Henri Pettersson

My research focuses on the various aspects of critical thinking as an educational ideal. Critical thinking is widely identified as an important educational goal for our times by both national and international organisations, but the theoretical accounts of this phenomenon contain various unclear details: 1) Teaching critical thinking is taken to support the skills and attitudes conducive to democratic citizenship, but how strong the relationship between critical thinking and democracy, human rights and tolerance ultimately is - can we in the name of promoting critical thinking come to question or even criticise these foundational values? 2) What is the relationship between the idealized models of critical thinking formulated within the philosophy of education and the empirical findings and theories in certain neighbouring areas of research (social psychology, neuroscience etc.), which tell us about the ways how human beings actually reason and process information?