“The sciences have a key role to play in the formation of critical thinking”

Our time is marked by doubt. At the end of the great ideologies succeeded those of certainties, in particular those which were backed by institutions, their words and the trust placed in them. If the causes of this “great transformation” cannot be reduced to the digital revolution, it is obvious that the latter, by allowing everyone to express themselves online, has contributed to this fundamental movement. We have been living, for a little over twenty years, a Copernican information revolution: it is no longer the latter which is rare, and limited to a few dozen channels and official transmitters, but the availability of its ” receivers” – that is, of each one of us.

Mobile phones and social networks give us access to a permanent tide of heterogeneous information, where institutional and scholarly words are mixed with the multitude of other content brought to our attention by the algorithms of the platforms.

Generational break

We can deplore this new world of structural infobesity; it is nonetheless a reality and it is hard to imagine how this trend could be reversed. Everything leads us to believe, on the contrary, that the transformation towards this new paradigm is not completely complete: the figures of the 2023 Critical Thinking Barometer of Universcience, like other studies, confirm the clear break between the generation of under 24 and their elders – it gives an even greater place and confidence, for information, to the Internet and social networks, abandoning traditional media channels and the editorial rules that were theirs, from television to clipboard.

The time is therefore not for lamentation, but for taking into account this new deal, which also brings its share of opportunities: never before has humanity had so much knowledge available without effort . The question is how to sort and qualify valuable information. The answer lies in an intellectual faculty: critical thinking, in other words, the ability to think for oneself but also to know when and why to trust information or an idea, whether it comes from others or from oneself. .

The fundamental role of science

The development of this capacity throughout life is a primary necessity for the formation of free citizens and for the good collective functioning of our democracy. If there cannot be a single access route to it – media education, the humanities, philosophy are all opportunities to train one’s critical thinking – the sciences have a key role to play. in his training.

On the one hand, because their basis, in particular the experimental approach, is a robust and proven method for testing the relevance of information and distinguishing between what is demonstrated and what is not. On the other hand, because the major societal choices on which we must exercise our critical mind together require the mobilization of our scientific culture.

What are the algorithms that shape the information that comes to us? What traps do they set for our brain, playing with our cognitive biases? What are the merits and limits of nuclear energy for the decarbonization of our economy? What are the mechanisms of global warming? From computer science to neurosciences via mathematics or even the life and earth sciences: the sciences, in the same way as knowledge of our institutions or that of the classics of literature, must be an integral part of general culture of the 21st century.

Pay attention to rural areas

Access to these two essential “compasses”, critical thinking and scientific culture, must be guaranteed to every citizen, regardless of their initial training and life course. The results of the 2023 Critical Thinking Barometer show how far we still have to go in this area. If it emerges that more than one in two French people regularly get information on scientific subjects and that the reality of global warming is a consensus for a majority of our fellow citizens, points of attention also appear: 42% of those questioned – 51% of those under 24 among them – do not define themselves as having a critical mind. On another level, the profiles appearing to be the most distant from science are more feminine and more rural than average. So many warnings about the need to implement a policy of training in science and awareness of critical thinking that is universal, in all territories – physical and digital – and at all ages of life.

We are fortunate to have a dense network of players in our country who do tremendous work in this area, often with limited means: scientific culture centers but also, as far as media education is concerned, libraries. While the action of these front-line players in the field is crucial, the magnitude of the challenges we will have to face requires general mobilization, from school to the business world. A challenge to be met.

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