Critical thinking across cultures

Critical thinking — the disciplined evaluation of claims in light of evidence, logic, and awareness of one's own cognitive biases — is not the exclusive property of the Western analytical tradition, though it is often presented as such. The Indian nyāya tradition of debate and refutation, Chinese dialectical philosophy, Islamic kalam argumentation, and African sage philosophy each developed sophisticated methodologies for examining claims and testing their validity. Encountering these traditions expands what we understand critical thinking to be, and reveals how culturally specific some of the assumptions embedded in conventional Western presentations actually are.