Critical Thinking: A Streamlined Conception

Critical thinking under that name was inspired by pragmatic philosopher John Dewey (1910) and endorsed by analytic philosopher Max Black (1946). Dewey was revered by the progressive educators, who re-labeled his “reflective thinking” as “critical thinking,” a name I believe they originated and that persists to the present (see Aiken (1942) for a mixture of both terms). Black (1946), insofar as I can determine, wrote the first college text including the words “critical thinking” in the title. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.