A review of recent literature advocating critical thinking as a necessary response to ‘globalization’ gives no clear picture of what critical thinking is. Drawing on Kant and Hermeneutics, this paper proposes a critical definition of critical thinking as an understanding of its subject matter which questions itself, and a characterization of critical thinking as the tension of standing within the subject matter while holding it at a distance. Considered against a backdrop of concerns about ‘globalization’, critical thinking is seen, not only as an intellectual method, but also as an existential engagement of the world.