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Is Critical Thinking a Technique, Or a Means of Enlightenment?

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Is Critical Thinking a Technique, Or a Means of Enlightenment? V111.1, Winter 1986 Informal Logic Is Critical Thinking a Technique, Or a Means of Enlightenment? LENORE LANGSDORF University of Texas at Arlington Introduction veloped by the Frankfurt School.[2] The inadequacies of "instrumental This paper proposes a theoretical reason" and the prospects of "judg­ basis for practicing and teaching cri­ ment" seem to me illustrated in tical thinking as both "technique" and Richard Paul's critique of any teaching "means for enlightenment." Since the of critical thinking that would be the current state of the art (as reflected in mere application of techniques, rather journal articles as well as textbooks) than the cultivation of a "dialectical seems to me more advanced in devel­ mode of analysis." oping techniques, the stress here is What I'm doing in Part One, then, on "enlightenment." Thus, the ideas is associating Angus's "instrumental I explore are offered as a contribution reason" with Paul's "critical thinking on the "basic theoretical underpin­ in the 'weak' sense," and Angus's nings" which Richard Paul recognizes "judgment" with Paul's "critical think­ are needed for "critical thinking in ing in the 'strong' sense." I hope that the 'strong' sense."[1] This is to say relating Paul's proposals to the pheno­ that I will be proposing a theoretical menological and Frankfurt School basis for understanding that conception traditions in this way provides us with of critical thinking as a means for en­ the beginnings of a theoretical basis lightenment. In order to do so, I will for "strong sense" critical thinking. offer some thoughts on what enlighten­ In Part Two, I consider a question ment might be, why certain features that seems to me comparatively ne­ in our cultural history have resulted in glected in Paul's work: why is it so its atrophy, and how we might make a difficult to reach the non-egocentric start toward changing that situation. standpoint that is the starting point for The paper has three parts. Part the "dialectical mode of analysis" ~ One presents the notion of "instru­ he advocates? Here and in Part Three, mental reason" as a mode of reasoning I rely on Paul Ricoeur's conception of quite different from "judgment." The "ego" as contrasted with "self" in former is concerned with developing proposing that we might be more suc­ techniques for achieving already­ cessful in cultivating a non-egocentric stipulated ends by utilizing already­ standpoint if we have some under­ given means. The latter is concerned standing of egocentricity as an inevit­ with an extended sense of reasoning able, but transcendable, starting which examines those means and ends point.[3] In Part Two, then, I suggest in the light of human needs and goals. that an insistently pervasive techno­ In presenting this concept, I'll be re­ logy-television -suppresses a capa­ lying on the work of Ian Angus, which city-imagination-that is crucial to is situated at the juncture of pheno­ any attempt to move beyond "ego" to menology (as developed by Edmund "self." A form-and-content distinction Husserl) and the Critical Theory de- is crucial to this suggestion: if the 2 Lenore Langsdorf portrayal given here is accurate, sup­ which is limited to determining appro­ pression of imagination occurs by virtue priate means for achieving a particu­ 1 of television's very form, not only or lar end. What it does not do is consider even primarily because of its program­ the appropriateness of either means ming content. or ends to larger contexts, such as an In Part Three, I propose that another individual's or society's everyday or technology-the printed word, which major life-decisions.[6] His term for does not share television's form­ the type of reasoning that would take stimulates rather than suppresses up that larger-indeed, "global"­ imagination. Ricoeur,s thesis that task is "judgment." In exploring both "ego" becomes "self" through in­ these conceptions of reasoning, Angus volvement with "text," I suggest, pro­ is expanding upon work on the nature vides "theoretical underpinnings" for of reason done from the perspective a critical thinking that responds to of the Critical Theory developed by the Paul's critique, as well as to Angus's Frankfurt School, in that he adds the call for an undoing of the "reversal of "self-reflective and critical character enlightenment" brought about by uni­ of phenomenology," and in particular, versal ized instrumental reason. Husserl's emphasis upon the "consti­ tution of theoretical objectivities" (such as the elements of a logical sys­ Part One: tem), in order to develop a theoretical Instrumental Reason and Judgment basis that would enable us to "renew The expansion of techniques which is the promise of enlightenment."[7] legitimized by instrumental reason This renewal is needed, according turns the objects of the life-world into to Angus's account, because of an his­ mere residues ... while it reduces the torical paradox: the science and techno­ subject to an untheorized plurality of logy which earlier philosophers and ends-instrumental reason results in scientists expected would liberate world alienation and self-alienation. humanity from the arbitrariness and This systematic crisis involves a new harshness of nature, now appear to situation for philosophy.[4) many as replacements for the domina­ I take it to be self-evident that virtually tion practiced prior to the rise of science all teachers of critical thinking want in the Enlightenment by the "mythico­ their teaching to have a global 'Socratic' religious tradition."[8] This has oc­ effect, making some significant inroads curred, he argues, as the science de­ into the everyday reasoning of the stu­ ve loped by Bacon, Descartes, and dent, enhancing to some degree that Galileo required a "transformation healthy, practical, and skilled skepti­ from the Classical question 'why' cism one naturally and rightly asso­ things are to the modern 'how'."[9] ciates with the rational person.[5) Angus retains both questions within In this section, I propose that the pre­ his own analysis, although my focus valence of "instrumental reason," as here is on just one: how does this identified in Ian Angus's critique, is "reversal of enlightenment" oc­ one of the powerfui factors in our cul­ cur?[10] For considering Angus's ture which work against our efforts at analysis together with Paul's suggests having, in our teaching of critical think­ that the critical thinking courses which ing, the "global 'Socratic' effect" on many philosophy departments now find our students that Richard Paul identi­ are their most popular offerings are fies. This is to say that our students training students in instrumental rea­ come equipped with instrumental son (at most), rather than cultivating reason, since it is endemic to our cul­ that "Socratic" and "global" form of ture, and that this form of reason is reasoning which Angus calls judgment. inimical to critical thinking. We are teaching instrumental rea­ Angus's critique identifies instru­ son rather than judgment, I suggest, mental reason as the type of reasoning insofar as we use what Paul calls the Critical Thinking 3 "standard modes of teaching critical from (in his words, are "founded in") rthinking," based on II a fundamental material conditions (in his words, and questionable assumption": that it again, the "lifeworld").[14] can be taught as a "battery of technical This phenomenological description skills" to be "mastered" and applied of the relation between intellectual and (as means to an end) without asking everyday life (e.g., logic and the life­ any "why" questions concerning the world) is incorporated into Angus's context in which the student (subject) theory of "judgment" when he argues or issue (object) is embedded.[11] On that using logical structures in a norma­ this model, Paul goes on to say, argu­ tive manner within the whole of our ments are encountered "atomically," experience does not depend upon any rather than as "networks" delineating "cosmological intuition," or transcen­ "world views." In effect, what we are dent "organizing principle," or "tra­ doing in this mode of teaching critical ditional authority" of the sort asso­ thinking is taking the student, who ciated with "mythico-religious world­ comes to us more-or-Iess well equipped views" which have been rather dis­ by our culture with instrumental rea­ credited, since the onset of the Age of son, and working to instill techniques Science, as sources of epistemological which exercise that equipment. justification or ontological valida­ Paul calls this "critical thinking in tion.[1S] Rather, the justification for the 'weak' sense," and gives us a using logic normatively has its source succinct summary of its usual results. in evidence that results from a pheno­ One likelihood is " 'sophistry' ": the menological analysis of the lifeworld: student "learns to use technical con­ cepts and techniques to maintain his Husserl's transcendental logic sets it­ most deep-seated prejudices and irra­ self the task of delineating the range tional habits of thought." The alterna­ and legitimate objects of traditional logic through a regressive analysis into tive is II 'dismissal' "-outright the 'sense' of the formalizing abstrac­ rejection of rational modes of thought tion that is at its [logic's) root, and "in favor of some suggested alterna­ teleological inquiry into the 'truth' with tive-'feeling,' 'intuition,' 'faith,' or which formalizing abstractions can 'higher consciousness.' "[12] Both of judge about individuals.(16) these are a long way from the goals of teaching critical thinking that are For Angus as well as Husserl, the cited at the start of this section, and " 'sense' " found in this regressive there are a variety of responses we can analysis is that the formal is manifest, give to this disjuncture between goals as inherent modes of structure and and results.
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