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Join Us for the 45th Annual International Conference on Critical Thinking!
Louisville, KY, July 23rd - 27th, 2025

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Critical Thinking Therapy: For Happiness and Self Actualization

Dr. Linda Elder's latest book is available now!

Critical Thinking Therapy introduces a substantive theory of critical thinking to the field of mental health therapy, detailing a broad, integrated set of critical thinking tools for use in self-therapy and professional therapy.


The 45th Annual International Conference on Critical Thinking

The world's longest-running critical thinking conference comes to Kentucky's University of Louisville from July 23-27, 2025.

Learn from international experts on the most integrated, comprehensive, and robust framework for critical thinking in the world.


Call for Proposals

Present a Concurrent Session or Roundtable Discussion at the 45th Annual International Conference on Critical Thinking!

We are especially seeking proposals from those who have been using the Paul-Elder Framework for Critical Thinking and want to share their experiences, challenges, victories, questions, and so on.

Complimentary Webinar: Critical Thinking Therapy

Join Dr. Linda Elder on April 23, 2025 at 1:00 p.m. EDT as she presents on how Critical Thinking Therapy’s concepts and activities can serve as foundations for better mental health and self-actualization, both in the context of professional therapy and for those pursuing their own wellness. She will then take your questions.

Critical Thinking Podcast: Episode 30 Available

Only in the Center for Critical Thinking Community Online.

Join Drs. Linda Elder and Gerald Nosich  for the third and final part of their series on ethical reasoning: "Ethical Concepts, Principles, Standards and Virtues."

Full-Semester Courses in Critical Thinking

Fall 2025 Registration Open Now. Learn the concepts and applications of critical thinking under the guidance of a first-generation Paulian Scholar from the comfort of your home or office!

Complete coursework on your own time with continual feedback.


I found that I was fitted for nothing so well as for the study of Truth . . . with desire to seek, patience to doubt, fondness to meditate, slowness to assert, readiness to consider, carefulness to dispose and set in order . . . being a man that neither affects what is new nor admires what is old, and that hates every kind of imposture.

~ Francis Bacon (1605)

OUR MISSION

For more than 40 years, our goal has been to promote
essential change in education and society by cultivating
fairminded critical thinking — thinking which
embodies intellectual empathy, intellectual humility,
intellectual perseverance, intellectual integrity, and
intellectual responsibility.

international translations


Please do not pass this message by.

CRITICAL THINKING IS AT RISK.

Here are some of the big reasons why:

  1. Many people believe that critical thinking should be free and that scholars qualified to teach critical thinking should do so for free. Accordingly, they do not think they should have to pay for critical thinking textbooks, courses, or other resources when there is "so much free material online" - despite how erroneous that material may be.
  2. There are many misguided academicians, and some outright charlatans, pushing forth and capitalizing on a pseudo-, partial, or otherwise impoverished concept of critical thinking.
  3. Little to no funding is designated for critical thinking professional development in schools, colleges, or universities, despite the lip service widely given to critical thinking (as is frequently found in mission statements).
  4. Most people, including faculty, think they already know what critical thinking is, despite how few have studied it to any significant degree, and despite how few can articulate a coherent, accurate, and sufficiently deep explanation of it.
  5. People rarely exhibit the necessary level of discipline to study and use critical thinking for reaching higher levels of self-actualization. In part, this is due to wasting intellectual and emotional energy on fruitless electronic entertainment designed to be addictive and profitable rather than educational and uplifting.
  6. On the whole, fairminded critical thinking is neither understood, fostered, nor valued in educational institutions or societies.
  7. People are increasingly able to cluster themselves with others of like mind through alluring internet platforms that enable them to validate one another's thinking - even when their reasoning is nonsensical, lopsided, prejudiced, or even dangerous.
  8. Critical thinking does not yet hold an independent place in academia. Instead, "critical thinking" is continually being "defined" and redefined according to any academic area or instructor that, claiming (frequently unsupported) expertise, steps forward to teach it.

As you see, increasingly powerful trends against the teaching, learning, and practice of critical thinking entail extraordinary challenges to our mission. To continue our work, we must now rely upon your financial support. If critical thinking matters to you, please click here to contribute what you can today.

WE NEED YOUR HELP TO CONTINUE OUR WORK.

Thank you for your support of ethical critical thinking.