Critical Analysis Of William Graham Sumner's Criticism

Analysis of William Graham Sumner’s Criticism
Sumner begins his essay with a definition of criticism and states that “criticism is the examination and test of propositions of any kind which are offered for acceptance, in order to find out whether they correspond to reality or not” (Sumner 632). In his definition he argues a proposition can not only be examined but also tested before been accepted, and the proposition can be of any nature no matter how good or bad people believe the topic can be. It is important to discover if the proposition relates to reality and not to an idealistic or abstract idea. He claims that “the critical faculty is a product of education and training” (632). The capacity to analyze and be critical is a vital quality that does not come naturally, so people have to be taught in order to acquire this indispensable aptitude.
First he mentions that when people practice criticism regularly, it gives them

He mentions that “Education teaches us to act by judgment” (633). He argues that judgment is not enough; we need to have a certain degree of knowledge of critical thinking that is acquired through the educational process to effectively be able to judge situations accordingly. “Our education is good just far as it produces well-developed critical faculty” (633). Training and education can elicit the whole capability of criticism to a more effective form. ‘“Patriotic’ history and dithyrambic literature never can do it” (633). A well-develop critical faculty does not let us fall on the temptations of emotional speeches or eloquent writings when examining and test a proposition. For example people who admired or idolized a movie star, musician, politician, and even sport figures can think that everything they said is true and do not analyze or think too much about the message. Usually fans close their minds to a different perspective or