Critical Thinking and Intellectual Humility. A Roadmap for the Digital Age
Keynote Lecture at St-Lawrence College聽
Critical Thinking and Intellectual Humility. A Roadmap for the Digital Age.
Critical thinking is often presented as our first line of defense against disinformation and manipulation. But what does it mean to think critically when we face complex issues, such as the effects of a new vaccine, the long-term development of advanced AI technologies or the impacts of a military intervention? In such cases, should we rely on our own judgment, or place our trust in experts? Are there situations in which thinking autonomously and critically can, paradoxically, lead us away from the truth? After all, people drawn to false conspiratorial beliefs often insist that they are simply exercising critical thinking. In this lecture, I argue that the Enlightenment philosophers were right to emphasize rational autonomy and critical inquiry, but that these ideas must be balanced with intellectual humility and an awareness that we should not always think by ourselves and do our own research.