Digitalized grammatization and critical thinking: synthesizing Chinese Chan pedagogy and Bernard Stiegler’s negentropic knowledge

This paper attempts to initiate a dialogue between Bernard Stiegler’s theories and Chinese Chan philosophy for a new vision of critical thinking. Specifically, I argue that Chan way of teaching can be aligned with Stiegler’s emphasis on recovering negentropic potentials and maintaining a noetic awareness within the context of algorithmic life. First, I present Stiegler’s discussion of intergenerational relations in transmitting true knowledge and his concerns about the liquidation of cognitive capabilities among younger generations. Second, I show how Chan teaching via the koan system may open up a perspective for transmitting “noetic experiences” and accentuating young people’s critical faculties. Then, I examine “the ordinary mind” of Chan teaching and consider how it corresponds to Stiegler’s negentropic form of knowledge. Finally, I contend that fostering critical thinking is to encourage young people to engage in lived activities and liberate them from the entropic non-becoming of digitalized grammatization.