Critical Thinking - History and Etymology

History and Etymology

The critical thinking philosophical frame traces its roots in analytic philosophy and pragmatist constructivism which dates back over 2,500 years, as in the Buddha's Teachings: mainly in the kalama sutta and the Abhidharma; as well as the Greek Socratic tradition in which probing questions were used to determine whether claims to knowledge based on authority could be rationally justified with clarity and logical consistency. The one sense of the term critical means crucial; a second sense derives from κριτικός kritikos, which means discerning judgment. The movement represented a pragmatic response to expectations and demands for the kind of thinking required of the modern workforce. The critical-theory philosophical frame traces its roots to the Frankfurt School of Critical Social Theory that attempted to amend Marxist theory for applicability in 20th-century Germany. Critical thinking within this philosophical frame was introduced by Max Horkheimer in his book Traditional and Critical Theory (1937).