I.

THINKING CRITICALLY ABOUT CRITICAL THINKING BY creative inspiration, which can be interpreted as a
CHRISTOPHER SCHABERG way to resolve or sublimate internal oppositions.
What is the purpose of critical thinking in the academe? • Humans live peacefully with contradictions precisely
• “Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of because of their capacity to compartmentalize. And when
actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, contradictory statements, actions, or emotions jump out of
synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or their contextual box, we are very good, perhaps too good, at
generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, finding justifications to soothe cognitive dissonance.
or communication, as a guide to belief and action.” (Michael • Contradictions are omnipresent in our intrapersonal life and
Scriven and Richard Paul, 2003) they are particularly visible when strong beliefs come into
• Karl Marx on appropriating theory with praxis: “one does not play, such as faith, morality, militantism, and so on.
judge an individual by what he thinks about himself… but on • While one thinks that it is impossible to be A and non-A, in
the contrary, this consciousness must be explained from the fact humans adore entities with incompatible properties. As
contradictions of material life.” psychologists of cognition have shown, such contradictions
• Just because teaching is conducted under the explicit rubric are particularly attractive to the human mind. They challenge
of critical thinking, it cannot be taken as a given that core ontological expectations that we have about animals,
expected actions will result. (e.g. outcomes-based artifacts or persons. As a consequence, they hold cognitive
education) salience and memorability.
Problematic in itself • Three Negative Capabilities:
Neoliberal design They experience of being a nuisance
• Humans are naturally problem-solving creatures: “Presenting The experience of getting lost
students with problems… taps into something natural and The experience of being powerless
self-fulfilling in our beings.” (John Bean, 1996) The ability to discover and accept contradictions,
• Beautiful problems create a natural critical learning and the ability to renounce them through
environment. consistency.
• Margaret Grebowics on critical thinking “whatever is
vernacular is what is most difficult to view from a critical THINKING CRITICALLY
distance.” • Carefully exploring the thinking process to clarify our
The catchphrase “critical thinking” would be caught understanding and make more intelligent decisions.
in a double bind. • The word critical comes from the Greek word for “critic”
o “critical” is trapped in the vernacular mist (kritikos), which means “to question, to make sense of, to
that such mental effort, “thinking,” is be able to analyze.” It is by questioning, making sense of
supposed to dispel situations, and analyzing issues that we examine our
• Critical Thinking seems to point toward some immeasurable thinking and the thinking of others. These critical activities
beyond: to a place where life is vibrant and rife with aid us in reaching the best possible conclusions and
problems begging to be solved on the spot. decisions.
• Higher education is increasingly expected to be a • Thinking is the way you make sense of the world; thinking
concentrated site for. Focused job training and career critically is thinking about your thinking so that you can
preparation; this comes with an attendant fantasy of a robust clarify and improve it. You will explore ways to examine your
economy and ample employment opportunities. thinking so that you can develop it to the fullest extent
A hallucination, according to Grebowicz. possible.
• Critical thinking avoids false reassurances. It motivates you • Whom would you identify as expert critical thinkers? To
not on providing compromises and solutions, but on starting qualify, the people you identify should have lively, energetic
to ask the right questions, i.e. to face [[our own] minds. Specifically, they should be:
contradictions. Open-minded Skilled discussants
Knowledgeable Insightful
II. HOW OUR CONTRADICTIONS MAKE US HUMAN AND Mentally active Self-aware
INSPIRE OUR CREATIVITY BY DAVID BERLINER Curious Creative
• Three questions: Independent Passionate
Have you ever wondered how many contradictory thinkers
thoughts you have in a day?
How many times do you contradict your actions? THINKING ACTIVELY
How often your feelings oppose your principles • Benefits of thinking actively
and beliefs? Get involved in potentially useful projects and
• We humans a structurally made of contradictions, live activities instead of remaining disengaged.
peacefully, sometimes painfully, without oxymoronic selves. Take initiative in making decisions on your own
• Living a contradictory life is profoundly, perhaps definitively, instead of waiting passively to be told what to think
human. or do.
• Joan Wallach Scott argues: Follow through on your commitments instead of
“what characterizes a critical thinker is the ability giving up when you encounter difficulties.
‘to point a finger at contradictions,’ but critical Take responsibility for the consequences of your
thinkers don’t escape contradiction either” decisions rather than unjustifiably blame others or
• The Question of Intellectual Consistency events “beyond your control.”
While most humans struggle to maintain a sense • Carefully Exploring Situations with Questions
of psychological unity, contradictions, produce • Questions can be classified in terms of the ways that people
destabilizing breaches of the self. Whether organize and interpret information (according to Benjamin
conscious or unconscious, these fissures nourish Bloom):
 1. Questions of Facts (i.e. questions seeking basic Who is the intended audience, and what
information; e.g. the four W’s) assumption is the writer making about it?
2. Questions of Interpretation (i.e. questions What is the subject of the selection, and how
seeking to organize facts, ideas and their would you evaluate its cogency and reliability?
relationship; e.g. how-questions, chronological, Who is the writer, and what perspective does he
process, comparison/contrast, causal relationship) or she bring to the writing selection?
3. Questions of Analysis (i.e. questions seeking to What is the larger context in which this selection
separate an entire process/situation into its appears? Is the writer responding to a particular
component parts and understand every element of event or participating in an ongoing debate?
it; e.g. classification, outline, enumeration.) • It is in thinking independently, being informed of
4. Questions of Synthesis (i.e. questions seeking to different perspectives, and reading critically that we can
combine ideas to form new ideas; e.g. predict, analyze the issue/s of a certain situation.
infer, create, design, combine, solve.)
5. Questions of Evaluation (i.e. questions seeking III. THE SCHOLASTIC METHOD: ARGUING CRITICALLY WITH
to help us make informed judgments and decisions SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS
by determining relative value, truth or reliability of • One way of learning how to think critically was expressed in
things; e.g. why-questions, assess, evaluate, the method found in the writings of Saint Thomas Aquinas.
agreement questions.) Aquinas developed a way of argumentation that
6. Questions of Application (i.e. questions seeking encompasses independent thinking, being informed from
to help us take knowledge or concepts we have different perspectives, and reading critically, in order to
gained and apply them to other similar situations; address the issues that are both of philosophical and of
e.g. give examples, apply). theological concerns.
• Derived from Averroes (“the Commentator”), Aquinas wrote
THINKING INDEPENDENTLY the Summa Theologiae in article-form of writing, structuring
• The lesson of Kant’s essay “Beantwortung der Frage: Was the series of discussion into the ff. format:
ist Aufklärung?” pertains to having confidence in our ability to Quaestio/Disputatio: the questions/issue.
use our thought in any situation we encounter in life. Praeterea: series of objections to the yet-to-be
• Prior independent critical thinking, where do we normally get thesis.
our beliefs? Sed Contra: counter-argument/thesis.
Authorities (e.g. the experts) Corpus: body of arguments supporting the thesis.
Reference (e.g. written opinions) Respondeo: responses to the objections using the
Factual Evidence (e.g. real objective situations) corpus.
Personal Experience (e.g. real subjective
situations) IV. THE UNIVERSITY AND THE HUMANITIES BY JOVITO V.
• INDEPENDENT THINKING that is CRITICAL requires us to CARIÑO
question and evaluate our beliefs! • Higher education as the main facet of learning between
criticality and humanity
Viewing situations from different perspectives • That the university and the humanities have a long shared
• Being open to new ideas and different viewpoints means story does not require an elaborate explanation. One merely
being flexible enough to modify your ideas in the light of new needs to look up the precipice of the University of Santo
information or better insight. Tomas (UST) Main Building to visualize this natural
• As critical thinkers, we have to be open to receiving this new connection.
evidence and • Since its inception, the university has been deemed as the
flexible enough to change and modify our ideas on the basis premier custodian of human civilization, of which the
of it. humanities give the noblest expressions.
• In contrast to open and flexible thinking, uncritical thinking • The average perception is that humanities do not produce
tends to be one-sided and closed-minded. People who think employable skills or competencies hence the decision to
this way are convinced that they alone see things as they reduce their course offerings. The other perception says
really are and that everyone who disagrees with them is humanities do not generate new knowledge hence the
wrong. condescending attitude towards the merits of their research
• The best way to expand our thinking and compensate for the outputs.
bias that we all have is to be open to the viewpoints of others • Cardinal Henry Newman defined the university as none other
and willing to listen and to exchange ideas with them, also than the place where we look for truth.
known as discussion. When we participate in a discussion, • Truth is more than just data, more than analytics, more than
we are not simply talking; we are exchanging and exploring impact factor. There is truth in physics as there is truth in
our ideas in an organized way. music; there is truth is architecture as there is truth in
psychology; there is truth in medicine as there is truth in
READING CRITICALLY literature; there is truth in theology as there is truth in
• A crucial aspect of being an effective critical thinker in the philosophy; there is truth is history as there is truth in fine
world is learning to read critically. One of the most powerful arts.
tools in reading critically is asking the right questions. • Etymologically, the word ‘university’ means whole or entire.
• Asking questions will help you read critically. One set of Operatively, such wholeness or entirety is derived from the
useful questions is based on the basic components of shared desire to find and speak of truth, or in the words of
writing: Aquinas, to contemplate and share its fruits with others,
What is the purpose of the selection, and how is through the avenues specific to the individual disciplines.
the author trying to achieve it? • Humanities affirm and secure the legacy of the human spirit.
Hence, the university as the alma mater, that is, the curator
 of soul, needs the humanities as its conduit to promote
human flourishing and advance the cause of a just and
humane community, locally and globally.
• Timothy Radcliffe, OP: "...the primary function of a university
is to teach us to be social beings, able to talk, to listen and
learn from those who are different."

V. THE PLACE OF PHILOSOPHY AND THOUGHT DURING THE

CORONAVIRUS CRISIS BY JOVITO V. CARIÑO
• Philosophy may be the last thing on any person’s mind these
days, and to talk about it when everyone’s mental wellness is
almost at its tether’s end may appear distasteful, bordering
on the obscene.
• In truth, philosophy and crisis, like the unimpeded spread of
COVID-19 in our midst, are an unlikely pair: the former
thrives in the domain of thought; the latter demonstrates utter
thoughtlessness. What I mean by thoughtlessness can best
be illustrated if one surveys the events of recent days.
• The thoughtlessness in question can only be attributed not to
the disadvantaged and the clueless but to those who were
supposed to know better... those who should have declared
the community quarantine with better foresight rather than
threaten with arrest citizens reacting against confusing
orders; those who should have shown better statesmanship
at a time of crisis rather than deploy a torrent of trolls and
memes.
• It turned out that COVID-19 is revelatory not just of the
fragility of human life but also of the utter frailty of the
national government’s competence.
• Like any crisis though, this can be mitigated and hopefully
completely neutralized given commensurate response and
adequate resources. A crisis engendered by
thoughtlessness however is something else.
• Thoughtlessness in this case resonates with what Hannah
Arendt described as the failure to think, that is, the failure of
a person to realize the bigger picture surrounding his action
driven as he is by his dogged will to perform a duty.
• A crisis spawned by thoughtlessness, like any other health
pandemic, can be as catastrophic when left undetected or at
the very least, unsaid.
• The key is really for citizens to re-embrace thought which
has been one of the collateral benefits of being grounded in
the enclosure of our homes. Held down in our respective
private spaces, for better or for worse, we have learned to
become apprentices of thought.