Foucauldian critical thinking: An antithesis to technicization.

This article critically examines the prevailing conception of critical thinking (CT) as a set of transferable skills, arguing that this skill-oriented view results from a broader neoliberal discourse that technicizes CT. Using Michel Foucault's theories on discourse, human capital, and biopower, the article traces how international organizations, governments, media, and educational institutions promote skill- and competence-based education aligned with neoliberal market logics, thereby shaping individuals as entrepreneurial "homo economicus." It further situates this technicization within the historical context of Enlightenment rationality and its paradoxical "dark side," where scientific bureaucracy and technological rationality impose control and diminish genuine criticality. The article proposes a Foucauldian alternative conception of critical thinking as an art of critique—"the art of not being governed"—emphasizing self-care and fearless speech as practices to resist dominant power-knowledge structures and reclaim subjectivity.