“Condescension, and thinking oneself no better, are the same. To adapt to the weakness of the oppressed is to affirm in it the pre-condition of power, and to develop in oneself the coarseness, insensibility and violence needed to exert domination. . . ” — Theodor Adorno, Minima Moralia (London: Verso, 1987), end of section 5 (p. 26)
“The weak points in the abstract materialism of natural science, a materialism that excludes history and its process, are at once evident from the abstract and ideological conceptions of its spokesmen, whenever they venture beyond the bounds of their own speciality.” — Karl Marx, Capital, Vol. I, Chapter 15.
“We are like sailors who on the open sea must reconstruct their ship but are never able to start afresh from the bottom. Where a beam is taken away a new one must at once be put there, and for this the rest of the ship is used as support. In this way, by using the old beams and driftwood the ship can be shaped entirely anew, but only by gradual reconstruction.” — Otto Neurath, Anti-Spengler (1921)
“Magritte said that one could not provide a valid explanation of something until one had explained that explanation.” — Bernard Noël
This web site as a whole could be considered essentially a guide to critical thinking (including specimens of erroneous steps along the way). Places to find tools include my study guides and bibliographies on ideology, critical theory, reflexivity, cynical reason, my critical theory syllabus, philosophy links, and general bibliography.
This guide is two-tiered: it includes resources on critical thinking itself, but it also includes theoretical and critical materials (metacritical thinking) on critical thinking as an intellectual discipline.
This is part of a larger project focusing on the nature of critical thinking, subjecting the 'critical thinking' industry to critical scrutiny, and aiming at a perspective beyond formalistic and liberal approaches to critical thinking. This is intimately linked to the question of "open-mindedness". I don't have a worked-out classification scheme (by others or by myself) of approaches to critical thinking. Labels I can think of based on various reading include formalist, liberal, postmodernist, feminist, Marxist, Frankfurt School (critical theory), anarchist, postpositivist. One prospect is to differentiate radical critique from both the old liberal but also the new left-liberal (postmodernist) approaches to critique, a task which entails a critique of critical culture due to the hyperreflexive nature of our age and the crisis we now face. Reviewing the literature on this subject is fascinating and symptomatic of the current ideological crisis. The attempt to go beyond the old formalist, liberal model of critical thinking sometimes yields insightful results, but also results in regression, as one might expect under the postmodern dispensation, i.e. the retreat from reason, science, universality, Enlightenment.
While traditional elaborations of the formal characteristics of critical thinking are always useful, they do not guarantee the ability to think critically in real-world ideological, social, practical contexts. I contend that in effect there is no such thing as critical thinking in general, and that critical thinking is not formal, but content-driven. Here I am not thinking merely of credentials or qualifications, though such are customarily necessary in our time for scientific advances. Assuming legitimate expertise, the problem is that experts in one area may be cretins in others or in matters of common concern, because they are not at heart critical thinkers, or because they don't know how to engage other areas of inquiry, for lack of knowledge, the proper analytical skills or knowledge base, familiarity, etc. Furthermore, amateurs can be critical thinkers in the areas in which they are not experts, but to do so they have to engage enough of the content so that they can formulate meaningful questions. Approaching the discipline of philosophy as a matter of context-free inference, a practice once characteristic of analytical philosophy and much philosophy of science, as if there are formal criteria outside of specific content-based considerations that can decide anything, is a dead end. I maintain that there is not critical thinking in general, but only in particular, that critical thinking is socially and historically conditioned, that not all questions can be posed at any time and place whatsoever, though dissatisfaction with current assumptions may be felt if not conceptualizable by exceptional individuals at all times.
Related projects in progress include (1) bibliography and critical survey of the literature on the dumbing down of the American people; (2) George Lakoff's liberalism and notion of framing.
See also my Reason & Society blog, esp. under the rubric “critical thinking”.
Critical thinking - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Informal logic - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Informal Logic, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, by Leo Groarke, first published Nov. 25, 1996; substantive revision March 21, 2007
Critical Thinking On The Web (Tim van Gelder)
Foundation for Critical Thinking
Resources for Independent Thinking
Logical Fallacies: The Fallacy Files
PACTISS.org - Philosophers and Critical Thinkers in Senior Schools
How to Think and Evaluate Information: A Practical Guide to Critical Thinking by Greg R. Haskins
The Undercover Philosopher’s Page by Michael Philips - DEFUNCT
The CRITICAL THINKING Repository (Atheist Universe)
Critical Thinking Online Course Introduction course for purchase - LINK DEFUNCT
Rationale by Austhink: Critical Thinking and Argument Mapping Software
Critical Thinking (QualiaSoup)
Open-mindedness (QualiaSoup)
Critical Thinking for Children - 1. Introduction
Critical Thinking: What Is It Good for? (In Fact, What Is It?) by Howard Gabennesch, Skeptical Inquirer magazine, March/April 2006.
Doceo: Frames of Reference by James S. Atherton. Last major update 10 February 2010.
Informal Logic (Journal). Reasoning and Argumentation in
Theory and Practice.
New URL and old
URL inactive.
See archive.org for 2017,
#4; journal
archive to 2017, #1.
Thinking (Lust for Life web guide). Unusual sources of varying subject matter & quality.
Butterflies and Wheels: Fighting Fashionable Nonsense
Alan Sokal Archive of the "Social Text Affair"
Harold I. Brown @ academia.edu
Critical Thinking as an Anarchist Weapon. Portland, OR: Venomous Butterfly Publications.
My opinion of anarchism notwithstanding, I find this anarchist document distinctive in certain ways with much to recommend itself. The sections of the pamphlet, following the introductory admonition against anti-intellectualism, are:
Stirner on critical thought (from The Ego and Its Own) [Max Stirner was among the last of the Young Hegelians and a favorite of anarchists]
Some basic steps in critically analyzing arguments...
Logical Fallacies Index [with several subsections]
Critical Thinking as Anarchist Methodology
AN INTRODUCTION TO CRITICAL THEORY by Lev Chernyi
This includes but is limited to Frankfurt School critical theory. The concept of ideology presented is interesting, with an anarchist twist ("positive theory").
WHAT IS IDEOLOGY? (Excerpts) by Jason McQuinn [with homage to Stirner & the Frankfurt School]
The Revolutionary Pleasure of Thinking for Yourself. Tucson, AZ: See Sharp Press, 1992. Also published by No Longer Silent.
Delusion and Mass-Delusion by A. M. Meerloo (1949). Eccentric but with usable range of ideas.
What Do You Think? by Saye Taryor. 1up Entertainment, 2010. An unconventional approach.
Battersby, Mark; Bailin, Sharon. “Critical Inquiry: Considering the Context,” Argumentation, vol. 25, no. 2, 2011, pp. 243-253.
Chrucky, Andrew. Trying to Understand the Program of Educational Reform through Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines.
Endres, Ben. Habermas and Critical Thinking, Philosophy of Education, 1996.
Mulnix, Jennifer Wilson. “Thinking Critically about Critical Thinking,” Educational Philosophy and Theory; published online 4 Oct. 2010.
Weinstein, Mark. Decentering and Reasoning, Philosophy of Education, 1996.
Argumentation & Controversies: Selected Bibliography
Irony, Paradox, & Reductio ad Absurdum: Selected Online Sources
History of Chinese Logic, Argumentation, & Rhetoric to 1950: Essential Bibliography
Doubt & Skepticism: A Directed Minimal Bibliography & Web Guide
Susan Haack — An Introductory Guide
Wisdom, Philosophy & Everyday Life — Theoretical Perspectives: An Unconventional Guide
Reflexivity & Situatedness Study Guide (with side orders of slumming & liberal guilt)
The Paranoia Papers: Theory of the (Un)Natural History of Social Paranoia: Selected Bibliography
Philosophy for Children (Bibliography)
Essence of dialectical method vs ideology: key links
Cynical Reason Today: A Selected Bibliography
Historical Surveys of Atheism, Freethought, Rationalism, Skepticism, and Materialism: Selected Works
Theodor W. Adorno & Critical Theory Study Guide
Secular Humanism—Ideology, Philosophy, Politics, History: Bibliography in Progress
Intellectual Life in Society, Conventional and Unconventional: A Bibliography in Progress
Washington Philosophy Circle: Links to Other Sites
External Links page
Filozofio en Esperanto: Retgvidilo & Bibliografio
(Several writings in Esperanto pertinent to critical thinking can be found here)
These are not particularly recommended; they are historical attempts to promote critical thinking from their perspectives.
D'Angelo, Edward. "Education and Revolutionary Change," in: Dialectical Perspectives in Philosophy and Social Science, edited by Pasquale N. Russo et al (Amsterdam: B.R. Grüner, 1983), pp. 135-145.
D'Angelo, Edward. "The Ideological Nature of Teaching Philosophy to Children," Revolutionary World, vol. 26, 1978, pp. 58-59.
Ganahl, Rainer. Reading Karl Marx. London: Book Works, 2001. See also Reading Karl Marx art installation.
How to Study: A Guide for Students (Jefferson School of Social Science), attributed to Harry K. Wells and dated by internal evidence. New York: Jefferson School of Social Science, 1954.
“How to Think” (Sojourner Truth Organization), Urgent Tasks, no 7, winter 1980, pp. 18-19, 19-29.
Rubakin, Nicholas (Nikolai Aleksandrovich). “Reader Know Thyself” (1928-1930), in Nicholas Rubakin and Bibliopsychology, edited by Sylva Simsova, translated by M. Mackee and G. Peacock (Hamden, CT: Archon Books, 1968), pp. 47-53.
Popkin, Richard H. The History of Scepticism from Erasmus to Descartes, revised edition (New York: Harper & Row, 1968 [based on 1964 ed.; orig. pub. 1960]), pp. XIII-XVI [extract from preface on scepticism & fideism].
Rodi, Frithjof. “Historical Philosophy in Search of 'Frames of Articulation',” in: Doing Philosophy Historically, edited by Peter H. Hare (Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books, 1988), pp. 329-340.
Critique of Critical Thinking 1-5 (“Studies in a Dying Culture” blog, 26-28 July 2006)
Critique of Critical Thinking (1)
Critique of Critical Thinking (2): Critical Thinking vs. 'Skepticism'
Critique of Critical Thinking (3): The Critical Thinking Industry
Critique of Critical Thinking (4): The Critical Thinking Industry Continued
Critique of Critical Thinking (5): Butterflies and Wheels
May 9 book talk: is pop culture making us smarter? (9-10 May 2005, in reverse chronological order)
Professional and Popular Philosophy: Online Debates. See esp. 4 paragraphs on critical thinking.
Explicit & Tacit Positions of Science & Philosophy on Reason & Religion: Ralph Dumain Responds to a Questionnaire
Cultural Criticism and the Social Division of Labor
Metacritique, Philosophy, & the Logic of the Intellectual Marketplace
The Philosophy of Originality: Vignettes
“What is the Relationship Between Logic and Reality?” by R. Dumain
Allen, Steve. Dumbth: The Lost Art of Thinking: With 101 Ways to Reason Better & Improve Your Mind. Rev. ed. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1998. (Originally published: 1989.)
Ben-Shai, Roy. Critique of Critique. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2023.
Bowell, Tracy; Kemp, Gary. Critical Thinking: A Concise Guide. 3rd ed. London; New York: Routledge, 2010.
Burgis, Ben. Give Them an Argument: Logic for the Left. Ridgefield, CT: Zer0 Books, 2019.
Give Them An Argument (Apple Podcasts)
Ben Burgis: Give Them An Argument (YouTube channel)
Chaffee, John. Thinking Critically. 10th ed. Boston: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2010. (Formerly published by Houghton Mifflin.) Leading college textbook.
Critical Reasoning in Contemporary Culture, edited by Richard Talaska. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992. (SUNY Series in the Philosophy of the Social Sciences)
D'Angelo, Edward. The Teaching of Critical Thinking. Amsterdam, B. R. Grüner N.V., 1971. (Philosophical Currents; v. 1)
Fisher, Alec. Critical Thinking: An Introduction. 2nd ed. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011.
Halpern, Diane F. Thought and Knowledge: An Introduction to Critical Thinking. 3rd ed. Mahwah, NJ: L. Erlbaum Associates, 1996. Publisher description.
Lau, Joe Y. F. An Introduction to Critical Thinking and Creativity: Think More, Think Better . Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2011.
Philips, Michael. The Undercover Philosopher: A Guide to Detecting Shams, Lies, and Delusions. Oxford, England: Oneworld Publications, 2008.
A recommended recent book. See the author's web site and video (links above) & my blog: The Undercover Philosopher & critical thinking.
Paul, Richard. Critical Thinking: What Every Person Needs to Survive in a Rapidly Changing World; edited by A.J.A. Binker. Rohnert Park, CA: Center for Critical Thinking and Moral Critique, Sonoma State University, 1990.
Siegel, Harvey. Educating Reason: Rationality, Critical Thinking, and Education. New York: Routledge (in association with Metheun), 1988. (Philosophy of Education Research Library)
Stebbing, L. Susan. Thinking to Some Purpose. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books, 1939. See also:
Authority, Culture, and Communication: The Sociology of Ernest Manheim, edited by Frank Baron, David Norman Smith, and Charles Reitz. Heidelberg: Publishers, 2005. ("Book packaged with audio CD “Compositions by Ernest Manheim” is available from Oread Books.")
Brown, Harold I. Perception, Theory, and Commitment: The New Philosophy of Science. Chicago: Precedent Publishing, 1977; The University of Chicago Press, 1979.
On this site see Dialectic, section of chapter 9.
Brown, Harold I. Rationality. London; New York: Routledge, 1988.
Gray, William D. Thinking Critically About New Age Ideas. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co., 1991.
Harris, Leonard, ed. Children in Chaos: A "Philosophy for Children" Experience; with contributions by Thomas Harper & Matthew Lipman. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt, 1991.
The Oxford Handbook of Rationality, edited by Alfred R. Mele & Piers Rawling. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Schön, Donald A. The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action. New York: Basic Books, 1983.
Webster, Yehudi O. Against the Multicultural Agenda: A Critical Thinking Alternative. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1997.
Educational Objective: Critical Thinking Skills, Ruthless Criticism (blog). See also 3 takes on critical thinking (Reason & Society blog).
Reitz, Charles, “The Call to Concrete Thinking: Rediscovery of Ernest Manheim,” Nature, Society, and Thought, vol. 14, no. 4, October 2001, pp. 433-353.
These are examples of newer approaches to critical thinking I find reprehensible. For commentary, see my blog posts:
Re-thinking reason in the service of postmodern irrationalism
For refutation of the academic sanctification of marginalized subject positions see:
“Popes, Kings & Cultural Studies: Placing the commitment to non-disciplinarity in historical context” by Karl Maton
“Historical Amnesia” by Karl Maton & Rob Moore
Haack, Susan. Deviant Logic, Fuzzy Logic: Byond the Formalism. Chicago; London: The University of Chicago Press, 1996. See Introduction, 1996, pp. xv-xvi [endnotes 21 & 22 omitted here]:
And then, no less outrageous, certainly—no, more outrageous, but in a different way—there are those recent ‘feminist critiques’ of logic. Sometimes, as in Nye, the theme is that logic itself is a masculine, or masculinist, enterprise, which feminists should shun: a theme which combines a startling reversion to old, sexist stereotypes (‘women are so illogical’), and an insistence that, e.g., Frege’s logical innovations are tainted by his political views, with arguments about the limitations of formal logic which will sound not unfamiliar to readers of such earlier, male, critics as Schiller, Strawson, or Toulmin. Needless to say, my reaction to Nye’s conclusion —‘Logic in its final perfection is insane’ —is . . . , well, needless to say.
As is my reaction to Plumwood’s theme (more directly pertinent to Deviant Logic) that feminism requires, not that we abandon logic altogether, but that we adopt a non-standard, feminist, logic in place of the classical: a theme which combines startling assertions to the effect that classical logic is ‘The Logic of Domination’ (‘a phallic drama’ in which ‘there is really only one actor, p, and ~p is merely its receptacle’), with proposals for a supposedly feminist, non-oppressive, logic which will not sound unfamiliar to readers of the literature of relevant logic, Australian style.
Hass, Marjorie. “Can There Be a Feminist Logic?” in Is Feminist Philosophy Philosophy? edited by Emanuela Bianchi (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1999), pp. 190-201.
Note discussion of Nye, Ilyenkov (by way of Rachel Joffe Falmagne), and Haack.
Pappas, Nickolas. “Replies to Hass and Golumbia,” pp. 212-218; reply to Hass, pp. 212-216.
Nye, Andrea. Words of Power: A Feminist Reading of the History of Logic. New York: Routledge, 1990. (Thinking Gender Series)
Plumwood, Val. “The Politics of Reason: Towards a Feminist Logic,” Australasian Journal of Philosophy, vol. 71, no. 4, December 1993, pp. 436-462.
Representing Reason: Feminist Theory and Formal Logic, edited by Rachel Joffe Falmagne and Marjorie Hass. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2002.
Curthoys, Jean. Feminist Amnesia: The Wake of Women’s Liberation. London; New York: Routledge, 1997.
A conceptual analysis of academic feminist charlatanism.
Re-thinking Reason: New Perspectives in Critical Thinking, edited by Kerry S. Walters. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994. xviii, 265 pp. (SUNY series, Teacher Empowerment and School Reform)
Table of Contents:
Introduction : beyond logicism in critical thinking / Kerry S. Walters
Teaching two kinds of thinking by teaching writing / Peter Elbow
On critical thinking and connected knowing / Blythe McVicker Clinchy
Educating for empathy, reason, and imagination / Delores Gallo
Critical thinking, rationality, and the vulcanization of students / Kerry S. Walters
Toward a gender-sensitive ideal of critical thinking : a feminist poetic / Anne M. Phelan and James W. Garrison
Critical thinking and the "trivial pursuit" theory of knowledge / John E. McPeck
Why two heads are better than one: philosophical and pedagogical implications of a social view of critical thinking / Connie Missimer
Community and neutrality in critical thought : a nonobjective view on the conduct and teaching of critical thinking / Karl Hostetler
Critical thinking and feminism / Karen J. Warren
Teaching critical thinking in the strong sense : a focus on self-deception, world views, and a dialectical mode of analysis / Richard W. Paul
Toward a pedagogy of critical thinking / Henry A. Giroux
Teaching intellectual autonomy : the failure of the critical thinking movement / Laura Duhan Kaplan
Critical thinking beyond reasoning : restoring virtue to thought / Thomas H. Warren
Is critical thinking a technique, or a means of enlightenment? / Lenore Langsdorf.
Is Critique Secular? Blasphemy, Injury, and Free Speech, Critical Horizons by Talal Asad, Wendy Brown, Judith Butler and Saba Mahmood. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009. (The Townsend Papers in the Humanities; no. 2)
Edis, Taner. Is Critique Secular?, The Secular Outpost (blog), December 6, 2010.
Trashes this book as it deserves.
Gourgouris, Stathis. “De-transcendentalizing the secular,” The Immanent Frame (blog).
Unequivocal defense of secularism and rejection of identity politics, coupled with an interesting analysis of the relation between transcendentalism and theism (Descartes, Kant), but decoupling a necessary relation between secularism and the Christian West.
Mahmood, Saba. “Is critique secular?”, The Immanent Frame (blog).
“This line of thought urges you to choose: either one is against secular values or one is for them.” This is actually the case, though Mahmood denies it. A noxious example of the dishonest Counter-Enlightenment collusion between postmodernism & religion.
Sullivan, Winnifred Fallers. “What the Danish Cartoon Controversy Tells Us About Religion, the Secular, and the Limits of the Law,” Religion Dispatches, January 7, 2010.
Rotten to the core.
Thomassen, Lasse. Review: Talal Asad, Wendy Brown, Judith Butler and Saba Mahmood, Is Critique Secular? Blasphemy, Injury, and Free Speech, Critical Horizons, Vol 12, No 1, 2010, pp. 103-107.
On the Danish cartoons; the book under review is apparently another horrid example of the meeting of postmodernism and religion.
Yager, Colin. “Is Critique Secular? Thoughts on Enchantment and Reflexivity.”
A completely confused mess. Thoughts on Habermas, Taylor, Romanticism, with too much dallying on Byron. Bankrupt.
Some
content was written on 28 July 2006 & 14 July 2007.
Critiques of postmodernist & feminist approaches were
originally written on 28 Jan. 2005, 4 Feb. 2005, & 29 Aug. 2006.
This guide/bibliography was initiated 24 June 2008, with last prior
revision 16 July 2008.
This web page was finalized on 17 July 2011.
See date of latest revision at
bottom of page.
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