February 1, 2018
Dear Critical Thinking Friends and Colleagues:
Our Annual International Conference is around the corner, scheduled for this
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| Experience a level of intellectual, open-minded discussion and learning not to be found anywhere else. |
As an active member of our community, we count on you to play a significant role at the conference, and to submit a proposal highlighting your challenges and victories in advancing fairminded critical thinking in your classes and/or work. As you know, critical thinking has never been more important than it is today. Since 1980, we at the Center and Foundation for Critical Thinking have lead the way in critical thinking scholarship.
You are an important part of our leadership team, so we need you at the conference sharing your classroom experiences focused on critical thinking.
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| The world's longest-running critical thinking conference draws scholars from around the globe, as we together advance our conceptions of rational, fairminded reasoning. | |
In time, a coordinated effort in critical thinking scholarship must emerge if we are to counter the pseudo, fake, or false critical thinking that is blindsiding people across the world today - and that is often inadvertently fostered in schooling at all levels. At present, with no bona fide academic discipline dedicated exclusively to the advancement of critical thinking, it seems that any and everyone can define critical thinking in any and every way they choose. But this is not true. For a brief argument for the establishment of a field of critical thinking studies, see my article in the journal Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines, entitled, "Richard Paul's Contributions to the Field of Critical Thinking and to the Establishment of First Principles in Critical Thinking" (see p. 25 v. XXXI, n.1).
In continuing the development of my own mind, as I have mentioned, I often turn to classic authors rather than getting bogged down in the latest fads. Today I would like to highlight some of John Wilson's thoughts, as found in his book Moral Thinking: A Guide for Students (1970, London, England: Heinemann Educational Books Ltd.) Wilson says:
WHAT THINKING INVOLVES
A person who seriously wants to think will find that he needs three things:
1. A respect for language. He will have to make sure that he thinks clearly; and since thinking is done in words, this means that he must be clear about the meaning of the words he uses.
2. A respect for fact. He must be able to find out the facts and face them, as opposed to merely hoping that the facts are what he wants them to be, or inventing them for his own purposes.
3. A respect for established branches of knowledge. Scholars and research workers have been working away at many of the problems which are relevant to morality, religion, and 'the meaning of life' for many years. Among the most important of these established branches of knowledge are philosophy, psychology, sociology, and history. These and others deal with human beings and their problems. Anyone who wants to think seriously must have some knowledge of these, or at least be aware of their importance.
If a person is seriously going to try to think for himself, he will need respect for these three things. But how can he set about learning to think? What general methods will he use? And what virtues in himself will he try to cultivate?
It should already be plain that the business of thinking is best done
in public, that is to say, in the process of discussion, cross-questioning, arguing, giving reasons, and so forth. This is because being reasonable, or thinking correctly, is a public matter and not a private one: it must stand up to public inspection. It's no good saying, 'Well, I have my own ideas on this, and my own feelings, and that's good enough for me'. If it's really good enough for you, then it must be capable of being shown to other people.
How many people today have a healthy respect for either language or facts? How many public conversations open up topics for actual discussion, so that people reveal what they think and are open to alternative ways of viewing complex issues? Our work is linked with distinguished thinkers such as John Wilson, as we try to help scholars get beneath the surface of thinking to understand the logic of their own thoughts, the logic of concepts, and the logic of their own disciplines. You can find some of Wilson's influence in our
Thinker's Guide to Asking Essential Questions (see below).
To further empower educators in bringing the concepts and principles of rational thought into their instruction, we are pleased to offer the following complimentary desk copies this week. We hope you will consider requiring these in your courses:
The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking Concepts & Tools, our most popular work to date
with more than 2 million in circulation, concentrates and explicates the most foundational ideas in a substantive approach to fairminded critical thinking in just a few powerful pages. For those in education, it is an excellent supplement to assigned reading in any higher-education course.
The Thinker's Guide to Asking Essential Questions introduces concepts that, when applied, lead to the asking of foundational, indispensable questions. The quality of our thinking is determined by the quality of our questions, for these are the driving force behind thinking, and yet few people have command of their own ability to formulate essential questions. This guide can be used alone, or as an excellent compliment to the
Miniature Guide.
If you are an instructor in the US and would like to receive review copies of these publications, please reply with the following information, and we will ship them to you:
- Your first and last name.
- The institution at which you teach.
- The full title(s) of the course(s) or subject(s) in which the guides might be used.
- The maximum student enrollment of the course(s).
- Your preferred shipping address.
Thank you for all you are doing to advance the cause of ethical rationality. As John Wilson contends, it is a public, and not a private, matter - one with ever-escalating implications for all of us, and for all other life with which we share our planet.
Sincerely,
Linda ElderEducational PsychologistPresident and Senior Fellow 
