Universidad de Los Andes

This paper addresses some issues concerning the promotion of critical thinking, from a philosophical perspective. The argument is based on the idea that the specific manifestations of critical thinking one produces about some issue depend on one’s knowledge resources, as well as on one’s emotional attitudes towards that issue. From this idea, and with an emphasis different from that suggested by the ideas of general skills and critical spirit, it is argued that critical thinking about the set of issues, dimensions and perspectives that are not actually critically addressed in the classroom, in terms of both knowledge and emotions about them, is not being directly promoted, and there is no guarantee that students will be critical about them in the future. Educators interested in the promotion of critical thinking, therefore, should take the responsibility for defining what crucial issues, dimensions and perspectives will, as a minimum, need to be properly addressed. Lastly, it is argued that assessing the promotion of critical thinking in particular pedagogical situations should involve at least analysis of a structural dimension — to distinguish acts of critical thinking from others — and of a contents dimension —to identify what critical thinking is being promoted about