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References

Naini F Defining beauty: the hippias Major and contemporary musings. Dent Update. 2019; 46:607-609
Whitney EM, Aleksejuniene J, Walton JN Critical thinking disposition and skills in dental students: development and relationship to academic outcomes. J Dent Educ. 2016; 80:948-958
Jupp V: Sage; 2006
Ivankova NV, Creswell JW, Plano Clark VL Foundations and Approaches to Mixed Methods Research.Pretoria: Van Schaik; 2007

Defining critical thinking: plato's cave

From Volume 46, Issue 11, December 2019 | Page 1081

Article

Philosophy can be a great resource for teaching modern dentistry. The purpose of this letter is to contribute further to Farhad Naini's editorial contribution by highlighting the importance of defining other concepts, such as critical thinking, and how philosophical debates are relevant to modern dentistry.1 There have been attempts, in dentistry, to define concepts such as critical thinking,2 but we are still left with a dilemma in that none of the definitions since Plato (429–247 BCE) fully answers these fundamental questions such as, ‘What is critical thinking?’, a concept which should be in the thoughts of any dental clinician. According to Plato's allegory of the cave, knowledge can have fundamental flaws, and critical thinking could relate to the reasoning and justification approaches defined below:

  • Plato suggests the approach of reasoning is only to be used with the subjective stance of knowledge, which he called Belief because it uses qualitative data (see constructivism research paradigm).
  • Also, the approach of justification is only to be used with the objective stance of knowledge, which he named Truth, and it uses quantitative data (see positivism research paradigm).
  • Finally, Plato discusses Virtue as another knowledge stance associated with both reasoning and justification approaches, and this uses qualitative and quantitative data (see pragmatism research paradigm).

    • Therefore, critical thinking may relate to knowing when and how to reason and justify, with an understanding of the limitations of each research paradigm.3

    As a profession, are we aware of these critical-thinking approaches,3 and could a lack of awareness lead to problems for our profession going forward?4 I believe that we need further research and discussion on these philosophical questions under the supervision of a higher doctorate in dentistry to provide, or at least search for, accurate definitions to these fundamental questions which concern modern dentistry. I do hope that this letter will open up the floor for more discussion on this fascinating area of philosophy and encourage more debate on this type of critical thinking, potentially allowing philosophy to be part of enhanced CPD in dentistry in the near future.