Critical Theory and Critical Thinking both have the word “critical” in them, but why is one concept considered to be a good way of thinking and the other not as good? What does the word “critical” mean and why is it important to know the difference?

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Here’s a transcript of our conversation:

Ronni: Hey, Brittany.

Brittany: Hi, Ronni.

Ronni: So, I was thinking about this term that I’ve heard a lot, but in a few different ways. And the term is, or the word is critical. So I’m gonna start with. What do you think critical means? Or when you hear critical, what’s your first kind of thought?

Brittany: I always think of medical shows or on the news, if there’s like a horrible accident that, you know, you hear doctors go, they’re in critical condition, which means, you know, they’re in serious condition, you know, something is really wrong. Or, you know, I look at, I love, I’m a big nerd for like Latin roots and things like that. So you look at, you know, crit would be that, and it’s, you know, crit to criticize that word comes to mind too, which is where you nitpick and tell somebody what they did wrong. There seems to be a really negative meaning with it. not in all of it, obviously, but that’s what I think of. I think of the negative things like being in serious condition or to give criticism.

Ronni: Wait. So, I don’t actually know much about the Latin roots, so.

Brittany: I don’t have that either. You know, I was saying that, I was like, wait, I actually don’t know that one. I just like looking when words have similarities. Like I looked the prefix of it. So yeah. Then I was like, wait for a second, I don’t actually know. I’ll look up what that means. While you’re saying the next part.

Ronni: Yeah. Now I kind of wish I had known, but good point. It probably does mean something, but yeah. So critical. when I think of it, I do think of critical conditions, but then I also think of other ways I’ve heard, like you said, criticize, right? To be very critical of it and it does sound negative, let me know. If you look up the Latin.

Brittany: I did, I found it.

Ronni: Oh, what is it?

Brittany: I think it’s Greek, not Latin, but it is. Okay. Separate. Choose a judge, which is a little bit different. Like there’s, yeah, a little, it’s kind of a diverse meaning. So it is a Greek root.

Ronni: As a separate choose judge. I think choosing Judge Seem, judge especially seems the most appropriate. Cause it seems like the word critical. You know, you’re gonna criticize somebody, which you could use criticizes and you’re saying something negative about somebody. But criticize or critical can also just means a critic, right? Like a movie critic. Could also just means that mean that you are, you know, kind of tearing apart something and you’re looking into it more. So if you’re a film critic, you’re gonna be tearing apart the film and trying to figure out all the different parts and what it means. And there are some parts that you’re gonna talk about it positively, and then some parts that you talk about it negatively. But it’s not, it doesn’t have to be negative. It just means, breaking it apart, finding the deeper elements of it. So critical other than medical condition has been, it’s been actually in the news a lot. and then also we’ll do Fuck the News first. I assume you’ve heard of critical race theory, right? That’s it talked about a lot.

Brittany: Yeah, we did an episode on that.

Ronni: Oh, did you?

Brittany: Okay. Yeah. That’s a big thing for me personally, that I’ve been really, scared of. So, yep.

Ronni: So yeah, there’s a big thing about critical race theory, but there’s actually a lot of other critical theories. We will talk about a few more of those in a minute. But, so you can think of critical as a critical theory, and then another way that critical’s used a lot is in the term critical thinking. So if you had to describe critical thinking, how would you describe that?

Brittany: And, you know, maybe this is where the root, the separate part of this comes in, I would think of, judging things, but being able to separate the truth from the, from not truth. So, that’s what I think, given what we know now about that, that Greek root so critical would be like, maybe I think about an issue and I think, okay, let me think critically about this. Is it good or is it bad? Well, let’s make a list of let’s separate, let’s break it down. , let’s separate it into different things. So that’s what I think. So let me give an example. ’cause that’s a little bit weird and abstract. So if you say something like, I think individualism is bad, and I’m thinking, let me think critically about this. Let me think about communism and all that. And I sit and I break it down. I, and I try to make sense of what it is, instead of just going along with, you know what? That sounds good. I believe in it. It’s, taking a deeper dive into something and really researching it and thinking it out.

Ronni: Yeah. Actually, as you talk about that, I like that. And now separate makes a lot more sense, right? So we use the word critical for critical theories, and then we also use the word critical and critical thinking. And here on the show, and in a lot of our, you know, books and newsletters and things, we talk about things like critical race theory in a negative light. But yet we talk about critical thinking in a positive light. And so I thought it’d be helpful to kinda talk about the differences of those two things for our, you know, the audience to understand what they mean and how can one critical thing be good and one critical thing maybe not be as good.

Brittany: That’s really good, I never thought of that. That’s a really good point. Yeah.

Ronni: So, verse let’s talk about, critical race theory. How would you describe critical race theory if you had to describe it? It can be hard to describe sometimes.

Brittany: It’s so hard to describe. And it’s because it didn’t, it came from something, it came from something called critical theory, right? It used to just be called critical theory. And critical theory was basically how can we, I’m putting this in very simplified terms. How can we create mass social change? How can we be critical? How can we, you know, criticize rather what is wrong with society and change all of it? How can we do that? That was a critical theory. And back then it was very, kind of communist in nature, very collectivist in nature. Okay. So now fast forward to now, we have critical race theory. How can we take this thing we don’t like, which could be, you know, this idea that there is systemic racism, meaning that racism is almost inherent in every single one of us, even if we know it or we don’t know it? How can we take that and how can we change society as a whole? You know, how can we enact that change? So, that, I know that’s kind of an abstract thing to say, but so that’s what critical race theory means to me. And what we’re seeing that play out is, you know, you have schools, young school, like for young kids where they’re teaching kids that just because of their skin color, they might be born with certain racist, you know, feelings or inclinations. And it’s like, wait a second, we’re all individuals. Like, we can make these decisions as we get older. I’m not born racist ’cause I don’t have the same skin color as you. So, things like that, but they wanna change everybody’s mind.

Ronni: Yeah. Another way I would kind of think about it is, whether you’re talking about critical race theory or even any of the other critical theories that they’ve come up with now, you know, like critical, you know, gender theory to is it’s changing your thinking or changing your, beliefs about society or history or, all situations only under only viewing it under the lens of if it’s critical race theory, only viewing it under the lens of race, if it’s.

Brittany: That’s actually, that’s a better way to describe it. Yeah. It’s through the lens of something. I like that.

Ronni: Yeah. So you’re only looking at it from that way. So, you know, there’s critical theories that are saying, oh, we can only look at, you know, history and society through the lens of how we think boys and girls should act or, different like, you know, socioeconomic factors. Lots of different ways, but basically critical theory is saying you should look at everything under the lens of this particular way. So, but yeah, critical race theory is the one that right now is the biggest one that’s talked about, so.

Brittany: And I think looking at everything through that lens, again, I think you did a much better job at explaining it. So you could see a movie and you could be like, all right, how is there racism here? So you’re looking for it in everything. So you’re in a history class, all right, how is this history teacher being racist? Oh, how is this movie being racist? And when you look through everything in that lens, guess what? You’re gonna find something, right? Because you’re very fixed on that. You’re obsessed with that. And so there’s actually a psychological, thing, I don’t remember what it’s called. If you think about white cars, you’re gonna see white cars everywhere.

Ronni: Interesting.

Brittany: Yeah. While you’re driving. Or if you get, I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, like let’s say you have a Prius, a kind of car, and you’re driving, you’re gonna notice all the Priuses because now you’re noticing them. So it’s like when you really want to see something, you’re gonna start seeing it. And I think that’s similar to seeing everything through the lens of race.

Ronni: Yeah. That’s interesting. You’re like, you’ll be hyper-vigilant to look for those things. specifically. But so yeah, so critical theories is, the idea that you should look at all situations under a specific lens. But when we use the word critical, and we talk about critical thinking, we are critical thinking means to think about what you’re thinking about and be critical of how you are thinking. So it’s encouraging you to question what you’re thinking to make sure that what you’re thinking makes sense. And so the difference would be is that whereas critical theories, like critical race theory, which is telling you, oh, you must view this under this specific lens. Critical thinking itself is much more, kind of a like holistic or encompassing. And it encourages you to think about thinking, but it doesn’t specify that you must think about thinking with a certain perspective relates.

Brittany: There was a lot that was a lot, Ronni. A lot of thinking in there.

Ronni: A lot of thinking, a lot of critical thinking about thinking. But that’s critical thinking is thinking about thinking, how about that?

Brittany: I almost feel like critical thinking is the opposite. So instead of looking at it, not opposite of what you’re saying, opposite of critical theory in that, where critical theory is looking at it through a lens of something critical thinking is almost taking off the lens.

Ronni: Yes, that’s a good way of saying that.

Brittany: And saying what? So like, if there was a pair of glasses, right? You took ’em off and you’re like, okay, now I’m seeing things as they really are. I’m laying out the facts and I’m seeing them clearly, that’s kind of how I think of it.

Ronni: So, I guess we could say that critical theory is the judging part of the definition of critical and critical thinking is the separate part of the word critical, right? Is that a good way? I think it sounds good. So basically, all in all critical thinking, critical theories, like critical race theory or critical gender theory, critical thinking is good because you are removing the perspective or your lens of perspective, and you were looking at things on the whole. And critical theories are really not so great because you are limiting your perspective only through a particular lens. So I highly encourage critical thinking, but you might also wanna be critical about critical theories.

Brittany: Oh my goodness. Ronni, what are you doing to my brain?

Ronni: I mean, this is a critical thinking topic, so it’s only fun to kind of, you know, twist words around a bit.

Brittany: It is, and it’s, funny cause one thing critical theory does is twist words.

Ronni: Oh, look at that.

Brittany: Numerous, little angles here. That is so funny.

Ronni: But yeah, so that’s pretty much the difference in, I would just, you know, think about what you’re thinking about kids.

Brittany: Think, about thinking when you’re thinking. So thanks guys for listening. Really interesting topic. And I think critical theory, whether it’s critical race theory or gender theory, is gonna be something that comes up so often. So very important to know what those differences are. So please, like, subscribe if you haven’t already shared the podcast with your friends. And if you have any ideas for us, some you wanna learn about, please let us know. So until next time, Ronni, we’ll talk to you later.

Ronni: All right, see you soon.

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