LESSON THREE
Topic: meaning and History of Critical and Creative Thinking
Lesson outcomes: by the end of this lesson you should be able to:
1. Definite critical and creative thinking
2. Explain the specific focus of critical and creative thinking
3. Explain the differences between critical and creative thinking.
4. Outline the history of critical and creative thinking.
5. Develop initial stages of learning to think critically and creatively.
Content
Sub-topic 1
Definitions of Creative and Critical Thinking
Definition of Creative Thinking
Creative thinking refers to the formation of possible solutions to a problem or possible
explanations of a phenomenon. It entails bringing into being of something which did not exist
before, either as a product, a process or a thought, or working on the old with a view of producing
a harmonized new.
Creativity is demonstrated if we:
Invent something which has never existed before.
Invent something which exists elsewhere but you are not aware of.
Invent a new process or product into a new or different market.
Develop a new way of looking at something (bringing a new idea into existence).
Change the way someone else looks at something.
Generally we are all creative in a way because we are constantly changing the ideas which we hold
about the world around us.
Creativity does not have to be about developing something new to the world, it is more to do with
developing something new to ourselves with a view of making our situations better. When we
change ourselves, the world changes with us both in the way it affects us and how it is affected by
our changed actions.
Creativity can be used to open up understanding and make the product of thinking and its processes
between the sources and recipients better, least to mention that it can be used to create them in the
first place.
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Creative thinking is the process which we use when we come up with new and constructive ideas.
It is the merging of ideas which have not been merged before.
Creative thinking process can be accidental or deliberate. Without using special techniques,
creative thinking still occurs, but usually in the accidental way; like a chance happening making
you think about something in a different way and then discovering a beneficial change.
Critical Thinking
i) According to Halpern (1996), Critical thinking is the use of those cognitive skills or
strategies that increase the probability of a desirable outcome. It is used to describe thinking
that is purposeful, reasoned and goal-directed- the kind of thinking involved in solving
problems, formulating inferences, calculating likelihoods, and making decisions when the
thinker is using skills that are thoughtful and effective for the particular context and type
of thinking task. Critical thinking also involves evaluating the thinking process- the
reasoning that went into the conclusion we’ve arrived at the kinds of factors considered in
making a decision. Critical thinking is sometimes called directed thinking because it
focuses on a desired outcome.
ii) To Kurland (1995), Critical thinking is concerned with reason, intellectual honesty, and
open-mindedness, as opposed to emotionalism, intellectual, laziness, and closed-
mindedness. Thus, Critical thinking involves: following evidence where it lead considering
all possibilities; relying on reason rather than emotion; being precise, considering a variety
of possible viewpoints and explanations; weighing the effects of motives and biases; being
concerned more with finding the truth than with being right; not rejecting unpopular views
out of hand; being aware of one’s own prejudices and biases, and not allowing them to
sway one’s judgement.
From the above two definitions we can conclude that;
iii) Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully
conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information
gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or
communication, as a guide to belief and action. In its exemplary form, it is based on
universal intellectual values that transcend subject matter divisions: clarity, accuracy,
precision, consistency, relevance, sound evidence, good reasons, depth, breadth, and
fairness. It entails the examination of those structures or elements of thought implicit in all
reasoning: purpose, problem, or question-at-issue, assumptions, concepts, empirical
grounding; reasoning leading to conclusions, implications and consequences, objections
from alternative viewpoints, and frame of reference. Critical thinking:- in being responsive
to variable subject matter, issues and purposes- is incorporated in a family of interwoven
modes of thinking, among them: scientific thinking, mathematical thinking of dialectical
thinking, anthropological thinking, economic thinking, moral thinking, and philosophical
thinking.
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As a way of thinking, Critical thinking has two components:
A set of skills to process and generate information and beliefs, and
The habit, based on intellectual commitment, of using those skills to guide behavior.
It is thus to be contrasted with:
The mere acquisition and retention of information alone, (because it involves a particular
way in which information is sought and treated)
The mere possession of a set of skills, (because it involves the continual use of them) and
The mere use of those skills (“as an exercise”) without acceptance of their results.
Sub-topic 2: History of Critical and Creative Thinking
The intellectual roots of Critical and Creative thinking are as ancient as its etymology,
traceable, ultimately, to the teaching practice and vision of Socrates over 2,500 years ago.
SOCRATES
Socrates discovered that by a method of systematic probing questionings, people could not
rationally justify their confident claims to knowledge.
Confused meanings, inadequate evidence, or self-contradictory beliefs often lurked
beneath smooth but largely empty rhetoric.
Socrates established the fact that one cannot depend upon those in “authority” to have
sound knowledge and insight.
He demonstrated that persons may have power and high position and yet be deeply
confused and irrational.
He established the importance of asking deep questions that probe profoundly into
thinking before we accept ideas as worthy of belief. He established the importance of
seeking evidence, closely examining reasoning and assumptions, analyzing basic concepts,
and tracing out implications not only of what is said but of what is done as well.
His method of questioning is now known as “Socratic questioning” and is the best known
critical and creative thinking teaching strategy. In his mode of questioning, Socrates
highlighted the need in thinking for clarity, precision and logical consistency.
Socrates set the agenda for the tradition of critical and creative thinking, namely, to
reflectively question common beliefs and explanations, carefully distinguishing those
beliefs, that are reasonable and logical from those which however appealing they may be
to our native egocentrism, however much they serve our vested interests, however
comfortable or comforting they may be lack adequate evidence or rational foundation to
warrant our beliefs.
PLATO & ARISTOTLE
Socrates’ practice was followed by the critical thinking of Plato (who recorded Socrates’
thought).
Aristotle, and the Greek skeptics, all of whom emphasized that things are often very
different from what they appear to be and that only the trained mind is prepared to see
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through the way things look to us on the surface (delusive appearances) to the way they
really are beneath the surface (the deeper realities of life).
From this ancient Greek tradition emerged the need, for anyone who aspired to understand
the deeper realities, to think systematically, to trace implications broadly and deeply, for
only thinking that is comprehensive, well-reasoned, and responsive to objectives can take
us beyond the surface
MIDDLE AGES
In the middle ages, the tradition of systematic Critical thinking was embodied in the
writings and teachings of such thinkers as Thomas Aquinas.
To ensure his thinking met thought-always systematically stated, considered, and
answered all of his ideas as a necessary stage in developing them.
Aquinas heightened our awareness not only of the potential power of reasoning but also of
the need for reasoning to be systematically cultivated and “cross-examined.” Of course,
‘Aquinas’ thinking also illustrates that those who think critically do not always reject
established beliefs, only those beliefs that lack reasonable foundations.
Renaissance (15th and 16th Centuries)
Multiple of scholars in Europe began to think critically about religion, art, society, human
nature, law, and freedom.
They proceeded with the assumption that most of the domains of human life were in need
of searching analysis and critique. Among these scholars were Colet, Erasmus, and More
in England.
Francis Bacon, In England, was explicitly concerned with the way we misuse our
minds in seeking knowledge. He recognized explicitly that the mind cannot safely
be left to its natural tendencies.
he argued for the importance of studying the world empirically. He laid the
foundation for modern science with his emphasis on the information- gathering
processes.
He also called attention to the fact that most people, if left to their own devices,
develop bad habits of thought (which he called “idols”) which lead them to believe
what is false or misleading. He called attention to “Idols of the tribe” (the ways our
mind naturally tends to trick itself), “Idols of the market-place” (the ways we
misuse words), “Idols of the theater” (our tendency to become trapped in
conventional systems or thought) and of the schools” (the problems in
thinking when based on blind rules and poor instruction).
Some fifty years later in France, Descartes wrote what might be called the second
text in Critical thinking, Rules For the Direction of the mind. In it, Descartes argued
for the need for a special systematic disciplining of the mind to guide it in thinking.
He articulated and defended the need in thinking for clarity and precision. He
developed a method of critical thought based on the principle of systematic doubt.
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He emphasized the need to base thinking on well-thought foundational
assumptions. Every part of thinking, he argued, should be questioned, doubted and
tested.
In the same time period, Sir Thomas More developed a model of a new social order,
Utopia, in which every domain of the present world was subject to critique. His
implicit thesis was that established social systems are in need of radical analysis
and critique. The Critical thinking of these Renaissance and post-Renaissance
scholars opened the way for the emergence of science and for the development of
democracy, human rights, and freedom for thought.
In the Italian Renaissance, Machiavelli wrote The Prince in which he critically
assessed the politics of the day, and laid the foundation for modern critical political
thought. He refused to assume that government functioned as those in power said
it did. Rather, he critically analyzed how it did function and laid the foundation for
political thinking that exposes both, on the one hand, the real agendas of politicians
and, on the other hand, the many contradictions and inconsistencies of the hard,
cruel, world of the politics of his day.
Hobbes and Locke (in 16th and 17th Century England) displayed the same
confidence in the critical mind of the thinker that we find in Machiavelli. Neither
accepted the traditional picture of things dominant in the thinking of their day.
Neither accepted as necessarily rational that which was considered “normal” in
their culture. Both Looked to the critical mind to open up new vistas of learning.
Hobbes adopted a naturalistic view of the world in which everything was to be
explained by evidence and reasoning. Locke defended a common sense analysis of
everyday life and thought. He laid the theoretical foundation for Critical thinking
about basic human rights and the responsibilities of all governments to submit to
the reasoned criticism of thoughtful citizens.
It was in this spirit of intellectual freedom and critical thought that people such as
Robert Boyle 9in the 17th Century) and Sir Isaac Newton (in the 17th and 18th
Century) did their work. In his Skeptical Chemistry, Boyle severely criticized the
chemical theory that had preceded him. Newton, in turn, developed a far-reaching
framework of thought which roundly criticized the traditionally accepted world
view. He extended the critical thought of such minds as Copernicus, Galileo, and
Kepler. After Boyle and Newton, It was recognized by those who reflected
seriously on the natural world that traditional views of world must be abandoned in
favor of views based entirely on carefully gathered evidence and sound reasoning.
Another significant contribution to Critical thinking was made by the thinkers of
the French enlightenment: Bayle, Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Diderot. They all
began with the premise that the human mind, when disciplined by reason, is better
able to figure out the nature of the social and political world. What is more, for
these thinkers, reason must turn inward upon itself, in order to determine
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weaknesses and strengths of thought. They valued disciplined intellectual
exchange, in which all views had to be submitted to serious analysis and critique.
Eighteenth & Nineteen Century
They extended the conception of critical thought even further, developing our sense of the
power of critical thought and of its tools. Applied to the problem of economics, it produced
Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations. In the same year, applied to the traditional concept of
loyalty to the king, it produced the Declaration of Independence. Applied to reason itself,
it produced Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason.
In the 19th Century, critical thought was extended even further into the domain of human
social life by Comte and Spencer. Applied to the problems of capitalism, it produced the
searching social and economic critique of Karl Marx.
Applied to the history of human culture and the basis of biological life, it led to Darwin’s
Descent of Man. Applied to the unconscious mind, it is reflected in the works of Sigmund
Freud. Applied to cultures, it led to the establishment of the field of Anthropological
studies. Applied to language, it led to the field of Linguistics and to many deep probing of
the functions of symbols and language in human life.
Twentieth Century
In the 20th Century, our understanding of the power and nature of Critical thinking emerged
in increasingly more explicit formulations.
In 1906, William Graham Sumner published a land-breaking study of the foundations
of sociology and anthropology, Folkways, in which he documented the tendency of the
human mind to think sociocentrically and the parallel tendency for schools to serve the
(uncritical) function of social indoctrination.
He reasoned:
“Schools make persons all on one pattern, orthodoxy. School education, unless it is
regulated by the best knowledge and good sense, will produce men and women who are all
of one pattern, as if turned in a lathe… An orthodoxy is produced in regard to all the great
doctrine of life. It consists of the most worn and commonplace opinions which are common
in the masses. The popular opinions always contain broad fallacies, half-truths, and glib
generalizations” (p. 630).
Therefore, Sumner recognized the deep need for Critical thinking in life and in education.
John Dewey - increased our sense of the pragmatic basis of human thought (its
instrumental nature), and especially its grounding in actual human purposes, goals, and
objectives.
From the work of Ludwig Wittgenstein we have increased our awareness not only of the
importance of concepts in human thought, but also of the need to analyze concepts and
assess their power and limitations.
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From the work of Piaget, we have increased our awareness of the egocentric and
sociocentric tendencies of human thought and of the special need to develop critical
thought which is able to reason within multiple standpoints, and to be raised to the level of
“conscious realization.”
From the massive contribution of all the “hard” sciences, we have learned the power of
information and the importance of gathering information with great care and
precision, and with sensitivity to its potential inaccuracy, distortion, or misuse. From the
contribution of depth-psychology, we have learned how easily the human mind is self-
deceived, how easily it unconsciously constructs illusions and delusions, how easily it
rationalizes and stereotypes, projects and scapegoats.
Revision Questions
1. What is the main focus of CCT?
2. What is the common denominator between critical and creative thinking?
3. Outline and summarize various epochs and the key thinkers with a line or two of their key
contributions to emergence of CCT.
