ABSTRACT
Philosophers and educators have long agreed on the importance of critical thinking, but they have not agreed entirely on what it is, and they have agreed even less on how to teach it. In this chapter the author starts with a discussion of the concept as it is described in the Common Core, then explores some recent history of the topic, and finishes the chapter with an analysis of moral issues associated with critical thinking. Critical thinking is emphasized in both the mathematics and language arts standards of the Common Core. If people apply critical thinking to the effort itself, they cannot justify discarding the "structural understanding" movement, but neither can they endorse it unconditionally. Philosophers and educators have occasionally recommended the teaching of logic as a means to critical thinking. St. Martin's reservations raise moral issues and draw the attention to a point: Dividing philosophical problems into epistemological, ethical, metaphysical, and the like is not always satisfactory.
