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Critical condition : replacing critical thinking with creativity

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  • Publisher:
    Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2015
    Note: This book was purchased with support from the Government of Canada's Social Development Partnerships Program - Disability Component.
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    Certified Accessible By: National Network for Equitable Library Service
    Running Time: 06:54 hrs
    Narrator: Patrick Finn
    Publisher:
    BC Libraries Cooperative, 2021
    Note: This book was produced with support from the Government of Canada's Social Development Partnerships Program - Disability Component.

Details:

  • Author: Finn, Patrick
    Date:
    Created
    2015
    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?"
    • Chapter 7 Conclusion: An Open Invitation
    • Some Final Ideas and Questions.
    Original Publisher: Waterloo, Ontario, Wilfrid Laurier University Press
    Language(s): English
    ISBN: 9781771121590, 1771121599, 9781771121583, 1771121580