Critical Condition : Replacing Critical Thinking with Creativity / Patrick Finn.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Finn, Patrick, 1966- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Thought and thinking.

Critical thinking.

Creative thinking.

Thought and thinking--Study and teaching (Higher).

Critical thinking--Study and teaching (Higher).

Creative thinking--Study and teaching (Higher).

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiv, 131 pages)

Distribution:

Ottawa, Ontario : Canadian Electronic Library, 2015.

Place of Publication:

Waterloo, Ontario : Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2015.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

"Should we stop teaching critical thinking? Meant as a prompt to further discussion, Critical Condition questions the assumption that every student should be turned into a "critical thinker." The book starts with the pre-Socratics and the impact that Socrates' death had on his student Plato and traces the increasingly violent use of critical "attack" on a perceived opponent. From the Roman militarization of debate to the medieval Church's use of defence as a means of forcing confession and submission, the early phases of critical thinking were bound up in a type of attack that Finn suggests does not best serve intellectual inquiry. Recent developments have seen critical thinking become an ideology rather than a critical practice, with levels of debate devolving to the point where most debate becomes ad hominem. Far from arguing that we abandon critical inquiry, the author suggests that we emphasize a more open, loving system of engagement that is not only less inherently violent but also more robust when dealing with vastly more complex networks of information. This book challenges long-held beliefs about the benefits of critical thinking, which is shown to be far too linear to deal with the twenty-first century world." -- Publisher's description.

Contents:

Preface: An Invitation

Chapter 1 A Foolish Question: Isn't It Time We Replaced Critical Thinking?

Chapter 2 The Baby and the Bathwater: The Birth of Critical Thinking

Chapter 3 A Hitch or Two: Polemic, Violence, and the Case for Critical Thinking

Chapter 4 We Can't Go On Together (with Suspicious Minds)

Chapter 5 An Immodest Proposal: Let's Replace Critical Thinking with Creative, Loving, Open-Source Thought

Chapter 6 “Sure, It Works in Practice, but Will It Work in Theory?"

ء؛Chapter 7 Conclusion: An Open Invitation - Some Final Ideas and Questions.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781771121576

1771121572

OCLC:

905735438