Is Thinking “Critically” Enough?

 

discarded booksThe age of criticism is upon us and skepticism rules the day. Michael S. Roth in this recent NYT op-ed laments the over-emphasis on critiquing and debunking. This is a most unfortunate circumstance in academia. The best and brightest minds are dedicated to deconstructing, debunking, and in essence scorning the work of others. Rather than remaining open to new ideas, today’s students have been encouraged, enticed, and trained to take issue even with (or perhaps especially with) the great scholars and respected authorities of renown. Perhaps it goes back to the western tendency toward individualism and analytic thinking (which strangely enough may be linked to wheat farming).

This penchant for the critical is not in itself a detriment; in this electronic age of dubious claims or intentionally misleading information, (think the media campaign on both sides of the crisis in Ukraine), not being easily misled is a good characteristic to have. But is it a virtue in itself? I am reminded of the students in my introductory course in epistemology. Whenever pressed, there is a clear tendency to repeatedly revert to radical skepticism despite reminders that this is the problematic default position from which we are attempting to find a way out.

It would be nice for a change if we had a rule that every criticism must be coupled with a generative act of positive, creative thinking. Don’t just tell me what’s wrong with what an author said; give me something worth pondering in its place.

Perhaps it’s time to foster creativity, synthesis, and openness rather than just critical deconstruction. After all, real progress was never made simply by fault-finding but more often by embracing the best we could come up with.

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