values that transcend subject matter divisions: clarity, accuracy, precision, consistency, relevance, sound evidence, good reasons, depth, breadth, and fairness..."
{presented at the 8th Annual International Conference on Critical Thinking and Education Reform, Summer 1987}.
"Critical thinking is self-guided, self-disciplined thinking which attempts to reason at the highest level of quality in a fair-minded way. People who think critically consistently attempt to live rationally, reasonably and empathically. They are keenly aware of the inherently flawed nature of human thinking when left unchecked. They strive to diminish the power of their egocentric and sociocentric tendencies. They use the intellectual tools that critical thinking offers – concepts and principles that enable them to analyze, assess, and improve thinking. They work diligently to develop the intellectual virtues of intellectual integrity, intellectual humility, intellectual civility, intellectual empathy, intellectual sense of justice and confidence in reason. They realize that no matter how skilled they are as thinkers, they can always improve their reasoning abilities and they will at times fall prey to mistakes in reasoning, human irrationality, prejudices, biases, distortions, uncritically accepted social rules and taboos, self-interest, and vested interest. They strive to improve the world in whatever ways they can and contribute to a more rational, civilized society. At the same time, they recognize the complexities often inherent in doing so. They strive never to think simplistically about complicated issues and always to consider the rights and needs of relevant others. They recognize the complexities in developing as thinkers, and commit themselves to life-long practice toward self-improvement. They embody the Socratic principle: The unexamined life is not worth living, because they realize that many unexamined lives together result in an uncritical, unjust, dangerous world."
Fonte: The Critical Thinking Community
http://www.criticalthinking.org
2 comentários:
I prefer the first description of critical thinking by Scriven and Paul for the following reasons: it is a multifaceted process that recurs and and is intrinsic to belief and action.As a process, it transcends disciplines, which should have fuzzier boundaries to promote integration.
The second definition is self-centered and individualistic whereas I believe that learning is social and embedded in action in the surround and more or less (change and stability) sensitive to disturbance.
The second definition/description feels more like a belief system than a description of critical thinking. "... work diligently to develop the intellectual virtues of...", very rationalist to me and value laden in a way that reduces variability rather than enhances it. I consider that instability is the initiation of change where local conditions frame the action in context. With sufficient interaction, self-organization may or may not occur. If it does, something new and unpredictable will emerge that is of the events that lead to it. If the new attractor can emerge in a variation of multiple iterations, the attractor is strengthened as it's adjacent possibilities extended into wider probabilities.
Thanks Stewart for your comments for our blog.
I sympathize with the ideas of the second definition (an influence of my INFJ frame) but I agree it feels more like a Belief System than a description of critical thinking.
Facing a new attractor we must think critically and rearrange our inner world. Nothing is given.
Best regards!
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