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Critical thinking is an important skill but I'd like to caution against this fixation on critical thinking thought in collage as some sort of beacon for society

Critical thinking is an important skill but I'd like to caution against this fixation on critical thinking thought in collage as some sort of beacon for society. Critical thinking is something people develop over the years and it starts early IMO. It's not just a 4 year course. It's a whole approach to the world around you. There are many critical thinkers in my experience outside of collage. And I don't see it a problem as such. Also it doesn't matter how good a critical thinker you are we all have blind spots and biases that makes it impossible to be critical thinkers in all contexts. Will need to look at the study to see how it's actually measuring the critical thinking skills. Many of those who do learn critical thinking first when they get to college end up getting such a aha moment that they think critical thinking is the same as constructive thinking and should be applied to everything. You often meet them in the big companies or management. Many of them like to play the devils advocate poking holes in everything around them but aren't able to come up with solutions themselves. In my view critical thinking is best learned by reading philosophy and seeing how philosophers historically either improved or created new theories. Because here critical thinking and constructive thinking goes hand in hand. If you read the right progression of philosophers through time you end up understanding how they didn't just critique but put forward their theories which could then be critiqued. In my view critical thinking without constructive thinking is as big a problem as no critical thinking.

philipov 9y ago
Nietzsche somewhere wrote as much, that the value of a philosophical theory was not the theory itself, but its ability to be used as architecture for others to build the theories that come after it.
xaa 9y ago
> In my view critical thinking without constructive thinking is as big a problem as no critical thinking. I disagree. I see critical thinking as a prerequisite for constructive thinking. Without the ability to identify problems, you can't offer solutions. I and many fellow students in grad school went through exactly this evolution. First, you are taught to be critical and skeptical of everything. But at some point, you realize you can't get anything done in your own research if you are constantly skeptical of everything, so you learn how to find "good enough" solutions to tough problems. So WRT society, I think it could use a healthy dose of critical thinking, because it suffers from the same problem. People can't identify good arguments, so they don't know they even need better ones.
- ThomPete 9y ago
  Well by definition it can't be a prerequisite. Constructive thinking must have come first otherwise there was nothing to think critically about :) Joke aside: Critical Thinking isn't going to save the world. It's a fallacy in the same line of; if only people were more rational or more logical. It has it's uses but it also has it's mis-uses.
  - cryoshon 9y ago
    >Critical Thinking isn't going to save the world true, but why is >if only people were more rational or more logical. a fallacy? we can see pretty clean data that show more education = better societal outcomes...
    - ThomPete 9y ago
      Rationality and logic is used for bad things too.
raleighm 9y ago
Reading philosophy is valuable but most people are passive when they read. Critical thinking is a skill that develops through practice, debate.
- ThomPete 9y ago
  Sure but we were talking about learning in collage here so you would never just read something but exactly debate it after you read it. I was fortunate to have a 24 year old high school philosophy teacher a real wiz "kid" who was able to teach how to approach philosophy teaching so it doesn't just end up as ethics class of opposing opinions. He had me write my high school master assignment about Frege and Wittgenstein. Anyway don't disagree debate is important but sometimes the arguments are book length long and the only way to respond is with another book.
AcerbicZero 9y ago
I agree, the study of philosophy is arguably the cornerstone of critical thinking. I didn't get to spend much time in college between deployments, but by far the most useful classes I was able to take were philosophy classes. Philosophical debate forces you to truly consider your positions and opinions. College did nothing for me as far as IT skills go, but it did help teach me to teach myself.
3minus1 9y ago
it took me a while trying to figure out what you meant by a collage of critical thinking.
- ThomPete 9y ago
  Haha sorry about that. College of course :)

philipov 9y ago

Nietzsche somewhere wrote as much, that the value of a philosophical theory was not the theory itself, but its ability to be used as architecture for others to build the theories that come after it.

xaa 9y ago

> In my view critical thinking without constructive thinking is as big a problem as no critical thinking. I disagree. I see critical thinking as a prerequisite for constructive thinking. Without the ability to identify problems, you can't offer solutions. I and many fellow students in grad school went through exactly this evolution. First, you are taught to be critical and skeptical of everything. But at some point, you realize you can't get anything done in your own research if you are constantly skeptical of everything, so you learn how to find "good enough" solutions to tough problems. So WRT society, I think it could use a healthy dose of critical thinking, because it suffers from the same problem. People can't identify good arguments, so they don't know they even need better ones.

ThomPete 9y ago
Well by definition it can't be a prerequisite. Constructive thinking must have come first otherwise there was nothing to think critically about :) Joke aside: Critical Thinking isn't going to save the world. It's a fallacy in the same line of; if only people were more rational or more logical. It has it's uses but it also has it's mis-uses.
- cryoshon 9y ago
  >Critical Thinking isn't going to save the world true, but why is >if only people were more rational or more logical. a fallacy? we can see pretty clean data that show more education = better societal outcomes...
  - ThomPete 9y ago
    Rationality and logic is used for bad things too.

raleighm 9y ago

Reading philosophy is valuable but most people are passive when they read. Critical thinking is a skill that develops through practice, debate.

ThomPete 9y ago
Sure but we were talking about learning in collage here so you would never just read something but exactly debate it after you read it. I was fortunate to have a 24 year old high school philosophy teacher a real wiz "kid" who was able to teach how to approach philosophy teaching so it doesn't just end up as ethics class of opposing opinions. He had me write my high school master assignment about Frege and Wittgenstein. Anyway don't disagree debate is important but sometimes the arguments are book length long and the only way to respond is with another book.

AcerbicZero 9y ago

I agree, the study of philosophy is arguably the cornerstone of critical thinking. I didn't get to spend much time in college between deployments, but by far the most useful classes I was able to take were philosophy classes. Philosophical debate forces you to truly consider your positions and opinions. College did nothing for me as far as IT skills go, but it did help teach me to teach myself.

3minus1 9y ago

it took me a while trying to figure out what you meant by a collage of critical thinking.

ThomPete 9y ago
Haha sorry about that. College of course :)