POLEMICS IN THE ENLIGHTENMENT AND THE EVOLUTION OF CRITICAL THOUGHT

Abstract

This article explores the pivotal influence of Enlightenment thinkers on the development of critical thinking as a philosophical, cultural, and educational paradigm. Emerging in the 17th and 18th centuries, the Enlightenment challenged traditional reliance on religious authority, inherited dogma, and monarchical power, instead emphasizing rational inquiry, empirical observation, and the autonomy of individual thought. Philosophers such as John Locke, David Hume, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Voltaire, Montesquieu, Denis Diderot, and Immanuel Kant contributed diverse but interconnected ideas that collectively transformed European intellectual life. Their emphasis on skepticism, rationalism, and educational reform laid the foundation for modern notions of critical thinking, understood as the capacity to analyze arguments, evaluate evidence, and resist manipulation. The study argues that these contributions are not only of historical value but also remain relevant in the 21st century, as societies seek to cultivate media literacy, democratic participation, and rational public discourse.