Critical thinking vs. critical theory – the crucial difference

The rejection of reason and nature has taken root … through the replacement of critical thinking with critical theory. The latter has been the engine of academic thought for decades, and its methods pervade every discipline and subject.

Critical thinking, in the classical liberal tradition, relies on the reality that we are rational animals, able to use our abilities to observe the world, discern universal principles, and make normative evaluations. We can determine, generally, what ought to be from what is and develop, challenge, and refine arguments by evaluating the premises and logic involved. Through intellectual rigor, we can more fully own our ideas and evaluate the validity and veracity of the ideas of others with the goal of arriving at truth.

Essential to critical thinking is the discipline to understand the best opposing arguments to one’s position. St. Thomas Aquinas exemplified this in the Summa Theologica. The Angelic Doctor first poses a question, and then raises the strongest arguments against the answer he will ultimately give. Even after giving his sed contra, Aquinas makes the best of each objection in light of his understanding. Thus, only after carefully and thoroughly considering every worthy opposition does he show the reader how each argument in opposition bears some fatal flaw.

In modern parlance, we call this steel manning. Whereas straw manning is the fallacy of arguing against the weakest position of your opponent, steel manning is arguing against the best possible opposing argument, even beyond what they present themselves.

… In contrast, the purpose of critical theory is to support the ideology of cultural Marxism and churn out activists rather than to arrive at truth. To engage in critical theory is to filter all humanity through the lens of power for the sake of reversing the power dynamic of the [perceived] dominant oppressor class. Power, not truth, is preeminent for the critical theorist. That many of us do not realize the distinction between these two methods leads to a lot of frustration.

… This way of dismantling critical thought has been, and continues to be, enacted through the enshrining of critical theory within the majority of Western education. By applying a filter of suspicion to every field of study, no work of art, historical event, or reasoned argument can be seen objectively. There is always a power dynamic to uncover and to dismantle. Everything becomes political.

This is not a small matter relegated to the ivory tower with merely academic ramifications. … [S]hallow sloganeering and an unwillingness to think can lead ordinary people to otherwise unimaginable monstrosities. In the riots of 2020, we saw it MERINGexhibited in the inability of progressives to effectively and unequivocally denounce the violence and destruction. If truth is a function of power, unjust actions become far more palatable if they can be understood to be advantageous to the right cause.

Excerpt from Awake, Not Woke: A Christian Response to the Cult of Progressive Ideology, by Noelle Mering (TAN Books, 2021), pp. 150-52. www.TANBooks.com.

NOELLE MERING is a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, and co-author of Theology of the Home I and II. A frequent contributor to the National Catholic Register, The American Mind, The Federalist, and Catholic World Report, she is editor of TheologyOfHome.com and lives with her husband and six children in southern California.