In an interview the
Belgian America correspondent Michiel Vos talked about the growing polarization
in US politics.[1] American
political discourse, he says, is increasingly characterized by war language. Political
opponents are diabolized (sometimes literally). Conspiracy theories about
Satanic groups are no longer an exception. Among our northern neighbors,
controversial politician Thierry Baudeut recently expressed belief in a
"conspiracy of evil reptiles".[2]
In Belgium, conspiracy theories proliferated during the corona crisis. The
corona measures were seen by some as a sinister plan by a hidden elite bent on
taking away our freedom. How should society deal with such views? One possible
answer is that we should put more effort into teaching critical thinking. If we
teach students at a young age to think logically, analyses arguments and recognize
fallacies, they will hopefully be better armed against such conspiracy
theories.
However, in the past
decades, this view on the nature of critical thinking has been the subject of
criticism. While most critics do not want to deny the importance of logical
analysis, the critical assessment of arguments and the ability to recognize
fallacies, they believe that this interpretation of critical thinking is too
narrow and may have a negative impact. It leads to an individualistic and self-centered
attitude, where taking a critical stance towards others quickly becomes more
important than openness to other perspectives and opinions. This, in turn,
causes a greater emphasis on engaging in and winning debates rather than trying
to understand or communicate with the other person.
For instance, feminist
philosopher and educator Barbara Thayer-Bacon argues that critical thinking is
too often interpreted in a destructive way, and that there is a need to develop
a more constructive form of critical thinking.[3]
Other feminist thinkers have also questioned an overly conflictual and
individualistic interpretation of critical thinking. The work of the American
bell hooks is often used as inspiration in this regard.[4]
However, criticism did not only come from feminist quarters. The philosopher
Richard Paul also argued for the development of a richer and
"stronger" interpretation of critical thinking. Teaching the
classical, "weaker" version, he said, just led to students getting
better at defending the views or prejudices they already held.[5]
More recently, philosopher Andy Norman, in an interview in De Morgen, also expressed his skepticism about the classical way of
teaching critical thinking. Norman was interviewed on the occasion of the
publication of his book Mental immunity (2022).
The article discussed the attack of the Capitol and the popularity of
conspiracy theories among Trump supporters. According to Norman, the classical
approach can lead to a pervasive critical attitude, where people get suspicious
of everything. Conspiracy thinking then becomes the ultimate critical attitude.[6]
Closer to home, Stefaan Blancke made a similar point in an article on the
website of The Humanist Alliance. Blancke underlines the importance of
learning to trust and engage with others.[7]
So it is clear that the
classical interpretation of critical thinking is criticized from different quarters. The question then is what
the better way of (thinking about) critical thinking is. On that front, the
critics are not always clear. Stefaan Blancke writes that we should no longer
learn to think critically, but "just learn to trust more and in the right
way. So not blind trust, but also not principled suspicion."[8]
But how do you translate this into concrete educational practice? Debates about
the interpretation of critical thinking are still ongoing in the relevant
literature. Research on the effectiveness of different teaching methods for
teaching critical thinking is also still in its infancy.[9]
So I won’t make the audacious claim of presenting the new approach to teaching critical thinking in this
article.
What I will try to do,
however, is to create an opening to think differently about the conceptualization
and teaching of critical thinking. In doing so, I will approach the literature
on critical thinking from a different angle. The lens I will use is that of a
group of new approaches within cognitive science. This will not only allow me
to present different critiques delivered on the classical interpretation of
critical thinking in a more systematic way. It will also allow me to consider
what this implies for our teaching practices.
The four e's in cognitive science
The group of new
approaches in cognitive science that I will take inspiration from is often summarized
under the heading "4E": embodied
cognition, embedded cognition, extended cognition and enacted cognition.[10]
In the article, I will focus on the first three.
While there are differences
and debates between these views on cognition, they all share the desire to move
away from a so-called Cartesian approach to cognition, named after the French
philosopher René Descartes. In his philosophy, Descartes made a radical
separation between mind and body. Critics say classical cognitive science is
Cartesian because it is still based on that strict distinction between the
human mind, the human body and the outside world. While the mind receives
information about the world through the senses, thinking itself is entirely
internal. Cognition is seen as the inner process by which the mind processes sensory
information. This is done through certain abstract rules of thought that guide
the functioning of the mind. By applying these rules to the information
obtained, the mind arrives at certain conclusions. This approach is sometimes
called the computational approach,
because it views the mind as an internal computer that gets certain data as
input, performs a calculation on that data, and then gives a certain output.
Rodin's sculpture The Thinker provides
a good representation of this view. The thinker sits still and is
introspective. It also shows the individualistic and isolated vision of
thinking this implies. Rodin's thinker sits alone. He does not interact with
others or with his surroundings.
Image from Descartes's L'Homme.*
The classical
interpretation of critical thinking is consistent with this classical approach
to cognition. Critical thinking is seen as a process by which an individual
receives certain views or opinions as input, then applies certain rules to this
input and finally arrives at an output: accepting or rejecting the view or opinion.
Teaching critical thinking then consists in teaching those (thinking) rules:
applying formal logic, recognizing and building argumentative structures and
detecting fallacies. In what follows, I
will show how each of the new approaches within cognitive science offers
inspiration to move beyond this (too) narrow interpretation of critical
thinking.
Embodied thinking: the importance of habits and emotions
Embodied cognition emphasizes the embodied nature of thinking. Thinking is
not only something that happens in the brain, but also depends on our bodies
and what we can do with the body. This approach shows us two ways in which the
classical interpretation of critical thinking falls short. First, it shows how
merely teaching rules and lists fallacies is insufficient. Embodied cognition points to the importance of skills and habit
formation. Knowledge is not just knowing that,
but also (and perhaps especially) knowing how.
A person may know what it is to think
critically, but this does not make her a critical thinker. Critical thinking is
a skill that needs to be formed and maintained through a lot of practice.
Turning critical thinking into an attitude, one that one naturally adopts in
various situations, requires even more practice and habit formation.
This point was already
made in the classical literature on critical thinking. Nevertheless, it may be
useful to repeat it. In education, we sometimes still find a typical Cartesian
reflex whereby it is assumed (explicitly or not) that providing information is
enough to change pupils' attitudes. Suppose we want to teach pupils to take
care of their environment. We organize a theme day where we teach them about
the importance of sorting waste and the bad effects of littering. The Cartesian
idea behind this is that it is important to teach pupils that it is bad to just throw your empty pack of chewing gum on the
street. Once this little rule is stored in their internal computer, it will
affect their thinking and thus their behavior. The problem, however, is that
knowing that something is bad does
not necessarily make people change their behavior. Most smokers know that it is
better not to smoke, yet this does not lead to a change in behavior. Someone
who was taught in a class somewhere what critical
thinking is and that it is important
to question your own views critically will not necessarily put this into
practice. As mentioned, this is already taken into account in the classical
approach to critical thinking. One will not only teach students what critical
thinking is, but also give them exercises to apply that knowledge. Yet this
approach is often limited to one class or at most a lecture series on critical
thinking. Embodied cognition invites
us to take seriously the importance of habit formation and not limit critical
thinking to a stand-alone course, but to embed and practise it in different
contexts. I will return to the latter when I talk about situated thinking.
A second thing embodied cognition draws attention to is
the role of emotions. By emphasizing the embodied
nature of thinking, we are reminded that we are not computers but living
and feeling beings. Our emotions play a role in our thinking and the views we
hold. In the classical view of critical thinking, these emotions were at best
treated as an obstacle to thinking. To really think critically, you have to
distance yourself from emotions and soberly assess the views of yourself or
others. However, the question is to what extent this is possible and desirable.
Let's start with judging the views of others. When discussing the conspiracy
theories circulating among Trump supporters, the emotions underlying these
people's views are regularly pointed out. They are angry at the political
establishment, feel abandoned and harbour a deep distrust of existing institutions.
Others are motivated by the fear that their freedom is at stake and threatened
by all sorts of sinister powers. Of course, this is not to say that these views
are true, nor that they are justified in thinking these things. But if the aim
is to counter polarisation and promote dialogue, it will be important to take
these emotions into account. Pointing out the errors in their argumentation or
presenting them with an elaborate argumentative scheme will not change their
views. A different communication strategy will be needed.
The defender of the
classical interpretation of critical thinking might suggest that the problem is
mainly due to a lack of rationality among Trump supporters. What is needed is the
promotion of rationality through education. However, the question is to what
extent so-called rational people reason and argue completely free of any
emotion. I already mentioned how philosopher Richard Paul noticed that students
in his critical thinking course merely got better at defending the views they
already held. Others pointed out that the classical interpretation meant that
critical thinking was quickly reduced to debating, where there are clear
winners and losers. In debates, however, emotions are rarely absent. One feels
the urge to win, gets angry or feels fear of being humiliated. Pride may keep
someone from admitting they are wrong. Ironically, ignoring or even
disregarding this role of emotions just increases their influence. Someone who
sees herself as a rational thinker will be reluctant to admit being influenced
by emotions. Therefore, she will make all the more effort to defend her views
by all available means or to attack the opponent's view.
Therefore, it is
important to recognize the role of emotions and include them in the analysis.
Furthermore, learning mindfulness skills can
be an important addition here. In mindfulness, one learns to become aware of
one's own thoughts and emotions in a non-judgemental way. One trains oneself to
recognize and explore feelings without drawing certain conclusions from them.
At first glance, it may seem strange to link an exercise in non-judgement to
critical thinking, where making a judgement seems to lie at the heart of the
exercise. Yet the complementarity between mindfulness and critical thinking is
increasingly cited in the literature. Those with experience in recognizing
their own feelings will be quicker to notice when the desire to win takes over
in a discussion or pride gets in the way of admitting being wrong. Moreover,
one will be more able to have empathy with the interlocutor's feelings and the
way they are connected to certain views. This does not necessarily lead one to
agree with the interlocutor, but it can help to conduct the conversation in a
more productive manner.
The importance of context
The enacted cognition or enactivism
approach emphasizes thinking as an activity and as something that is
co-shaped by interaction with the environment. Thinking cannot be separated
from our ability to interact with our environment. Moreover, manipulating our
environment leads to new sensory impressions, which gives us new information
that in turn can lead to new actions. Thinking is inextricably linked to this
coupling between ourselves and our environment. The embedded cognition or embedded cognition approach is sometimes also
called situated cognition or situated
cognition. Central to this approach is the fact that thinking always happens in
a particular environment or context and depends on this context. Thinking is
not an abstract activity, but is embedded in a specific context that makes cognition
possible.
In the critical thinking
literature, there have been great debates about the extent to which critical
thinking can be seen as a skill in its own right. In other words, does it make
sense to talk about "critical thinking" as if it were a subject that
can be taught like geography? Or should we rather think of "critical
thinking" as something that cannot be separated from specific subjects?
"Critical thinking" within mathematics may not be the same as
"critical thinking" within history. While the debates are still
ongoing, there is consensus on the indispensable role of factual knowledge
about the domain under consideration. There are few, if any, supporters of
classical critical thinking who will claim that a course in critical thinking
transforms someone into a kind of super-thinker who will suddenly be able to
say relevant things in all debates. (Although it should be added that in certain cases this idea still seems
to play a role implicitly, either in the way critical thinking is presented, or
in the way self-proclaimed “critical thinkers” behave in public discourse.) Nevertheless, the idea often
still seems to prevail that one can teach critical thinking in isolation, after
which it is just a matter of adding the relevant factual knowledge. Again, this
is linked to the Cartesian ideas we discussed above. However, research shows
that critical thinking classes are more effective when students get to work
with concrete real-life examples, rather than abstract problems or texts prepared
for a critical thinking course. Connecting this with the insights from embodied thinking, situated thinking teaches
us that it is best for students to practice thinking critically in different
contexts and on different topics. There is no point in pigeonholing critical
thinking into one box or one subject and hoping that students will then
naturally understand how to apply it in a specific context.
Beyond individualism: distributed critical thinking
Situated cognition assumes that thinking is always
embedded in a particular environment. Extended
cognition takes this a step further and argues that certain objects or
external actions can be part of the thinking process. An often-cited example is
that of using pen and paper to perform a complicated multiplication. A related
approach to extended cognition is
that of distributed cognition or distributed thinking. This emphasizes
the social and material nature of thinking and points to examples where a group
and tools together can be seen as a thinking entity solving a problem. In a
work on navigational practices on a naval ship, cognitive scientist Edwin
Hutchins shows how the crew manages to successfully navigate the ship.
Navigation happens through the interplay between instruments and crew members.
All contribute to solving the problem, but no one part of the system possesses
all the knowledge of or a complete overview of the process. Thinking is distributed or divided between
instruments and crew members.[11]
The notion of distributed thinking provides a
counterweight to the individualism implicit in the classical interpretation of
critical thinking. It makes us aware of the fact that not every individual must
and can possess all relevant knowledge. It also shows us how a group of people
can solve certain problems through cooperation. Distributed thinking thus shows us not only the inevitability but
also the productive side of relying on the knowledge of others. It thus
provides a framework for reflecting with students on how, in practice, we often
(if not always) have to rely on the knowledge of others. At the same time, we
can thereby show that this trust need not necessarily be blind. From the
perspective of distributed thinking, it is not a problem that we as individuals are unable to justify every
possible claim. The crucial question is whose knowledge and expertise we can
rely on. This opens an opportunity to address in class the fact that we rely on
so-called experts in our daily lives. We can also address the fact that within
science, an important degree of trust in the work of colleagues is crucial. At
the same time, trust is something that can always be violated. Indeed, there
are plenty of examples of experts making mistakes or scientists committing
fraud. Trust always involves a certain amount of risk. It is important not to
gloss over this risk. If we put up an image of scientists as prophets who
always speak the truth or the scientific enterprise as some kind of factory of
infallible facts, we give ammunition to conspiracy theorists and science denialists.
Any example of error or doubt can then be used to either cast doubt on science
as a whole or to present an alternative false certainty as real science.
So from the perspective
of distributed thinking, the question
is not only, "What risk is there in relying on the knowledge of
others?" but also, "What risk is there in not wanting to rely on the knowledge of others?" If we are
unwilling to rely on the expertise of others, we as a society will have to miss
out on a lot of things. Rather than framing "critical thinking" in
terms of being able to individually justify views, distributed thinking invites us to think about how we as a society
can minimize possible breaches of trust. Rather than an individual
responsibility, critical thinking then also becomes a social, distributed
responsibility. Here there is then an opportunity to go deeper with students
into social mechanisms that already exist to enable this kind of distributed
critical thinking and the way they are institutionalized in our society. These
include issues such as freedom of the press, freedom of expression, peer review in science, research
committees and so on. From the lens of situated
thinking, we can be further inspired to transpose this to the school
context of students. How can concrete steps be taken there to enable
distributed critical thinking?
From the school context to the social context
Here, however, we encounter an inherent
limitation to teaching critical thinking from the 4E perspective. The school is
also a specific context, which is itself embedded in a broader context. This
means, on the one hand, that learning to think critically within a school
context does not automatically lead to the ability to think critically within a
social context. Moreover, there are not only social mechanisms that promote
critical distributed thinking, but also mechanisms that counteract it. As a
teacher, you have no control over these mechanisms once students have left the
school gate. Take the online debating culture. On Twitter, debates more often
revolve around attacks and counterattacks. The mechanism does not encourage
nuance. Likes and retweets are not gained by admitting you
are wrong or taking a nuanced position, but by taking bold positions or
highlighting your opponent's mistakes. Investigative journalist Max Fisher's
book The Chaos Machine (2022) shows
how social media administrators did take
the lessons of embodied cognition to
heart, albeit with less positive consequences.[12]
Social media companies get their biggest revenue from ads. The more people use
social media, the more users see ads. Anger appears to be one of the emotions
that encourages people most to interact with certain posts and thus to (continue to) use the media. Consequently, in most
debates on Twitter, people are bent on verbally tackling their opponent as
quickly as possible, rather than an exchanging views and trying to understand
each other's point of view.
It is not my intention here to offer a
cultural pessimistic discourse on the demise of debate culture. But anyone who recognizes
the importance of emotions and habit formation for thinking cannot help but
worry about the effects such mechanisms have. We see similar effects not only
on social media, but also in traditional media. In recent decades, these have
increasingly had to hold their own in a digitized context. The phenomenon of
the clickbait article is the most
visible consequence of this. But public debate as it takes place in the
traditional media also seems to have less and less room for nuance. Debates
still take place, of course, but often only take the form of a back-and-forth
discussion between a clearly delineated pro and con side. Anyone with any
experience of writing such pieces knows that it is easier to publish a piece
with an outspoken position or a clear attack than a more moderate (and
therefore often more complex) piece. Recently, a number of pieces appeared in De Morgen highlighting the role
the media plays in the polarization of politics.[13]
As a teacher, it will therefore be important
to make students aware of these mechanisms and teach them skills and habits
that enable them to resist. At the same time, the analysis shows the limits of
the teacher's influence. From a 4E perspective, it is not enough as a society
to focus on teaching critical thinking within the school context. There are
also mechanisms outside school that ensure that certain behavior is acquired or
unlearned. If we distance ourselves from an individualistic view of critical
thinking, we see that it is not enough to try to transform pupils into critical
thinkers if they end up in a context in which critical thinking is made
impossible. If we really want to commit to teaching critical thinking, we will
also have to retrain ourselves as a society.
[1]
Michiel De Vos, interviewed by Pieter Gordts, “‘Dit land is politiek ziek’,
Amerika-correspondent Michiel Vos na de aanval op zijn schoonvader Paul Pelosi”,
De Morgen, 30-10-2022, https://www.demorgen.be/nieuws/dit-land-is-politiek-ziek-amerika-correspondent-michiel-vos-na-de-aanval-op-zijn-schoonvader-paul-pelosi~b871ec75/.
[2]
Rien Emmery, “"Een samenzwering van kwaadaardige reptielen": ophef in
Nederland over uitspraken van politicus en complotdenker Thierry Baudet”, VRT
NWS, 18-10-2022, https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2022/10/17/baudet-reptielen/,
consulted 07-11-2022.
[3] Barbara J. Thayer-Bacon, Transforming
Critical Thinking: Thinking Constructively. New York and London: Teachers
College Press, 2000.
[4] See for example bell hooks, Teaching
To Transgress. New York: Routledge, 2014.
[5] Richard Paul, ‘Teaching
Critical Thinking in the “Strong” Sense: A Focus On Self-Deception, World
Views, and a Dialectical Mode of Analysis’. Informal Logic
4, no. 2 (1981): 2–6. https://doi.org/10.22329/il.v4i2.2766,
pp. 2-3.
[6]
Amerikaans filosoof Andy Norman: ‘Het trumpisme is een soort immuunstoornis’”, De Morgen, interview by Joël de Ceulaer,
14 oktober 2022, https://www.demorgen.be/nieuws/amerikaans-filosoof-andy-norman-het-trumpisme-is-een-soort-immuunstoornis~b7ff0901/,
consulted 2/11/2022.
[7]
Stefaan Blancke, “Kritisch denken kritisch bekeken: tijd voor meer
vertrouwen?”, humanistischverbond.be, 22 Juli 2020, https://humanistischverbond.be/blog/354/kritisch-denken-kritisch-bekeken-tijd-voor-meer-vertrouwen/,
consulted 2/11/2022.
[8]
Ibid.
[9] In an influential
meta-analysis from 2015, the authors emphasize the necessity of further
research and also point at the complexity of undertaking research on critical
thinking, due to the fact that it is often defined differently in different
contexts. See Philip C. Abrami, Robert M. Bernard, Eugene Borokhovski, David I.
Waddington, C. Anne Wade, and Tonje Persson. ‘Strategies for Teaching Students
to Think Critically: A Meta-Analysis’. Review of Educational Research
85, no. 2 (2015): 275–314. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654314551063.
[10] For an overview, see Albert
Newen, Leon De Bruin, and Shaun Gallagher, eds. The Oxford Handbook of 4E
Cognition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018. See also Mark Rowlands, The
New Science of the Mind. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2010.
[11] Edwin Hutchins, Cognition
in the Wild. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1996.
[12] Max Fisher,The Chaos
Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World
(London: Hachette UK, 2022)
[13]
Brent Bellefroid, “Aan de pers wil ik zeggen: negeer die ruziemakers in de
politiek”, De Morgen, 26 oktober
2022, https://www.demorgen.be/nieuws/aan-de-pers-wil-ik-zeggen-negeer-die-ruziemakers-in-de-politiek~b33e2ceb/,
consulted 07-11-2022; Bart Eeckhout, “Het idee dat nabijheid van politici de
kloof met de burger zou dichten, is ontspoord: over de stap opzij van Kitir”, De Morgen, 19 oktober 2022, https://www.demorgen.be/nieuws/het-idee-dat-nabijheid-van-politici-de-kloof-met-de-burger-zou-dichten-is-ontspoord-over-de-stap-opzij-van-kitir~b499939a/,
consulted, 07-11-2022.
* In recent literature, a more sympathetic reading of Descartes has emerged, pointing towards a more embodied Cartesian philosophy. For a discussion of this literature, see Barnaby R. Hutchins, Christoffer Basse Eriksen, and Charles T. Wolfe. 2016. ‘The Embodied Descartes: Contemporary Readings of L’Homme’. In Descartes’ Treatise on Man and Its Reception, edited by Delphine Antoine-Mahut and Stephen Gaukroger, 287-304. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science. Cham: Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46989-8_18.