Critical Thinking And The Christian Perspective
...by Wendy Dutton, Thomas Hart and Rebecca Patten
Patten College
In their article, "Cartesian Values and the Critical
Thinking Movement," Faculty Dialogue (Winter 1993), Dr. Forrest
Baird and Dr. Dale Soden critique the critical thinking movement
by suggesting that it is based on Descartes's paradigm. Unlike
educators who find the advocacy of critical thinking a worrisome
thing because it redefines the role of the educator as a
questioner who models thinking rather than as a lecturer who
prescribes knowledge, they raise questions about whether critical
thinking is a viable enterprise for faculty who hope to integrate
faith and learning in the classroom. As Christian educators,
however, we find this to be a disturbing proposition. Certainly,
there is plenty of room for reexamination of critical thinking as
a discipline, but we believe critical thinking must be a part of
every Christian classroom if we are to maintain our integrity.
Baird and Soden state that in the critical thinking movement
"there appear to be underlying values that are too often
unstated" (p. 77). They go further to clearly state their
position: "these values are problematic for the Christian
scholar and teacher," (77) arguing that the movement is based on
the "Cartesian approach to epistemology" and "therefore the
methods reflect the weaknesses associated with Descartes." (77)
The authors proceed to do three things:
1) They examine the Cartesian paradigm, its history and
basic characteristics;
2) They maintain that the critical thinking movement is
based on this paradigm;
3) Finally, they raise questions about whether critical
thinking should be taught in the...
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