Myślenie krytyczne: kilka uwag historycznych i teoretycznych

Critical thinking: some historical and theoretical remarks: In the paper, I defend a version of critical thinking. Firstly, I reconstruct the historical context surrounding the emergence of the critical thinking movement. There are various important intuitions and concepts of critical thinking — ones authored by John Dewey, Robert H. Ennis, Richard W. Paul, among many others — that have played an important role in understanding this type of thinking. Many definitions of critical thinking constitute concise and overly narrow formulas and fail to help us understand the subject, consequently I propose my own definition. By critical thinking I mean analytical, evaluative and argumentative cognitive functions. Next I discuss the basic dialogical context in which critical thinking develops and analyse the most important elements of critical thinking such as: analysis, evaluation and argumentation. I see critical thinking to be an important and valuable form of thinking. However, I do not argue in favour of critical thinking as the primary educational ideal. Rather, it plays an instrumental and supportive role in thinking, acting and life.