Critique

For other uses, see Critique (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Critic.
Look up critique in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Critique is a method of disciplined, systematic study of a written or oral discourse. Although critique is frequently understood as fault finding and negative judgment,[1] it can also involve merit recognition, and in the philosophical tradition it also means a methodical practice of doubt.[1] The contemporary sense of critique has been largely influenced by the Enlightenment critique of prejudice and authority, which championed the emancipation and autonomy from religious and political authorities.[1]

The term critique derives, via French, from the Greek word κριτική (kritikē), meaning "the faculty of judging", that is, discerning the value of persons or things.[2] Critique is also known as major logic, as opposed to minor logic or dialectics.[citation needed]

  1. ^ a b c Rodolphe Gasché (2007) The honor of thinking: critique, theory, philosophy pp. 12–13 quote:

    Let us also remind ourselves of the fact that throughout the eighteenth century, which Kant, in Critique of Pure Reason, labeled "in especial degree, the age of criticism" and to which our use of "critique", today remains largely indebted, critique was above all critique of prejudice and established authority, and hence was intimately tied to a conception of the human being as capable of self-thinking, hence authonomous, and free from religious and political authorities.
  2. ^ "critick". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)