An Introduction to Critical Thinking and Creativity: Think More, Think Better

by J.Y.F. Lau

A valuable guide on creativity and critical thinking to improve reasoning and decision-making skills C ritical thinking skills are essential in virtually any field of study or practice where individuals need to communicate ideas, make decisions, and analyze and solve problems. An Introduction to Critical Thinking and Think More, Think Better outlines the necessary tools for readers to become critical as well as creative thinkers. By gaining a practical and solid foundation in the basic principles that underlie critical thinking and creativity, readers will become equipped to think in a more systematic, logical, and imaginative manner. Creativity is needed to generate new ideas to solve problems, and critical thinking evaluates and improves an idea. These concepts are uniquely introduced as a unified whole due to their dependence on each other. Each chapter introduces relevant theories in conjunction with real-life examples and findings from cognitive science and psychology to illustrate how the theories can be applied in numerous fields and careers. An emphasis on how theoretical principles of reasoning can be practical and useful in everyday life is featured, and special sections on presentation techniques, the analysis of meaning, decision-making, and reasoning about personal and moral values are also highlighted. All chapters conclude with a set of exercises, and detailed solutions are provided at the end of the book. A companion website features online tutorials that further explore topics including meaning analysis, argument analysis, logic, statistics, and strategic thinking, along with additional exercises and multimedia resources for continued study. An Introduction to Critical Thinking and Creativity is an excellent book for courses on critical thinking and logic at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The book also serves as a self-contained study guide for readers interested in the topics of critical thinking and creativity as a unified whole.

Genres: Philosophy, Textbooks, Education

272 pages, Paperback

First published April 19, 2011

Reviews

[Masood · Rating 3 out of 5]

a good and easy book for start.
necessary but not sufficient for logical, Analytical, critical thinking and decision making.

[Andreea♡ · Rating 2 out of 5]

i hate everything about this subject

[Alexa Petre · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was used in my Critical Thinking course at university. A good introductory book, albeit superficial at times. However, some of the examples were interesting and it does provide valuable food for thought.

[Omar Idrees · Rating 4 out of 5]

So cool that it makes you criticize the content itself.

[Larry · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book introduces readers to virtually every aspects of critical thinking and shows the connections among them. I love the fact that it includes a little bit of statistics and cognitive psychology, which a lot of textbooks on critical thinking do not. The writing style is clear and concise. The deliberate use of simple words and short sentences makes the text less taxing for people who are not proficient in English.

[Ken]

Interesting dive into methods for critical and creative thinking. The most valuable part was the exercises at the end of each chapter. The chaper on identifying bias and the bias context was most useful.

[Szilard Kui · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great introductory volume. Easy to read, good examples, can be both read individually and in a group. I will use this book to teach my sons and remind myself of these basic principles of thinking.

[Taz Shaikh-Shenk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Introduction and first 50 or so pages of the book made me feel that it will be an interesting read but then the author started digging deep in “critical thinking with logic”: and all those “P > Q” formulas, which to me were boring. From about page 200 he starts talking about creative thinking process et all which was again interesting. Got references to other books on creativity and innovation so in all a goodish read.

[Peter]

Books24x7

[Leo Nguyen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Boring book. The "Introduction to Critical Thinking: A Concise Guide" is much much more interesting.

[Suhrob · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable, brief text-book level introduction into the topics.
I think it would be a very nice read for high-schoolers.
The topics are important, generally well explained and exercises are provide after each brief chapter.

I didn't get much new from here, but I'd recommend it as an introduction to people who didn't have other contact with these topics.