The Critical Technique

In its original meaning, the word “critical” implies “judging”, having been derived

from the Greek verb krinein, literally denoting the act of judging. Indeed, the idea of

weighing evidence and arriving at a conclusion, as a judge does in a court of law, is at

100 Reginald M.J. Oduor

the core of the meaning of the term “criticism” as used in philosophy. The critical

technique lays great emphasis on independent and original thinking. As Russell

(1959, 6) observed, there are two attitudes that might be adopted towards the

unknown: one is to accept the pronouncements of people who say they know on the

basis of books, mysteries or other sources of inspiration; the other way is to go out

and look for oneself, and this latter is the way of science and philosophy.

Using the critical technique, philosophy evaluates things in the light of clear and

distinct ideas, seeking to protect people from fanaticism, hypocrisy, intolerance,

dogmatism, slogans and ideologies. In short, it aims at liberating people from narrowmindedness (Njoroge and Bennaars 1986, 23-24). Thus the critical technique focuses on the need to examine a claim from all possible perspectives, with a view to

ascertaining its truth and/or applicability, with the highest degree of objectivity

possible within the confines of human finitude and subjectivity. In this regard, the

philosopher seeks to make a clear distinction between the way things appear to be and the way things are, and also between the way things are and the way they ought to be (Wambari 1992). Insights from epistemology (theory of knowledge) are crucial in this endeavour.

Many philosophers consider the critical technique to be at the core of philosophical

reflection. Thus when Wiredu (1980, 62) aserted that the task of philosophy is to

examine the intellectual foundations of human life using the best available modes of

knowledge and reflection for human well being, he seems to have been implying that

philosophy is a critique of human thought. Peng and Cheng (2006) see both the

analytical and rational techniques as being subsumed under the critical technique, as

they assert that the critical technique examines language, thinking and reality. For

them, the initial task of the critical technique is to delimit language so as to determine

whether it is meaningful or not, and if it is meaningful, to explicate its meaning. On

the basis of language, the philosopher must conduct a critique of thinking, With the

aim of revealing its architectural structures, examining if the foundations are reliable,

and whether or not its structure is contradictory. Through the critique of language and

thinking, the philosopher must finally turn to the critique of reality (Peng and Cheng

2006, 452-453).

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