Critical evaluation

That political principles underlie Fiedler's position is clear in his closing remarks:
"Once we have made ekstasis rather than instruction for delight the center of critical evaluation, we will be freed from the necessity of ranking mass-produced and mass-distributed books in a hierarchal order viable only in a class-structured society- delivered from the indignity of having to condescend publicly to works we privately relish and relieved of the task trying to define categories like "high" and "low," "majority" and "minority" which were from the beginning delusive and unreal." Source: A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature Fifth Edition by Wilfred L. Guerin

Hello,
The blue part critical on this context means criticizing or important?
(I asked this in another forum but they give me two different answers)
This is the link: http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=2861180

What's your opinion?
Thank you