Critical

One of the most misunderstood and misused words in our language is "critical" (or critique). It's hard to miss in our popular or everyday conversation that the word is often equated with "negative"...as if it means finding fault with someone or something, judging severely, or outright rejection or denial. The problem is while the word negative does mean all those things, critical does not...except, of course, in the conventional (or commonsese) way it is used. However, this conventional way is what is being dealt with here.

In actuality, the word critical means "careful analysis"...an attempt to objectively understand something so as to determine its merits, its faults, and the conditions which produced it. In other words, to be critical, to engage in critique, is to study the nature of the object under investigation or question. It is to determine its essential features and the relation between those features, as well as to other factors or conditions. The etymology of the word reveals that it means to "separate and decide." To analyze is to take it apart and then decide about it.

In short, negative means negative...critical doesn't. To be critical is to analyze...whether the resulting conclusion is "positive," "negative," or anything thing else. This is how the word will be used in TSS.