Critical Thinking, Moral Courage, and Sustainable …
173
Being something very new, which means changing lifestyles and habits, this will
generate a lot of resistance. Courage, grit, and determination are essential to start the
change and to fulfill the SDGs and the aims stated in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development.
2 Critical Thinking and Courage as Hallmarks of Higher
Education 1
Two concepts must now be addressed, with an explanation of why they are crucial
for HE, in the twenty-first century. Critical thinking (CT) is a new concept, which
was introduced in the early twentieth century. However, it draws its essence from
Ancient Greek philosophy, being traceable back to Socrates’ discussions as captured
in Plato’s Dialogues (e.g. The Republic, 2007). Aristotle (2014) came to theorize
rationality as a critical tool.
In the Middle Ages, in his famous work, Summa Theologica, Thomas Aquinas
(1981) wanted his reasoning to meet all the requirements of critical thinking, always
to be systematically exposed and always to answer criticisms of the ideas expounded.
Some centuries later, in England, we find a number of representatives of empiricism who had the active idea of criticism and reflection in their work. Bacon (2008)
was concerned with the way in which our mind gathers information about the world.
He said it was important for us to study the world empirically, meaning that epistemology and its outcomes (knowledge) are constrained by the capacity of the cognitive
system. This can be considered as the first work about critical thinking, although it
is not named like this.
Fifty years later, in France, René Descartes wrote what could be called the second
book of critical thinking, a lesser known, incomplete, and posthumously published
work, Regulae ad directione ingenii (Rules for the Direction of the Natural Intelligence 1619–1628, 1998). In this work, Descartes intended to describe thirty-six
rules, but he only succeeded in writing twenty-one before his death. By stating the
rules of the mind, Descartes demonstrated that it must be systematically disciplined
when it reasons about anything.
In the seventeenth century, Hobbes (2019) and Locke (1996) talked about the
critical attitude. They did not accept what was considered “normal” in their own time
or what was traditionally accepted as being true. Hobbes had a naturalistic vision
of the world, in which everything needed to be explained in terms of proofs and
reason. Locke supported the application of critical thinking at the level of common
1 The history of critical thinking presented in this chapter is partially published in my article
of 2019, “Creating meaning. The importance of Arts, Humanities and Culture for critical thinking
development”, Studies in Higher Education, 44(5), 870–879, https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.
2019.1586345.
173
Being something very new, which means changing lifestyles and habits, this will
generate a lot of resistance. Courage, grit, and determination are essential to start the
change and to fulfill the SDGs and the aims stated in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development.
2 Critical Thinking and Courage as Hallmarks of Higher
Education 1
Two concepts must now be addressed, with an explanation of why they are crucial
for HE, in the twenty-first century. Critical thinking (CT) is a new concept, which
was introduced in the early twentieth century. However, it draws its essence from
Ancient Greek philosophy, being traceable back to Socrates’ discussions as captured
in Plato’s Dialogues (e.g. The Republic, 2007). Aristotle (2014) came to theorize
rationality as a critical tool.
In the Middle Ages, in his famous work, Summa Theologica, Thomas Aquinas
(1981) wanted his reasoning to meet all the requirements of critical thinking, always
to be systematically exposed and always to answer criticisms of the ideas expounded.
Some centuries later, in England, we find a number of representatives of empiricism who had the active idea of criticism and reflection in their work. Bacon (2008)
was concerned with the way in which our mind gathers information about the world.
He said it was important for us to study the world empirically, meaning that epistemology and its outcomes (knowledge) are constrained by the capacity of the cognitive
system. This can be considered as the first work about critical thinking, although it
is not named like this.
Fifty years later, in France, René Descartes wrote what could be called the second
book of critical thinking, a lesser known, incomplete, and posthumously published
work, Regulae ad directione ingenii (Rules for the Direction of the Natural Intelligence 1619–1628, 1998). In this work, Descartes intended to describe thirty-six
rules, but he only succeeded in writing twenty-one before his death. By stating the
rules of the mind, Descartes demonstrated that it must be systematically disciplined
when it reasons about anything.
In the seventeenth century, Hobbes (2019) and Locke (1996) talked about the
critical attitude. They did not accept what was considered “normal” in their own time
or what was traditionally accepted as being true. Hobbes had a naturalistic vision
of the world, in which everything needed to be explained in terms of proofs and
reason. Locke supported the application of critical thinking at the level of common
1 The history of critical thinking presented in this chapter is partially published in my article
of 2019, “Creating meaning. The importance of Arts, Humanities and Culture for critical thinking
development”, Studies in Higher Education, 44(5), 870–879, https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.
2019.1586345.