This paper centers on the elements that constitute critical thinking starting from the humanization of the human being in search of emancipation. The concepts of humanization and emancipation are elaborated from the starting point of a world conceived ever more as secular and at our disposal, where humanizing is freeing the human being of its bonds, and freedom is freedom from the bonds, therefore, critical thinking has to say what those bonds are. The paper proposes the development of a categorial frame for critical thinking or critical theory, centered on three elements: the ethic of emancipation, justice as guide of the emancipation process, and the relation between the subject and common good.