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).
Read more about this topic: Critical Thinking
Famous quotes containing the words history and/or etymology:
“Every generation rewrites the past. In easy times history is more or less of an ornamental art, but in times of danger we are driven to the written record by a pressing need to find answers to the riddles of today.... In times of change and danger when there is a quicksand of fear under men’s reasoning, a sense of continuity with generations gone before can stretch like a lifeline across the scary present and get us past that idiot delusion of the exceptional Now that blocks good thinking.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
“Semantically, taste is rich and confusing, its etymology as odd and interesting as that of “style.” But while style—deriving from the stylus or pointed rod which Roman scribes used to make marks on wax tablets—suggests activity, taste is more passive.... Etymologically, the word we use derives from the Old French, meaning touch or feel, a sense that is preserved in the current Italian word for a keyboard, tastiera.”
—Stephen Bayley, British historian, art critic. “Taste: The Story of an Idea,” Taste: The Secret Meaning of Things, Random House (1991)