Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking Author: Stuart M. Keeley | Language: English | ISBN:
0205111165 | Format: PDF
Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking Description
Used in a variety of courses in various disciplines, Asking the Right Questions helps bridge the gap between simply memorizing or blindly accepting information, and the greater challenge of critical analysis and synthesis. Specifically, this concise text teaches how to think critically by exploring the components of arguments--issues, conclusions, reasons, evidence, assumptions, language--and on how to spot fallacies and manipulations and obstacles to critical thinking.
- Series: Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking
- Paperback: 176 pages
- Publisher: Pearson; 10th edition (July 9, 2011)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0205111165
- ISBN-13: 978-0205111169
- Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.5 inches
- Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
I used this book as a textbook for an undergraduate introductory philosophy course with a Critical Thinking component - I was asked to put the course together at the last minute, and was searching for a textbook that was not prohibitively expensive. Unfortunately, the under-handed tactics of modern academic publishers make it so that it is nearly impossible to review the contents of any of these kinds of textbooks before purchasing them. Had I been able to do so, I would not have purchased the book because it displays one major shortcoming, namely, the lack of any discussion on the formation of arguments - inductive and deductive reasoning, syllogisms, premises, soundness/validity, etc. That said, the textbook was useful to some extent, although I think the attempt to present current and "hip" examples drawn from popular culture borders on pandering. It did include some good and accessible discussions of the value of critical thinking, as well as information on how to evaluate certain kinds of propositions and statements with a critical eye. And, the exercises included within did provoke some thoughtful responses from my students. However, due mainly to the aforementioned omission, I will not be using this book again. I would consider it more appropriate for high-school students than for college undergraduates.
By Joshua Capitanio
The content in the book is fairly elementary. Anybody with a decent undergraduate education would have this knowledge. I was looking for something substantial or deep, but got just shallow words out of it. It seems there is hardly any good book that talks about Socrates's method these days. A slightly better but not substantially better book would be the "Art of Socratic Thinking".
By Ankur Datta
Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking Preview
Link
Please Wait...