Critical Thinking

by Brooke Noel Moore, Richard Parker

The first integrated program designed specifically for the critical thinking course, Moore & Parker's Critical Thinking teaches students the skills they need in order to think for themselves - skills they will call upon in this course, in other college courses, and in the world that awaits. The authors' practical and accessible approach illustrates core concepts with concrete real-world examples, extensive practice exercises, and a thoughtful set of pedagogical features. Connect and LearnSmart for Critical Thinking coalesce in a highly adaptive learning environment where each student gets the targeted help he or she needs for more efficient mastery of course concepts.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Logic, Textbooks, Psychology, Education, Reference

528 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 1986

Reviews

[Jocelyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just read a book on logic
So you’d better watch your back!
Now I’m armed with thinking critical
And ready to attack!

I can pulverize your straw man;
I can see through your smokescreen;
And to innuendo I’ll apply
Deductive reasoning.

And if you should try to toss
A sly red herring in my way,
I’ll crank out a syllogism
That’ll surely make my day.

So don’t try to argue with me
Because that would not be cool.
We’d soon know who is the smarty-pants
And who’s the sorry fool.

(I think I’ll earn a Ph.D.
By studying philosophy.)

[jade · Rating 3 out of 5]

Critical Thinking is an interesting, humorous and useful read. However, the title can be somewhat misleading – critical thinking is usually considered to be a method of thinking that questions assumptions, but also a tool to aid people in analysing the information around them, guiding them towards conclusions as far as both beliefs and actions are concerned. This book does definitely not provide a general overview of all aspects of critical thinking, but seems more focused on enabling the reader to spot rhetorical fallacies of others. In this, it is extremely useful, but not so much when looking at the wider scope of critical thinking (even though it does try by presenting many real life examples/situations and encouraging the reader to think critically about them).

Anyhow, this book contains chapters on basics of critical thinking, clear writing, credibility, rhetoric persuasion techniques, fallacies, deductive reasoning, inductive reasoning, causal explanations, and moral, legal, and aesthetic reasoning.

As I said before, it’s definitely an interesting and useful read, and the authors try their very best to make it more amusing by using witty and humorous language, and a visually appealing design. For those looking for a comprehensive guide on rhetorical fallacies which also includes some information on different types of reasoning, this is probably a good read. It remains, however, somewhat simplistic, so it’s probably best treated as a basic undergraduate book.

[Kosar mohammadnejad · Rating 4 out of 5]

یک کتاب عالی برای اموختن کاربردی استدلال !
اینکه چطور راحت بدون پیچیدگی و البته به درستی و دقت مطالبی که میخونیم سخنرانی هایی که میشنویم و بحثهای روزمره رو حلاجی کنیم.چطور متوجه تفکرات اشتباه خودمون بشیم
و هزاران مسائل مناقشه برانگیز
این کتاب از کتابهای بایدیه ... یعنی بخصوص برای کتابخونها توصیه میشه
کتاب مرحله به مرحله میگه باید چیکار کنی
اول از همه میگه باید موضوع مورد نظرو به یک سوال مشخص تبدیل کنی اینکه ایا دو نفر دارن راجع به «یک‌ موضوع مشخص» بحث میکنن یا نه هرکی درباره چیز دیکه ای استدلال میکنه
بعد برای جواب دادن به سوال ما «استدلال» میکنیم و میگه استدلال کردن یعنی تلاش برای اثبات یک ادعا (و نه متقاعد کردن و نه تبیین کردن)
بعد میگه ببینین پرسش راجع به یک امر واقع است یا امر غیر واقع (چون راجع به امور واقع ما بحثی نداریم و جواب کاملا مشخصه)
بعد تو فصل ۳-۴-۵ -۶ راجع به اعتبار ادعا کننده (دانش کافی/صداقت کافی) و طرز بیان ادعا کننده (ترغیب با قدرت بیان /مغالطه ها) حرف میزنه که جز جذاب ترین بخش های کتابه
ازینجا ببعد (فصل ۷) درباره ساختار استدلال و انواع استدلال حرف میزنه و چه استدلالی معتبر و چه استدلالی درسته اینکه چجوری برای استدلال های پیچیده ساختار درختی بکشیم بسیار جذاب و کاربردیه
فصل ۸و۹ و ۱۰و ۱۱ درباره استدلال استنتاجی و استقرایی و
فصل اخر هم گریزی میزنه به استدلال اخلاقی قانونی و زیبایی شناختی
مجموعا به جز فصل ۸-۹ که سخت بود (منطق) و فصل ۳ که مربوط به واضح نوستن بود از جای جای کتاب لذت بردم و استفاده کردم
واقعا اگه میخواستم تیکه ای از کتابو بیارم‌ که دوس داشتم باید تک‌ تک‌ مغالطه ها و استدلالها رو میاوردم که نمیشد ... به ناچار به انتخاب خودم از انتهای کتاب از مبحث استدلال اخلاقی اوردم

« در واقع در زندگی روزمره استدلال اخلاقی اغلب متکی به ترکیبی از این دیدگاه هاست مخلوطی از ملاحظات فایده گرایانه که تا حدی در جهت افزایش شادی خود شخص باشد به علاوه افکاری درباره وظایف حقوق و تعهدات که اغلب با اندیشه هایی شاید همراه با حس تقصیر درباره انچه یک شخص بافضیلت و ارمانی در شرایط مشابه انجام میدهد و همچنین این گونه استدلالها گاه درگیر مغالطه هایی نیز هست مثل خلط ادعای معطوف به امور واقع و غیر معطوف به امور واقع/ناسازگاری/استدلال استقرایی ضعیف/استدلال قیاسی نامعتبر /مغالطه و ... مثلا درباره اعدام ممکن است اولین دیدگاه این باشد که بدون وجود جنایتکاران جامعه بسیار بهتری خواهیم داشت (فایده گرایی) اما باید ثابت کنیم که جامعه بدون جنایتکاران بهتر خواهد شد یا نه و اینکه ایا حاضریم خطر قربانی شدن یک بی کناه را بپذیریم ؟ ...»

[Narendran Thangarajan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book mainly talks about "claims" which is basically any unit of information you hear from others, and "arguments" which is a special kind of claim usually backed by other claims. The authors provide a very practical approach towards evaluating claims and arguments we witness in our day to day lives.

For instance, as an engineer I read/hear comparative claims like "Because of the feature X, product Y has grown from A # of users to B # of users in 5 years" everyday and I conduct experiments which involve understanding and rectifying sampling biases. It's very common to find arguments that beg the question, like arguments which pretty much reduce to "We should do this, because we should do this". This book was very useful in understanding recurring patterns in arguments, and provides lots of exercises to internalize those ideas.

[Muhammad · Rating 5 out of 5]

ديدگاه منطقي و بيس فلسفه ي علم براي بررسي گزاره ها كه با آوردن مثال ها و تمرين هاي متعدد كاربرد مسئله رو به روشن كرده ، و منبع بسيار مناسبي براي آغاز تفكر نقاد هست ، ترجمه ي فارسي كتاب هم توسط آقاي دكتر سلطاني انجام شده

[Richard Grebenc · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is the text assigned to the "Logic and Critical Thinking" course I just completed as instructor. It is a fine book with many excellent features: loads of questions in each chapter (several with answers in the back); comprehensive glossary and index; interesting and amusing sidebars and marginal notes; and an engaging style. I would certainly recommend it for a critical thinking course or for anyone who wants to better comprehend the world around us. I would caution that some parts of the book can be pretty heavy for an introductory course (Chapter 10 is particularly tough going), so it will behoove the instructor to be judicious in which material he chooses to present and how he chooses to present it.

Additional features on the website (e.g., PowerPoint presentations, answers to all questions) are helpful as well.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

I appreciate the effort put into being amusing and eye catching with this book. I did learn a decent amount about literary manipulation and how people purposely persuade others to believe what they want them to believe.

[Amirreza Piw · Rating 4 out of 5]

کتاب قشنگی بود ! شخصا به خاطر اینکه یکی از کتب منبع المپیاد علمی پزشکی بود خوندمش !! ولی واقعا میتونه روش تفکر رو به فرد بیاموزه !! هرچند اون اواسطش با آوردن فرمول ها یه خرده گیج میکرد خواننده رو !!!

[Amir Shabani · Rating 5 out of 5]

At first it might seem like other books on critical thinking and logic, but then it takes off and engages us with its exercises on logical fallacies, deductive and inductive reasoning, causal explanation and even moral and aesthetic reasoning... Things which is believed to be merely optional and can not be evaluated logically.

Another thing to consider is that a lot of these exercises and examples can be found in our everyday life and so is easier to grasp and apply in our life.

[K.Q. Webster · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was required reading for my Critical Thinking class. I was looking forward to this subject but the textbook just didn't do it for me. It had potential and it fell very flat. The way it lays out the material and tries to explain it is pretty confusing. It was near impossible to use for studying for tests.

[Roy Van Den Brande · Rating 5 out of 5]

I appreciated the humor in an otherwise pretty dry book. What made this book really an outstanding read were the many, many, many examples throughout the text. Sometimes it can be dificult to differentiate between a couple of fallacies, but it became clear because of all the examples.

[Razique M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great reading, a bit dense at times, but packed with great activities to practice the art of critical thinking.
The last section on aesthetic reasoning was a treat.

[Jiro · Rating 5 out of 5]

哲学史的理路，原著选段也很值得读

[Robyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was assigned to read this book for a class also titled Critical Thinking. It was a required class and the subject matter had me feeling a bit apprehensive. (I guess it was the bad memories of that Logic class I took in college years ago.)

Thankfully, the book is less daunting than I had first imagined. The writing style is accessible, and even conversational at times. The authors include real-life scenarios to illustrate their points. This helps the reader to grasp this difficult subject rather easily. The exercises at the end of each section are also appropriately challenging.

[Jas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe it's just because as a debater I'm quite familiar with fallacies, argumentation, etc., I think this book is too general and lacks depth. I have expected much more than an textbook-style walk-through.

[Shelia Thompson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read it because it was required for my doctorate.

[Alibek]

Read it!!