«Rom» som metafor i utviklingen av (kritisk) tenkning: En diskusjon av begrepene «kritisk tenkning» og «etisk bevissthet» i læreplanens overordnede del i lys av Hannah Arendt
This article aims to discuss the key notions ‘critical thinking’ and ‘ethical consciousness’ in the new national curriculum in the light of the philosopher Hannah Arendt’s work The Life of the Mind. Much has been said about being critical, but not so much about thinking. It is the claim of the author that it is unclear in both the national curriculum and some of the pedagogical literature as to what characterizes thinking, and that this stems from a theoretical deficit for understanding the activity of thinking. The consequence is that concepts such as thinking and judgement are confused and thinking is instrumentalized. Hence the article proposes to see Arendt’s use of the metaphor ‘space’ and other spatial metaphors to determine hallmarks of the activity of thinking. A vital hallmark of Arendt’s work is the radical autonomy of thinking partly detached from judgment and instrumental purposes. The author thus attempts to give a critical but constructive contribution to the national curriculum’s description of thinking as ‘giving room for uncertainty and unpredictability’ which could be understood in light of Arendt’s thought.