Critiquing Criticism

Before you get confused at the title of this post, allow me to define the two words that make its title.

While 'critique' and 'criticize' sound very similar, there is an important difference between the two. The act of critiquing is an unbiased, scientific evaluation, while criticism is inherently biased.

You've probably heard things like 'critics say' or the phrase 'critically acclaimed'. There is a whole group of people whose job is to observe and give information about stuff. They are supposed to be unbiased and factual...but in reality, that's just impossible. Bias will be there, no matter what.

Is criticism a good thing, however? The scientific method would disagree, because it says that scientists should put aside personal beliefs and evaluate the evidence, following it to the logical conclusion. Unfortunately, bias is impossible to filter out completely.

If at this point you're thinking 'yeah right! People are perfectly able to see things in a rational, logical fashion', allow me to elaborate. Bias, by definition, is your own opinion on the world. What you personally find or see as important, and how you think the universe works. It can be anything from Christianity to Evolution to I Do What I Want. It is, in a word, your 'worldview'.

To be completely without this worldview is impossible. People are perfectly capable of laying aside most of their presuppositions, but bias is present in every single thing we do. Do we get up on the right or left side of the bed? Your bias says 'right'. Why do we teach mathematics, science, and literature in school? Because our bias dictates those as important. Why do we label people as 'insane' or 'delusional'? Because their bias seems radical in light of ours. They merely have a different way they view this world than us, and to us it seems extreme.

If by now you're thinking that the scientific method seems ridiculous in light of this, calm down. Even with all the prejudice in the world, it is still possible to implement this method in some way, shape, and form. You see, the reason critics exist are to give views on different things. These views may be negative or positive. But by viewing them all, we can gain different and unique perspectives on different topics. Through doing this, we formulate our own opinion, bias, 'worldview'. By gathering all the observations on the evidence, we can formulate our own unique thought on what seems to fit the order of this world best. And these views are changeable. We cannot gather all the evidence, of course. Someone might come along with a better hypothesis that fits this world better. We should always be searching for what is the best fit for this world.


So to answer my previous question 'Is criticism a good thing?' the answer is yes. In fact, we ourselves should criticize. We should see what doesn't fit, and ask why.
I'm convinced that the phrase 'curiosity killed the cat' was a phrase formulated by early communists or dictators to keep people from being independent. When we begin to criticize, we begin to discover different things. In fact, here's something I want you to criticize.

Where do we get the concept of right and wrong? Is it just our own bias? If it is, it seems rather inconvenient for us as individuals!

If your worldview answers this question, then it sounds like you're on the right track.