From Critical Thinking to Criticality sets out a bold case for renewing critical thinking across the university. It inquires into the need for critical thinking; and it expounds new theories and arguments that are applicable not only across study programmes but also across the university in its wider societal and worldly roles. The book argues that promoting critical thinking means first understanding what it means to be a critical being and that calls for a recognition of the potential of the university’s full critical powers.Against the horizon of the contemporary world, this book notes how critical thinking is in jeopardy partly due to the enormous powers in society that have little interest in critical thinking and are actually thwarting it. It picks up and radically develops the idea of critical thinking into a new idea of criticality in a troubled world. There is not just one criticality that students can acquire but a myriad of modes of criticality, with each student becoming their own critical person.Situated in the contexts of ecological crises, the rise of artificial intelligence, the tense relationship of states and their universities, political populism, the emergence of a post-truth age, and the diminution of reasoned debate in society, this book urges that criticality be re-instated anew as a central feature of the university’s mission. Universities have tremendous, but unrealised, potential in being a critical conscience of society and so nothing less than the fate of society and the world are at stake.
Format: Hardback
CONTRIBUTORS: Ronald Barnett
EAN: 9781041047001
COUNTRY: United Kingdom
PAGES: 282
WEIGHT:
HEIGHT: 234 mm
PUBLISHED BY: Taylor & Francis Ltd
DATE PUBLISHED: 2026-11-25
CITY:
GENRE: EDUCATION / Schools / Levels / Higher, EDUCATION / Reference, EDUCATION / Research, EDUCATION / Philosophy, Theory & Social Aspects
WIDTH: 156 mm
SPINE:
Book Themes:
Philosophy and theory of education, Higher education, tertiary education, Teaching skills and techniques
Ronald Barnett is Emeritus Professor of Higher Education, University College London, UK and Emeritus President of the Philosophy and Theory of Higher Education Society.Martin Davies is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Melbourne, Australia.