Does Critical Thinking and Logic Education Have a Western Bias? The Case of the Nyāya School of Classical Indian Philosophy

Abstract

In this paper I develop a cross‐cultural critique of contemporary critical thinking education in the United States, the United Kingdom, and those educational systems that adopt critical thinking education from the standard model used in the US and UK. The cross‐cultural critique rests on the idea that contemporary critical thinking textbooks completely ignore contributions from non‐western sources, such as those found in the African, Arabic, Buddhist, Jain, Mohist and Nyāya philosophical traditions. The exclusion of these traditions leads to the conclusion that critical thinking educators, by using standard textbooks are implicitly sending the message to their students that there are no important contributions to the study of logic and argumentation that derive from non‐western sources. As a case study I offer a sustained analysis of the so‐called Hindu Syllogism that derives from the Nyāya School of classical Indian philosophy. I close with a discussion of why contributions from non‐western sources, such as the Hindu Syllogism, belong in a Critical Thinking course as opposed to an area studies course, such as Asian Philosophy.

Approaching global education development with a decolonial lens: teachers’ reflections

“…As teachers and researchers, we later reflected on how this evaluation was based on the dominant way of conceptualising critical thinking in higher education, that is, defining critical thinking as a rhetorical strategy of citing from established literature often produced in and for the Global North. We realised that we could have looked at other non-dominant ways in which criticality and critical thinking are conceptualised as culturally situated and socially constructed practices (Vaidya 2016;Vandermensbrugghe 2004). Finally, our perceptions of students' engagement with the course made us wonderby asking them to question their positionality in relation to the course content, have we managed to create opportunities to engage with the concept of coloniality/decoloniality not only intellectually but also emotionally, ethically and spiritually?…”

Is it Permissible to Teach Buddhist Mindfulness Meditation in a Critical Thinking Course?

“…Importantly, these traditions developed theories of good argumentation and debate. For example, Vaidya (2016) discusses the Nyāya tradition of classical Indian philosophy and the contribution it makes to debate and dialogue.…”

Conversations on Critical Thinking: Can Critical Thinking Find Its Way Forward as the Skill Set and Mindset of the Century?

“…Education scholarship in this area is still in its nascent stages but is a growing area of interest. For instance, Hirst [88] and Vaidya [89] discuss contributions to logic and critical thinking derived from classical Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain philosophies (2nd CE). Contemporary proponents of critical thinking can be found in diverse educational settings from primary schools to universities.…”

“…Within these settings, practitioners differ between those primarily oriented towards producing globally competitive workers as well as those primarily oriented towards learner-centred and inclusive pedagogies and education for democratic citizenship. Similarly, reference points or inspiration for contemporary critical thinking discourse tend to be diverse, if primarily Western, and include educational thinkers as philosophically diverse as Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky, John Dewey and Gestalt psychologists [89]. This review suggests that proponents appear to share conceptions of the outcomes of critical thinking (e.g., students should be able to analyse information, solve problems, communicate, and collaborate and so forth, but not necessarily how to teach it and where to place it in the school curriculum.…”