Critical Thinking, Thin Ideals, and Irreducibly Normative Deliberation

Critical thinking is usually considered essential to education, especially liberal democratic education. 1I am interested in the normative question: what motivations for thinking critically should be cultivated?This paper will provide a partial and conditional answer to this general question by identifying the relevant importance of thin normative ideals such as "doing what's right."In the concluding section I will also suggest a related conjecture about how such thin ideals should be cultivated (a hint: "IND").But first, a couple of preliminary remarks.The activity of critical thinking has been explained as "careful thinking directed to a goal," 2 or "reasonable reflective thinking focused on deciding what to believe or do." 3 As they stand, these explanations might seem partial or vague; but to avoid controversy, I will not try to offer a more detailed conception here.As far as I can tell, my argument will apply to any plausible detailed conception.In particular, it will apply to any conception of the activity of critical thinking that may be derived from Harvey Siegel's conception of critical thinking as an educational ideal. 4According to Siegel, to meet this ideal, educators must cultivate the ability to assess reasons properly, as well as a "critical spirit" which features dispositional elements.For those who agree with Siegel, what my argument will add is that the critical spirit would not be complete without a commitment to a thin ideal.The thin normative ideal of "doing what I have most reason to do" would be especially suitable for Siegel's theory.I will focus on thinking critically in practical deliberation about which basic moral or prudential values (or goals, or principles) to adopt, or which to prioritize in cases of conflicting values (which will be illustrated in section 2). 5 Such deliberation involves questions that are irreducibly normative (including moral and prudential questions); therefore, I will call it "Irreducibly Normative Deliberation," or "IND" in short.