The raison d’être of the humanities is widely held to reside in its unique ability to generate critical thinking and critical thinkers. But what is “critical thinking?” Is it a generalized mode of reasoning or a form of political critique? How does it relate to discipline-specific practices of scholarly pursuit? How does it relate to discourses of “post-truth” and “alternative facts”? How is it best taught? This essay explores these issues via a case study of conceptualizations of critical thinking among cinema scholars at Stockholm University, whose views are interpreted against the backdrop of (a) debates about the value of the humanities; (b) higher education scholarship on critical thinking; and (c) the legacy of certain disciplinary traditions within cinema studies, especially the paradigms of “post-theory” and “political modernism.” The interviews attest to the persistence of critical thinking as a fundamental, yet highly elusive, concept to higher education in the arts and humanities.

人们普遍认为，人文存在的理由在于其产生批判性思维和批判性思想家的独特能力。但是什么是“批判性思维”？它是一种普遍的推理模式还是一种政治批评形式？它与特定学科的学术追求有何关系？它与“后真理”和“替代事实”的话语有何关系？如何最好地讲授？本文通过对斯德哥尔摩大学电影学者中批判性思维概念化的案例研究来探讨这些问题，他们的观点是在（a）关于人文价值的辩论的背景下进行解释的；（b）有关批判性思维的高等教育奖学金；（c）电影研究中某些学科传统的​​遗产，特别是“后理论”和“政治现代主义”的范式。