Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1996

Journal / Book Title

Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disicplines

Abstract

"What," asks John Passmore, "is it to teach a child to be critical, and how can we tell whether we have been successful in doing so?" Notice the phrasing of Passmore's question: his concern is with being critical--that is, with being a critical thinker qua being a person of a certain kind--rather than with (merely) thinking critically. Part of the answer, then, is implicit in the question itself: to be critical is not a matter of being informed, or of blind habit, or even of skill (although he does not altogether deny the skills component). It is, chiefly, an attitude or disposition:

Book Publisher

Montclair State University

Journal ISSN / Book ISBN

2153-9871

Published Citation

Splitter, Laurance J. (1996) John Passmore: On Teaching to be Critical. Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disicplines 15(3): 1-16.

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