Truth as an educational aim from critical thinking

Abstract

This research will analyze and justify the concept of critical thinking, understood as an important educational aim in relation to the concept of truth. In the first instance, the concept of critical thinking found in the national curriculum will be reviewed as an example. Critical thinking will then be analysed and epistemologically grounded in its epistemic components, based on the contributions of the educational philosopher Harvey Siegel and the reliabilist epistemology of Alvin Goldman. From this foundation, critical thinking will be linked to the concept of truth by understanding it as a process leading to truth. This will provide a different basis for conceptualising critical thinking as an educational objective, reformulating this concept in ministerial documents and deriving teaching suggestions by means of which to train students to think critically. This leads to a reconsideration of truth as a primary epistemic goal in education in its own right, alongside the development of critical thinking.