So as to resist appeals to their dearest prejudices and all kinds of cajolery...

June 12, 2009 11:44 AM

BookFilter: Looking for an engaging introduction to critical thinking.

A friend is going to be teaching a course for an open university. The course is for non-traditional students and is aimed at introducing them to critical thinking, improving their writing, and helping them to develop a program of study.

She’s looking for an engaging set of readings--or even a single-authored book--that could help them with critical thinking skills. The book does not have to be on critical thinking per se, but rather one which could be used as inspiration for exercises & discussions of critical thinking. So, for example, we already know about things like Weston's Rulebook - something a little more creative than that? More literary maybe?

The students could go into any range of fields so while the book can be discipline-specific, it should be of interest to a wider audience.

(Extra, possibly relevant info: They’ll be using Zinsser’s On Writing Well for the writing part of the course.)

posted by jammy to education (16 comments total)

Here's an earlier question on more formal logic. Maybe a little better for your needs is: How to Think About Weird Things. It wasn't my favorite for a logic class, but it might be good for what you're looking for.
posted by chndrcks at 11:50 AM on June 12

I'm just starting out studying logic, a book that's great at giving the 'feel' of it and a short valuable introduction is Oxford Press's Very Short Introduction to Logic by Graham Priest. I'm currently working my way through Hurley's Concise Introduction to Logic which is really brilliantly set out and seems a promising book.

I really liked Nigel Warburton's Philosophy: The Basics. It helped me orientate myself with philosophy, and when I first read it a couple years ago it really introduced me to thinking about the world in a more critical and considered way.

As an atheist, I feel I should put a good word out for Richard Dawkins, AC Grayling et al. For me, nothing really made me question the world and my most basic assumptions more than the arguments against the existence of a god.
posted by ashaw at 12:08 PM on June 12

I second How to think about Weird Things. I've taught with Moore and Parker's Critical Thinking text because it is entertaining, but I find the ambiguous examples and exercises frustrates more students than they illuminate. You might also try Creativity for Critical Thinkers by Anthony Weston as a supplement.

Of course there are no substitutes for a few pithy examples that will demolish a student's worldview and leave them a blubbering wreck of uncertainty.
posted by reverend cuttle at 12:29 PM on June 12

Carl Sagan's The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark is wonderful. Readers needn't have any particular science knowledge. The book explains very clearly why science is the best method for learning about the natural world. Sagan provides a "baloney detection kit" for helping people think rationally.

It sounds like you're looking for something that's more rhetoric-oriented, though. Nicholas Capalidi's The Art of Deception: An Introduction to Critical Thinking is excellent.
posted by rhartong at 12:39 PM on June 12 [1 favorite]

Schopenhauer
posted by rhizome at 12:40 PM on June 12

Critical Theory Since Plato has a lot of good classical stuff in it. If you can find it, maybe you can flip through it and photocopy some of the writings, chapters or sections that fit what you are trying to teach.

Swift's A Modest Proposal is critical thinking, and inspires critical thinking.
posted by jabberjaw at 1:51 PM on June 12

Seconding Sagan's book. The students may also enjoy H.G. Frankfurt's book, On Bullshit.
posted by jquinby at 3:29 PM on June 12

I don't have any recommendations about literary sources your friend could use, but I can talk about critical thinking textbooks. I've taught both informal and formal logic courses, and still have yet to find a text on informal critical thinking that I really love. Most of them seem to me to be based on hand-me-down theories of pedagogy and ignore emerging research on how people actually reason. (There's a good hole in the market here waiting to be filled by some enterprising philosopher/psychologist pair, I think.) The one I found best was Merrilee Salmon's Introduction to Logic and Critical Thinking. It's well-written and manages to feel neither fusty nor silly.

I think the idea of having students work through the arguments in a collection of readings is good. It's shocking how well students can understand argument forms that have been presented abstractly but then completely fail to find those structures in arguments presented in ordinary English.
posted by painquale at 6:37 PM on June 12

I agree with much of what's been said above, there's no single critical thinking textbook that does all the things we might like in an intro course like this. I'm just dropping in to say that you probably don't want a text on "critical theory". That's a completely separate thing, a certain body of theories about how to approach literary criticism (broadly).
posted by LobsterMitten at 12:08 AM on June 13

For side readings, popular science case studies are always a good bet. I enjoy Stephen Jay Gould and have used his Mismeasure of Man book in courses like this. You could use someone like Malcolm Gladwell or similar -- such writers lay out evidence and then draw conclusions. Are the conclusions justified by the evidence? What other questions might we want to be asking, what tests would we want to run, etc?
posted by LobsterMitten at 12:14 AM on June 13

I agree with painquale's suggestion too. I've used that book and it's good. Some of the end of chapter exercises are quotes/arguments from famous people, and it's amazing how much harder the students find those than the made up sentences.
posted by chndrcks at 10:01 AM on June 13

If I can leapfrog on this question a bit, any suggestions for a book on critical thinking for very young readers? Even more basic than "How to Think About Weird Things"? My daughter is nine and I'd like to get her started on the right road early. Any Aesop's Fables lend themselves to critical thinking, for instance?
posted by stinkycheese at 11:20 AM on June 13

Stinkycheese: I have had no nine year old experience since I was myself nine, but I do remember doing some logic puzzle books at a fairly young age; you might be able to find some that are appropriate for her. A good foundation in logical thinking will really help down the line.
posted by chndrcks at 6:50 PM on June 13

Also, you could find a list of informal fallacies and start teaching her those. She should be familiar with some of them already and it can be a fun game coming up with examples of bad arguments. I'd start with easy ones like the various "appeal to"s (masses, person, authority, etc). It'd be great too if you could get her to see the difference between a good generalization and a hasty one, but that might be too advanced for a nine year old (lots of adults don't seem to be able to see the difference)
posted by chndrcks at 6:43 AM on June 14

Thanks, chndrcks.
posted by stinkycheese at 12:40 PM on June 14

thanks everyone - i appreciate all the suggestions
posted by jammy at 6:06 AM on June 15