Undisciplinary is the personal wiki of Martin Zemlicka.

Critical Subjects - What is critical thinking?

14.07.2014 – ARUP Associates, London

Part of the Critical Subjects summer school series of debates, lectures and panel discussions.

Notes

Dennis Hayes

1. In the philosophy of education, critical thinking is “the ability to engage in deep conversation”
2. There are, generally, three misconceptions about critical thinking:
   1. The misconception that critical thinking is a skill. Training is not critical thinking.
   2. The misconception that “critical something” is critical. It is an indoctrination, for example critical architecture is that which shows an ideology.
   3. The misconception that critical is cynical.
3. Best definition of criticism: a disinterested endevour to learnd and propagate the best that is known in the world.
4. Criticism has become mainstream with the loss of actual crises. Instead we manufacture our own “philosophies” through being theraputically self critical.
5. The whole idea of descussion and debate has become very safe and unconfrontational.

Steve Parnell

1. No monument has ever been erected to a critic
2. Criticism is putting something into a state of crisis and seeing to which side of theknife edge things fall.