Tomáš Řepa: Concepts of critical thinking illustrated via historical events

One way in which history is fascinating is that it is possible to explain some concepts by drawing on historical examples. This also applies to the area of critical thinking. There are a vast number of concepts in this field alone. That is another reason why it is useful to offer examples where explanations may be based on both the distant and recent past. In this way, we can avoid a situation where the analysis is unnecessarily abstract and elusive.

History is about stories, and everyone has experienced one; many situations may even be familiar to some people and can be recalled accurately if they have witnessed, or been directly involved in, a particular behaviour or style of thinking. So let us consider the different concepts together. It should be added here that there are a huge number of them and the list is gradually expanding, so the selection reflects the fact that some are particularly suitable for explanation through history. The actual definitions of the terms mentioned may differ slightly from each other in various open sources, though their essence ought to be sufficiently clarified and elaborated in the following text.

Read and download the full article Concepts of critical thinking illustrated via historical events