Title: The Teaching and Research of Critical Thinking from the Perspective of High-Order Cognition
Lecturer: ZHANG Jianjun (Head of the Logic Group of the Philosophy Department at Nanjing University)
Chairperson: FENG Mian (Professor, Department of Philosophy, East China Normal University)
Date: 2 pm, May 25th, 2018 (Friday)
Venue: Room 5303, Building of School of Humanities, Minhang Campus, ECNU
Sponsor: Si-mian Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities, ECNU
Abstract of the Lecture:
The substantial meaning of “critical thinking” is “to doubt rationally” and “to believe rationally”, while the evaluation of the rationality of doubting and believing depends on the higher-order cognition which is featured as “problem solving based on rational reasoning”. The research on higher-order cognition not only aims at studying the interaction mechanism of logic factors in the cognitive action, but also at grasping the interaction mechanism of logic factors and non-logic factors, thus it should be categorized as “Applied Logic Study”. In this connection, the “anti-logic” approach is misled for the teaching and research of critical thinking. Therefore, the development of the education of critical thinking calls for stronger basic education of logic, in which the perspective of critical thinking should be stressed.
Brief Introduction of the Lecturer:
Professor Zhang Jianjun is head of the Logic Group of the Philosophy Department at Nanjing University. He is the founding director of the Institute of Modern Logic and Application at Nanjing University. He has been Vice President of the Chinese Association of Logic (2004-present). His research interests are in the areas of modern logic, philosophy of logic, logic of science, especially in relation to the study of logical paradoxes.