Beyond critical thinking to critical being: Criticality in higher education and life

Abstract

For John Henry Newman, the raison d’être of higher education was to ‘educate the intellect to reason well in all matters, to reach out toward truth, and to grasp it’ (Newman, 1996, p. 103). But of course, assuming a realist stance, whereupon a singular objective truth exists in every situation, and moreover, that it can be known, Newman's enunciation merely begs the question: how exactly in a world of endlessly competing truths, does one set about choosing the correct one? What competencies or skills ought one employ in order to grasp Aletheia/Truth? Should higher education, either explicitly, or via a hidden curriculum that transcends domain-specific knowledge, imbue criticality? In view of the fact that we all make truth-oriented decisions on a daily basis, very little research has been conducted into the ‘science’ underlying the mechanics of precisely how we scrutinize evidence and use it to justify our decisions and belief systems (Rescher, 2006). This paper proceeds in four parts. Part one briefly outlines the centrality of criticality in higher education as it is found in educational policy and learner outcomes. Part two appraises the critical thinking movement, specifically its insistence on rationality as an organic heuristic entity. Part three argues how criticality has supplanted critical thinking as the sine qua non, of not just higher education, but life itself, whilst part four unpacks the embodied benefits embedded in a tripartite ontology of criticality. To conclude, I shall proffer a synthesis of the findings.