Critical Thinking Education Using Classic Texts in Humanities－Focusing on The Plague

Abstract

For critical thinking education in the liberal arts, virtuous disposition education is essential. Simply teaching logical thinking skills is no different from mass-producing sophists who are good at forensics. One way to meet the goal of critical thinking education for cultivating educated people is to use classic texts in the humanities. The strength of such texts is that students are not only able to think about desirable human and social aspects by reading them, but they can also become the main character themselves and use critical thinking for the best decision-making and problem solving possible. I would like to show that critical thinking education in liberal arts education is possible by using Albert Camus’ novel The Plague. First, the first-person point of view of the novel was introduced as material for consideration to provide a focal point for the students on which they could concentrate. Following this, various questions were provided worthy of serious consideration. Students were able to think for themselves about these questions and to share their thoughts with each other during the discussion process. Next, students were able to logically analyze, evaluate, and improve their thinking process. To this end, arguments and errors were extracted and presented from the thoughts of the characters of the novel. In short, through this classic text, students were able to become the protagonists of a story very similar to the pandemic situation of our current time, indirectly experiencing various problematic situations and contemplating solutions, thereby becoming critical thinkers with critical thinking skills and dispositions at the same time.